If you played this before, there's not much that's new here.
However, it didn't take long for the series to start to feel stale. A second PS2 game came out followed by a clunky PSP game and now its the Xbox's term to try to reinvent the franchise.
This time the king of the Cosmos was playing tennis and accidentally knocked the ball into space making a black hole that began to suck up the galaxy and once again it's up to the prince to roll up as much junk as possible in this alternate reality earth where people are made of blocks and random stuff is just lying around.
The game is still as simple and fun as ever but they did try to add some new goodies. Throughout each level you can roll up presents and cousins. Presents are collected in the birthday cake in the hub world and consist of things the Prince can wear like hats and scarves. Cousins are little characters like the prince and once one is found, you can switch and play as another character. I liked Sherman the Snowman. Also the presents change depending on the cousin who equips them.
Also added is some online multiplayer however the multiplayer options aren't that good. Co-op has two people trying to control one ball which is awkward. Vs. has two of you battling in a small arena for items. Neither mode is fun or addictive. I don't understand why they couldn't have two people just compete in a regular stage. At least there's Xbox Live leaderboards and it is fun to go back to stages and compete for a higher score.
The game is not without it's issues. Load times are long, the camera still gets hung up due to having the use the right analog stick for this game and the game is short. You can download additional levels but I don't like that. They should've had those from the start.
For being on the 360, there isn't a huge leap in the graphics as Katamari always boasted a simplistic look. It's a little sharper with HD but that's about it. The music is still upbeat and fun.
In the end, Beautiful Katamari is still a fun game and if you didn't play it on the PS2, then it's worth playing but veterans will find, it's a lot of what you've done before. Perhaps it's time to put this series to rest.