Larry Hastings
09-21-2005, 10:46 PM
Early last week saw the release of Burnout Revenge (aka Burnout 4) for the PS2 and the XBox. Later last week Burnout Legends arrived for the PSP. And today We Love Katamari (aka Katamari Damacy 2) popped up in stores in the US. I have--and will now review--all three. (Split up into two messages because of vBulletin's message-length limits.) But let me summarize: they are all more of the same, more or less, and they are generally great. Just what you want from sequels.
Burnout Legends for the PSP (aka BOL)
BOL is essentially BO3 made portable. It's theoretically a melange of the first three Burnout games, but in practice the gameplay is straight out of BO3. I've never played Burnout or Burnout 2, yet the only unfamiliar facet of gameplay was "Pursuit" mode. Supposedly it borrows cars and tracks liberally from all three previous Burnout games; I wouldn't know. (I'm writing this review as a guy who's only played BO3 from the series.)
In "Pursuit", you always drive a police car, and you must catch a single "Target" car and take it down. It doesn't break nearly as easily as normal other racers (in Race and Road Rage modes), so you'll have to take five or six swings at it. I gather this was in BO or BO2, but dropped from BO3, so it only makes sense that it is here. It's fun but hardly revolutionary.
What's not to like? Lots of loading. Not unacceptable amounts, but be prepared to wait.
Because of hardware limitations, there are definitely only four other racers. And I've only ever seen three other racers in a "Road Rage".
The graphics are entirely appropriate for the handheld, but they aren't as gorgeous as BO3 for the XBox. You couldn't expect them to be, but there you are. The cars look like low-poly toys. ;)
Because the resolution and frame rate is inferior to what you're used to on the home consoles, it's harder to make out traffic in the distance in front of you. To compensate for this they exaggerated the glow around headlights and tailights. This mitigates but does not totally remedy the problem.
I'm not sure, but I think nearly-every or every Crash Mode level is straight out of BO3. I am somewhat nostalgic about those levels, so it's like seeing old friends again, but there's seemingly not a lot of new content there.And that's all I could come up with in the downsides department. BOL is a wonderful handheld version of BO3. If you loved BO3, you have a PSP, and you'd like to bring the two together, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game.
We Love Katamari for the PS2 (aka WLK)
I'll cut to the chase: however you felt about Katamari Damacy (KD), that's how you'll feel about WLK. Saying it's the same game is a mite unfair; this is a sequel, it has all-new content, it has some welcome minor tweaks to gameplay. But, yeah, by and large it's the exact same game. If you loved KD you'll love WLK. And if you didn't care for KD you won't care for WLK.
So what are these tweaks? The game now loads additional level data during gameplay, which means they could (and did) make some levels much larger. However, presumably because of limited memory, generally they do this by forcing you through a one-way hatch. That means they can forget everything that was in the previous area. A minor drawback to what is otherwise a big win.
The difficulty has simultaneously been lowered and raised. I think it's easier to get past levels in WLK; first-time players will fail a level less often than they did in the first one. However, you have to work a lot harder to get a glowing recommendation from the King. I can still get "We are moved." from the King nearly every time on KM, and I have only gotten the equivalent once or twice in WLK.
I mostly dislike the "special" levels in KD; the only-swans or only-twins levels are okay, but make-a-10m-katamari was frustrating, and the first-cow / first-bull levels were throw-the-controller-against-the-wall irritating. I have quite enjoyed the "special" levels in WLK. So far they're mostly only-X levels, but the ones that weren't were fine too. Only-flowers was soothing and satisfying, the sumo wrestler was fun, and the only-candy level is a real thrill. (Tip: head straight for the gingerbread house, as the King suggests!)
The game has been tweaked and streamlined. It's now easier to skip the chatter and get right in to a level, and faster to replay a level you found unsatisfying. You can move the camera in "King View" (the old "jump up high" view). You can pick what song to listen to when you play a level. The only thing I can think of that's missing: switching songs mid-level.
Their handling for "you're obscured by something" is improved (they cut a thematically-shaped hole in the obscuring object), but not perfect (smaller objects don't get cut).
The between-levels animations are way better. The creepy, blocky, badly-dubbed, incoherent family did next-to nothing for me. This time out it's much more enjoyable :)
The music is more uneven enjoyability-wise. For me, so far, there is a higher ratio of irritating-songs to fabulous-songs in WLK as compared to KD. Happily, there's a new track from the Japanese rap star on WLK, and this new track is great too. I think the tracks they play for the King (before the level, and after the level when examining the katamari) are more enjoyable in WLK.
