Katamari Damacy 2 dated, new screenshots

Lonely rolling stars will be flaring up again this summer as Namco reveals that Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy - or Katamari Damacy 2 for the sake of what little sanity the original left us with - will be released in Japan on 7th July.

The original Katamari Damacy, which involves rolling an adhesive ball around picking up worldly objects on an increasing scale, became an instant classic on PlayStation 2 and won itself a limited release in the USA where eager fans quickly lapped it up. It was never released in Europe, but built up a strong import following.

And rightly so. We thought it was bloody superb.

The sequel apparently sees the Prince of All Cosmos - he of the inflated codpiece - trying to answer fan mail by completing certain objectives, rather than trying to repair the skies by building stars out of hot air balloons, football stadiums and poodles after accidentally destroying them whilst on a bender.

Namco also recently added a bunch of new screenshots to its Japanese website for the game, and we've whacked them all up here. They're only ickle, but they show off some of the new environments and things you can attach to your ball.

Frankly just looking at them makes us all warm and happy, and stands to make Lik-Sang richer in three months' time.