Katamari Forever (PS3)

Ok, this is one of the strangest games you will ever play - but also one of the most imaginative and most addictive as well. The Katamari games have become a cult classic, but despite this it is not a very well known game - and remains quite hard to find in most high-street game stores, if they stock it at all.

The story:
In the latest installment of the Katamari games - Katamari Forever - a strange event has occured causing all the stars to disappear from the sky, and the King of the Cosmos to fall into a coma after being hit on the head by an asteroid. Only to be replaced by a Robot King, when the King of the Cosmos wakes up, he has lost his memory. So it is up to the prince to roll up katamari to create new stars and planets, restore the Kings memory, collect all the presents and find all the cousins! (atleast I think thats the story, its so eclectic and rediculus its kind of hard to tell).

Gameplay:
The general aim of the game is to play as the Prince, and to roll up items into balls. The more items you roll up, the bigger your ball (or Katamari) gets and the wider range of items you can collect. There are two sets of stages, the normal stages under the King of the Cosmos and the stages under the Robo-King - smaller stages (mini levels), and on each level there are presents and cousins to collect. You often have some sort of mission to complete, such as collecting certain items (eg expensive things, sweet things), collecting a certain amount of items, obtaining a target size or simply making your Katamari as big as possible. The controls are easy to learn yet very hard to get the hang of, making sure you dont find the game too easy and get bored.

Visuals and Soundtrack:
This game is highly imaginative and very bright and colourful with an array of worlds and levels. The soundtrack is very strange yet catchy, and you find yourself singing or humming it for days afterwards. This is all out Japanese madness - exactly what you expect from such a game!

My opinion:
This is without a doubt the strangest yet most beautiful game you will ever play. It is highly addictive and you will find yourself craving to get home to play on it some more. The soundtrack is catchy yet bizarre at the same time, and the visuals are something to behold. Its all out madness and makes no sense what so ever - but this is all part of the charm! If, like me you are sick of the current games market and what it has to offer, give this game a try - you wont be disappointed.