Namco Prepping Katamari Tribute For Japanese PSN
Katamari DamacyFew expected the Katamari series to have such a tremendously positive impact in North America; the quirky Japanese concept of rolling up everything from thimbles to skyscrapers was almost too nutty to comprehend. But it was received extremely well, and the first two installments really wowed PS2 owners.
Unfortunately, PS3 owners had difficulty understanding how Namco Bandai could make the third entry, Beautiful Katamari, exclusive to the Xbox 360. Perhaps they're recognizing their oversight and making amends with the likes of Katamari Damacy Tribute, which - as we far as we understand it - is a collection of former titles. It has been revealed in the recent Famitsu and reported by PS3Center, and apparently, designers are shooting for a "new visual expression" as The Prince and his wondrous Katamari will be displayed in glorious 1080p HD for the very first time. It will be a PSN offering and it's set for release in Japan later this year, although we have no evidence of a worldwide PSN launch. As of right now, we suggest you PS3 owners start crossing your fingers, because we promise that Tribute will be one of the best options available on the Network. If you've had the pleasure of playing any of the previous iterations, you'll likely agree with our advice.
We'll let you know if a North American and/or European confirmation shows up at some point, but until then, if you have a Japanese Store account...well, we don't condone that, but you're good to go. ;)
3/24/2009 John Shepard
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Comments (23 posts)
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 @ 11:18:47 PM
Reply
Who else thinks we should start a petition to force John Shepard to say something in the comments?
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JasperLoons
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 12:31:56 AM
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WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 1:30:10 AM
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 3/25/2009 1:32:36 AM
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Banky A
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 3:27:19 AM
=D
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WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 3:43:48 AM
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Orvisman
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 9:50:28 AM
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Hmmmm, the first time in 1080p? Then why does the back of the 360 box list 1080p as an option? Actually, I've noticed all of the 360 boxes list 720p/1080i/1080p as the resolution.
Is Microsoft deceiving the public much?
1 up, 1 down
shoota
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 10:29:06 AM
The PS3 does not have a hardware scaler so the games have to support specific resolutions on their own. Just because they have to code Katamari on PS3 to support 1080p on their own doesn't mean it's going to look any better than the 360 game. Katamari isn't a pretty game anywhere.
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Orvisman
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 12:12:12 PM
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shoota
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 1:28:03 PM
Yes there is a difference to native 1080p and upscaled 1080p. Katamari will likely just use software upscaling. They won't be going and redrawing any assets for it.
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WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 1:57:29 PM
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shoota
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 2:03:26 PM
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Alienange
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 @ 10:31:31 PM
Oh, and PCs have had 1080p and higher resolutions for a loooong time.
I think your thumbs down are because you bad mouth Katamari. That's my guess anyway...
Last edited by Alienange on 3/25/2009 10:31:47 PM
1 up, 1 down
shoota
Thursday, March 26, 2009 @ 8:00:28 AM
Is somebody actually going to defend Katamari as a good looking game in 2009?
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Orvisman
Thursday, March 26, 2009 @ 9:33:08 AM
That was my point. The 360 doesn't output in native, or Full, HD. So, why so argumentative.
@Alienange,
I knew the PS3 upscaled PS2/PS1 games, but I didn't know it could upscale PS3 games.
Thanks!
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shoota
Thursday, March 26, 2009 @ 11:06:58 AM
The PS3 can not upscale PS3 games to 1080p unless the developer does software scaling on their own.
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Orvisman
Thursday, March 26, 2009 @ 2:55:07 PM
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shoota
Thursday, March 26, 2009 @ 3:58:29 PM
Xbox works with HD DVD (via add-on) which will output 1080p video (as all HD DVD movies are 1080p and often use the exact same file as the Bluray version of a given movie).
Xbox games can be native 1080p if the dev feels they want to code their game that way but like the PS3, most games are 720p. Very few games on either platform are 1080p.
As far as scaling goes, older HDTVs couldn't receive every resolution. This is mostly related to CRT HDTVs, which would only receive 480i, 480p and 1080i. So if a game was 720p on PS3, the PS3 would have no choice but to output the game at 480p. So without a scaler, a small number of people with older HDTVs had to play some games in SD.
This isn't a big deal any more, since most new HDTVs will receive just about any resolution and scale it themselves. LCDs have a fixed resolution, so a 1080p LCD will display everything at 1080p. You feed a new LCD a 480p or 720p signal, and it will scale it to 1080p. The scaling isn't always as nice as the scaler in the Xbox (or a receiver) but many TVs have comparable or even better scalers.
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Alienange
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 @ 10:03:09 PM
Upset over Nobi Nobi Boy? Yes
Jap account? No
Want Katamari Tribute? Yes