MS quiet on Katamari demo

By Robert Purchese Published 15 August, 2007

Europeans left out, again.

European gamers will have to wait a bit longer before the Beautiful Katamari Live demo appears on Xbox Live, it seems.

The roll-'em-up taster launched onto the service yesterday in Canada, Mexico and the US, but Microsoft was unable to confirm if or when it would be, ahem, rolled out elsewhere.

It bounces in at lightweight 432 MB, and gives those of you lucky enough to live in other parts of the world a chance to try out one level with a three-minute timer.

Beautiful Katamari is the fourth game in the action puzzle series, which challenges you to roll a sticky ball around a map, picking up increasingly bigger items thanks to a snowball effect. Eventually you'll be able to reach thousands of kilometres in diameter and rampage over the world.

It has a number of new features, too. There's various online modes based around collecting certain items before your friends, or you can work together to achieve co-operative goals.

You'll also have numerous leaderboards to compare your achievements through, and contribute to increasing the size of a cow that reflects everyone on Xbox Live's progress.

Namco Bandai is publishing the game across the US, although we're still waiting for someone to take charge of it for Europe. Anyone?

Me & My Katamari designer Jun Moriwaki will be overseeing development of the game, as original creator Keita Takahasi continues work on his PS3 exclusive Nobi Nobi Boy.

Pop over to our Beautiful Katamari gamepage to find out a little more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AHiFi #1 5 years ago

    Already got this via the most recent UK OXM 360 disc. It's short, but still pleasing. =)

  • DB2k #2 5 years ago

    what are you gibbering about "lucky enough"? I downloaded it last night and live in the UK. Jsut logged in using my US account.

    It's erm.. I dunno.. rolly I guess. Not played any of the others. Not sure I can see it being fun for long, also it is MEGA CRAZY SUPER LOVE YO BANANA psychadellic trip fest.

  • menage #3 5 years ago

    Downed the US demo. Great game, if this was 30 euro's I would buy it.

  • afghan_jones #4 5 years ago

    but is the music any good?

    I loved the soundtrack from the other ones, listened to it in the car for months.

  • spliffhead #5 5 years ago

    Yep this made me sign up for a US account too.

  • Kelduum #6 5 years ago

    Na, na-na-na na-na nah-nah, Katamari Damacyyy!

    I also ahem... accidentally... downloaded it and played it last night.

    Its seems more dense than the PS2 versions (more stuff all over), and its still great fun.

    New music too - and its good - yay!

  • Machetazo #7 5 years ago

    So, Namco Bandai, here: http://ww w.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...
    TWO MONTHS AGO
    state that they can't comment on 360 exclusivity until they've announced a European publisher for the game, 9 out of 10 cats are convinced is an XBLA release, and launch details in this territory, which still aren't forthcoming. How convenient?

    Not that I currently have a 360 anyway, mind. Still its an atrocious way to promote the game.
    Edited by 1 at 15/08/07 @ 15:16

  • Bonus #8 5 years ago

    As far as I knew this demo was exlusive to OXM in Europe for the time being.

    I downloaded it using a US Live ID and it worked fine.

  • zozart #9 5 years ago

    I've never liked the series before (or rather, never bothered to get into it) but after a botched first attempt I replayed the demo and really enjoyed it! Once I got the hang of the slightly counter-intuitive controls it was entertaining and very whacky.

    The graphics seemed completely rubbish to me, though. I guess that's the style of the game, but I couldn't help but notice how bad they were after playing the Bioshock demo. :)

  • NegativeZero #10 5 years ago

    Just make yourself a US silver account and you can grab it easily.

  • Sl1pstream #11 5 years ago

    Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naaa Katamari....ahem..

    It's Katamari in HD. Which makes it even more awesome. I'm buying, especially since it has online multiplayer. If I don't, the King of all cosmos won't be satisfied.
    Edited by 1 at 16/08/07 @ 22:37