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MS quiet on Katamari demo

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.