Da Da, Da Da - Katamari XBLA Rumor-y!
We don't tend to report rumors, of course, but XBLArcade points out hints that Katamari Damacy may be coming to Xbox 360's Live Arcade in some form, alongside Wii and PS3 versions of Keita Takahashi's beloved object aggregation franchise - this is according to the Quartermann rumor column in EGM.
Likelihood of this being true? Well, as the Wikipedia page for the game points out: "On 22nd August 2006 Namco filed a trademark applications for Beautiful Katamari Damacy and Katamari Damacy Tres Bien. Further to this on 7th September 2006 a trademark application was filed for Katamari Damacy-kun." Hey, that's three different trademarks for new Katamari games - and there are three SKUs mentioned in the EGM rumor. [EDIT: Though commenters point out the names are similar to each other in different languages!] If you add that to a NeoGAF rumor (that I now can't find) which also linked Katamari and XBLA, then this is sounding distinctly possible.
But the million-dollar question is - is Keita Takahashi involved in these new versions of the game? We actually heard a wild rumor that he'd left Namco, 2 or 3 months back, but enquiries to Namco PR turned up a blank, so it was very likely untrue. We Love Katamari (which, incidentally, has the best plot ever for a sequel that someone has been forced to make against his will), was released in mid-2005, which is, y'know, 18 months ago.
So one really wonders - his interviews in 2005 certainly had Takahashi resistant to the concept of games as a long-term career, and you know what, Namco - the PSP version of Katamari, which was done almost entirely without Takahashi, just wasn't that good. We're just saying - I personally think the best way to continue with the Katamari formula is to get Takahashi to mess with the formula, unless you're just doing straight conversions of the existing games to other platforms.
[And on a final, random note, Grubby Games' IGF finalist Fizzball is the best unholy melange of Break-Out and Katamari ever, and in wacky scientist PC casual game form, too. It's like a mash-up in game form, and that's actually kinda refreshing.]
Comments
Well, given that the three TM'd names all mean roughly the same thing in different languages, I'd be willing to bet it's not three different games, just the localized names for the same game in the US, Europe, and Japan.
And as I recall, Takahashi had said he didn't want to do any more Katamari games after the first one, because he loathes sequelitis. We Love Katamari was basically his response to the fans begging him to do another, and I seem to recall him being adamant that that was the last one too.
We'll see.
Posted by: J Arcane | December 17, 2006 1:00 PM
Fair comment on different names - but I feel like 'Tres Bien' and 'Beautiful' wouldn't be the European and U.S. names, because 'Beautiful' isn't that Yank-centric. Maybe it's two SKUs, not three? One for XBLA and PS3 E-distribution and one for Wii?
As for Takahashi, my gut is that he is not involved in the games but they will do them anyhow. Hopefully not!
Posted by: simonc | December 17, 2006 2:17 PM
I would love to see more Katamari on any format, but only if Takahashi is involved and, you know, willing. I'd hate to see my favorite game of the last I-don't-know-how-many years become Tony Hawk.
Posted by: 20XX | December 17, 2006 11:11 PM