Having Never played the originals, this was a totally new experience.
Beautiful Katamari is on of very few games that really let their Japanese origin shine on the Xbox 360. It has a simple animation style that carries through the whole game a looks absolutely, well... beautiful. The music is great and lots of fun to hear while playing. It reminds me of something that would play under the ending credits of a Japanese anime. If you played Animal Crossing several songs sound like the ones sung by Totakeke. The game has a very fun inviting way of doing things. From the game intro to the menus to the world where you'll spend doing most of your time, everything is whimsical and fun.
The game itself revolves around building Katamari at the request of the King of All Cosmos. A katamari is a big sticky ball that seems to gravitationally attract any object it gets near. The objective it to get the katamari as big as possible by rolling over progressively larger objects. A twist to the gameplay comes in the scores for your katamari. Each stage has a time limit and a group of items you're supposed to try to collect a lot of. These could be ocean items, or wheels, or hot stuff. Depending on the overall size of the katamari and the ammount of these items you collect, you'll be given a score. The highest possible score on a stage is 100 and, while the game itself isn't too long, you'll find yourself playing each stage multiple times, and having fun on each attempt.
In addition to the traditional gameplay there are several collecting elements to the game. Each stage has presents and cousins you can unlock. The presents are different accessories you can have your playable character wear. The cousins are all playable characters you can unlock. The new characters and clothing don't change the game at all, but they're fun to collect. The other part of collecting is the different type of items you collect in your katamari balls. The game keeps track of which items you have not yet obtained so you can spend time looking for the ones you're missing and more closely examining the ones you have collected.
What it all comes down to is a very simple game that is rewarding and entertaining. While trying to complete your collection and obtain the highest score, you'll find yourself having lots of fun. There is no other game like this one on the 360 so you'll really have to play it to understand what its all about, but you're bound to enjoy it.