This time around, the Prince isn't rolling up items in his katamari at the sole request of his father, the King of All Cosmos. Now, the missions are dictated by humans, who all happen to be big fans of the original Katamari (hence the game's title). You're also not just controlling the Prince. When the demo begins, you're standing in a grassy field. There's a boy there who will whisk you way to the first level, but there are also three of the Prince's cousins wandering around the screen. By approaching them and pressing the X button, you take control.
The demo features Ichigo, who is colored like a strawberry; Ace, the orange cousin whose cylindrical head sports conical points at both ends; and Peso, the grey and red cousin with a head shaped like a teardrop. Expect the final version to feature several more cousins, who you will undoubtedly unlock as you find (and roll over) them in the game.
Katamaris in our nation's schools!
After choosing the character you wish to control, it's time to go talk to the kid (he's hard to miss with his waving and drawn-out cry of "Hiiii!"). Since this demo was designed for E3, the characters spout dialogue relating to the show. The boy explains that he's a huge fan of Katamari Damacy and that he'd like to see a katamari bigger than E3 itself. With that, the Prince (yeah, we opted to play as the Prince) is lifted up into the sky, where he finds the flamboyant father lounging among the clouds. The King expresses his disappointment at the new, next-generation consoles. It seems they're too small for his cosmic tastes -- he wants a system that sports a controller with buttons as big as stars.
School Days
With that, it's off to the first stage. We were placed inside a Japanese school, where we were given four minutes to roll a katamari 1.5 meters in diameter (which, to be honest, isn't anywhere near the size of E3). At first, we were confined to a single classroom, rolling around the floor, picking up what scraps we could. Eventually, as our katamari grew, the classroom door opened, giving us access to the hallway. The hall was filled with all sorts of goodies, but also with roaming students, who we were too tiny to pick up. If we exited the doors at either end of the hall, it would spit us back out at the other side of the hall. Kind of like the escape tunnels in Pac-Man.
We stormed another classroom, and before too long, our katamari was large enough to ensnare people. We returned to the room that we started in, causing the formerly passive students to panic and run around to avoid our giant sphere. Since the room is fairly small (at least compared to our katamari), it didn't take much work to pick up all the kids (and their desks ... and anything else that was lying around). At that point, we returned to the hall by smashing through the wall, snagging it as we did. We had just enough time left to raid the school's storage and locker rooms, picking up signs, lockers, and dudes in towels.
