
One by one, the rumours stirred one month ago by some photos posted on Xboxic are being confirmed by Namco Bandai. Ace Combat 6 was announced for the Xbox 360 soon afterwards (story), and although we're still waiting to hear about that Warhammer: Mark of Chaos rumoured on the '360, we're now certain that the Katamari Damacy franchise is indeed coming to the Xbox 360. And the PlayStation 3! All this thanks to Japanese magazine Famitsu, via IGN.
Those who loved Katamari Damacy on the PS2 (which may very well mean everyone who played it), or any of its follow-ups, will be glad to know that the next-gen sequel - titled Beautiful Katamari Damacy - will retain the general look of previous entries, while at the same time making everything... well, BIGGER!
"The move to the new platforms makes possible improvements to the technical areas of the game", writes IGN. "Stages are larger and include more junk to add to your growing katamari. One screen in Famitsu shows a katamari rising above 7,000 kilometers, on its way to the 10,000 km mark (yes, it nearly covers the entire Earth at this point).
(...) Also returning from previous Katamari games is the use of singing in the background music. All the performers in the Japanese version will be new to the Katamari universe, but Morikawa (ed - they probably mean Jun Moriwaki, game director) promised that players would be able to recognize the names." Beautiful Katamari Damacy will also feature online play on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but we'll have to wait some more to get detailed information about this aspect. From what Famitsu speculates, we can expect both co-operative and competitive play, though. So far, the game is only about 50% complete, so there's no release date set yet. You can read IGN's story for a bit more info on the control scheme and what other platforms have the best - and worst - chances of getting a Katamari Damacy game in the future.
UPDATE: Playsyde has some great quality scans of the Famitsu article.




