The King of All Cosmos, we love the guy, but he gets on our nerves. We dig his flamboyant charm, his well-groomed facial hair and of course, the Royal Rainbow (we ride it daily), but the guy has too many demands. Each game, including the Xbox 360 exclusive, Beautiful Katamari, has him ordering his son, the Prince around. Thankfully, this is just a video game, we enjoy playing and most importantly, he's not our dad.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed franchise follows the same formula, with you (as the quiet and verbally abused Prince) rolling a Katamari, a sticky ball that picks up all sorts of objects. At the beginning of a level, his royal highness spews gibberish, then informs you how big the Katamari needs to be (in the Xbox 360 demo, you need to reach three meters). You do this by collecting as much junk as possible to stick to you. At first, you can only pick up small items, like crabs, soccer balls and fruit, but over time, the Katamari grows in size, thus enabling you to snag lily pads, animals, chairs and people that scream in terror as the giant ball bears down upon them.

In all, the game proves quite challenging, thanks to a time limit as well as pesky enemies that ram the Katamari and knock things off of it. Though in addition, pesky controls make life difficult, as you maneuver both analog sticks to control the Katamari while dealing with a bothersome camera that loves displaying things at the worst angles imaginable. Namco Bandai offers a band aid for this problem with the quick turn (click both analog sticks), which automatically changes its positioning. It helps, but constant clicking proves irritating, especially as the seconds melt away.

Continue...