I have always been intrigued by the Katamari series. I found Katamari Damacy to be one of the most original ideas of its time. The quirky, flippant king was amusing and the music was fantastic. I listen to the soundtrack often, but I never finished the first game. I had gotten stuck on one of the levels and was soon distracted by other games. When Beautiful Katamari was released, I had recently purchased an Xbox 360. It was time to give the series another chance.

Katamari looked fantastic in HD. I have an Xbox Elite with the HDMI cord connected an HDTV. The vibrancy and clarity of the game environments were simply stunning. I was excited to get into the game. I played through the first few levels, but soon found myself feeling disappointed.

I had some major issues with Beautiful Katamari. First, the controls in this game made my hands sore. The 360 controller is much bigger than the PS2 controller, and the placement of the analog sticks is awkward for me, as I have small hands. I found that one hand had to be sideways while the other was in a normal position, making it more difficult to move the sticks in sync.

My second complaint regarding Katamari is something inherent to the theme of the series: the character of the king. I tried very hard to do my best and make the biggest star possible. However, even when I reached the goal, I would get snide comments from him. This type of negative feedback makes me want to quit a game when I’m frustrated. Why should I try hard if it won’t even satisfy the king? The carrot at the end of the stick had to be created by me, the player. I prefer games with more positive feedback, so I will want to try again and again.

After experiencing physical pain in my hands after each of the 5-10 minute levels and continually receiving negative feedback, I returned the game. It seemed to mostly be more of the same type of gameplay from the first games, aside from the pretty HD graphics and the online play (which I had no intention of testing). If the king was already so mean to me, why would I want to face the scorn of other players?

Games like this make me wonder if I should build up a thicker skin. The snide remarks of a video game character should not affect my self-esteem. However, it does seem that, for a gameplay experience intended to be fun, a highly critical character will inevitably drive some players away when the levels get more difficult.