Katamari Forever demo impressions

Originally, I had planned on writing this a few months ago after some hands on time with the Japanese demo, but felt I should wait. So here we are! The US demo has finally come out on the Playstation Network and the verdict? It's pretty much the same thing you grown to love or hate. While the gameplay changes are minor (using the six-axis to jump...sort of.) there's a bit more variety in the missions, not to mention you can change characters now, and it sounds like you might be able to unlock a few of them in game if you manage to roll them up. While in the previous games, the King of all Cosmos would sort of taunt you or maybe give you an backhanded compliment for doing a bad or great job, there's an actual grading system in place, giving you more replayability if you're the kind of person that's into getting and improving high scores. The controls aside from the jump are the exact same and work as great as they always have. The two most significant changes aside from the grading system and mission variety (one mission has you absorbing water then rolling over sand to expose the lush environment underneath) is the new art style. It's not exactly cel-shaded, but it does have a cartoon-like feel, which is appropriate when you think about how outlandish what you're doing is in these games anyway. The soundtrack is great as always, with the demo featuring two songs that I don't remember from any of the other versions, but still are a variation on the unforgettable Katamari theme. Lastly, I would like to say that this is the first version of the game that I've played where once you start exceeding your goals and become huge, there's no drop in the frame rate or graphical quality. Then again, the demo does only offer one scenario where you're getting bigger, and it takes place indoors so that might not be the case for outdoor environments. As a Katamari fan, I'm looking forward to playing the full version whenever it comes out, but if you've never liked the series before, it seems like this will do little to convert you.