Preview by: Toni Schwartz

When it comes to the Katamari universe, you know the drill. The King of All Cosmos gets involved in something dumb and it’s up to his son, the diminutive Prince, to clean up the mess. Once again the little guy is up to his eyeballs in trouble with the upcoming Katamari Forever, which arrives in the US on September 22nd exclusively for the PS3. However, attendees at this year’s Penny Arcade Expo got a sneak peek and a chance to try out the game.

The King has gotten into an accident and lost his memory. Since the Cosmos still needs some sort of leader, the Prince and his cousins create a RoboKing as temporary tyrant. Unfortunately the metal monarch (who kind of looks like the unholy love child of Optimus Prime and Voltron) goes a bit haywire and knocks out all the stars in the sky. The Prince – and his cousins – must then put the stars back, AND help his dad get his memory back.

The objective in Katamari Forever is the same as every other Katamari game ever created. You have a sticky ball called a Katamari that you use to roll up objects. Your Katamari starts off small, and can only pick up tiny items like coins and stamps. However, whenever you pick up a certain number of items your Katamari grows, and you can pick up larger items such as cars, buildings, and even large pieces of land.

Although controls haven’t changed in that you use the twin thumbsticks to move your Katamari, there is a new control feature. The “Prince Hop” lets you jump over large obstacles, thus preventing the usual error of crashing into objects larger than you.

The game features over 30 levels, and you have some choices in how to view such levels with graphic filters. In addition to the standard view, there’s also the Wood style, which makes the graphics look well, like wood. Finally, there’s Comic style, which as the name suggests, gives the graphics a comic book feeling by using thick black outlines on objects.