The Beautiful Katamari demo is now on Xbox Live for your ball-rolling enjoyment, but if you're familiar with the franchise, you may find it a bit disappointing. It's very basic and very short--you simply roll up the biggest Katamari you can in three minutes. That's it. No admonishments from the King about the size of your Katamari, no particular type of item you're trying to snare, just a quick roll around town and you're done.
While this does a fair enough job of introducing newcomers to the basic mechanics of the series, it really doesn't communicate the whimsy or silliness that makes it all so much fun. If I hadn't played the previous* Katamari* games, I'm not sure I'd understand what all the fuss was about.
The scope of the game doesn't really come across, either--the way the tiny Prince has to roll up a bunch of teensy items before moving on to slightly larger fare, eventually working his way up to the really big stuff like people and trees. It's pretty much all there for the taking right from the start in the demo, which takes away some of the feeling of accomplishment.
Obviously, the demo is simply meant to whet your appetite and give you a small peek at what the full version will be like, but I don't think the *Beautiful Katamari *demo does the game's full version justice. What do you folks think? I'd especially like to hear from people who've never played any of the previous versions.