The opening movie is nowhere near as shockingly insane as the one from KM. (Then again, how could it be? I was prepared for it this time.)I just got done playing it for, I dunno, three hours straight. And I could definitely play it some more, but I need to hang up the controller for the night. WLK is fantastic--if you liked KD, zap out straight away and buy yourself WLK too.
Burnout Legends for the PSP (aka BOL)
BOL is essentially BO3 made portable. It's theoretically a melange of the first three Burnout games, but in practice the gameplay is straight out of BO3. I've never played Burnout or Burnout 2, yet the only unfamiliar facet of gameplay was "Pursuit" mode. Supposedly it borrows cars and tracks liberally from all three previous Burnout games; I wouldn't know. (I'm writing this review as a guy who's only played BO3 from the series.)
In "Pursuit", you always drive a police car, and you must catch a single "Target" car and take it down. It doesn't break nearly as easily as normal other racers (in Race and Road Rage modes), so you'll have to take five or six swings at it. I gather this was in BO or BO2, but dropped from BO3, so it only makes sense that it is here. It's fun but hardly revolutionary.
What's not to like? Lots of loading. Not unacceptable amounts, but be prepared to wait.
Because of hardware limitations, there are definitely only four other racers. And I've only ever seen three other racers in a "Road Rage".
The graphics are entirely appropriate for the handheld, but they aren't as gorgeous as BO3 for the XBox. You couldn't expect them to be, but there you are. The cars look like low-poly toys. ;)
Because the resolution and frame rate is inferior to what you're used to on the home consoles, it's harder to make out traffic in the distance in front of you. To compensate for this they exaggerated the glow around headlights and tailights. This mitigates but does not totally remedy the problem.
I'm not sure, but I think nearly-every or every Crash Mode level is straight out of BO3. I am somewhat nostalgic about those levels, so it's like seeing old friends again, but there's seemingly not a lot of new content there.And that's all I could come up with in the downsides department. BOL is a wonderful handheld version of BO3. If you loved BO3, you have a PSP, and you'd like to bring the two together, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game.
We Love Katamari for the PS2 (aka WLK)
I'll cut to the chase: however you felt about Katamari Damacy (KD), that's how you'll feel about WLK. Saying it's the same game is a mite unfair; this is a sequel, it has all-new content, it has some welcome minor tweaks to gameplay. But, yeah, by and large it's the exact same game. If you loved KD you'll love WLK. And if you didn't care for KD you won't care for WLK.
So what are these tweaks? The game now loads additional level data during gameplay, which means they could (and did) make some levels much larger. However, presumably because of limited memory, generally they do this by forcing you through a one-way hatch. That means they can forget everything that was in the previous area. A minor drawback to what is otherwise a big win.
The difficulty has simultaneously been lowered and raised. I think it's easier to get past levels in WLK; first-time players will fail a level less often than they did in the first one. However, you have to work a lot harder to get a glowing recommendation from the King. I can still get "We are moved." from the King nearly every time on KM, and I have only gotten the equivalent once or twice in WLK.
I mostly dislike the "special" levels in KD; the only-swans or only-twins levels are okay, but make-a-10m-katamari was frustrating, and the first-cow / first-bull levels were throw-the-controller-against-the-wall irritating. I have quite enjoyed the "special" levels in WLK. So far they're mostly only-X levels, but the ones that weren't were fine too. Only-flowers was soothing and satisfying, the sumo wrestler was fun, and the only-candy level is a real thrill. (Tip: head straight for the gingerbread house, as the King suggests!)
The game has been tweaked and streamlined. It's now easier to skip the chatter and get right in to a level, and faster to replay a level you found unsatisfying. You can move the camera in "King View" (the old "jump up high" view). You can pick what song to listen to when you play a level. The only thing I can think of that's missing: switching songs mid-level.
Their handling for "you're obscured by something" is improved (they cut a thematically-shaped hole in the obscuring object), but not perfect (smaller objects don't get cut).
The between-levels animations are way better. The creepy, blocky, badly-dubbed, incoherent family did next-to nothing for me. This time out it's much more enjoyable :)
The music is more uneven enjoyability-wise. For me, so far, there is a higher ratio of irritating-songs to fabulous-songs in WLK as compared to KD. Happily, there's a new track from the Japanese rap star on WLK, and this new track is great too. I think the tracks they play for the King (before the level, and after the level when examining the katamari) are more enjoyable in WLK.
The opening movie is nowhere near as shockingly insane as the one from KM. (Then again, how could it be? I was prepared for it this time.)I just got done playing it for, I dunno, three hours straight. And I could definitely play it some more, but I need to hang up the controller for the night. WLK is fantastic--if you liked KD, zap out straight away and buy yourself WLK too.