THE KING OF KATAMARI RETURNS

Katamari Damacy first hit the scene in 2004 and was a cult hit; the bizarre cover art did little to entice audiences to try it and copies were limited because what was Katamari Damacy to the general public in comparison to other franchises? That being said, Katamari Damacy was a hit and I loved it until the only copy I could find proved to not work due to someone scratching the disc… thanks Blockbuster. Namco okayed a sequel and within a year the team had pushed out We Love Katmari and I think this is the pinnacle of the entire franchise and not just cause my parents got it for me for Christmas. Katamari Damacy was a fun experiment, but We Love Katamari showed that the experiment could be so much more.

PLATFORMS: PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, XSX, SWITCH
MSRP: $29.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $39.99 (THE DLC OF MUSIC FROM OTHER GAMES IS WORTH IT)

For those not familiar, Katamari Damacy is a game where the player uses a large ball to roll up everyday items and as the ball size increases it can roll up bigger items. There are plot reasons for why this is happening but from a gameplay point of view this is the main concept. The first game was basically structured around three types of rolling. The first was making a ball as large as possible within the time limit with a minimum size being required to unlock further stages. The second was having a target size and unlimited time with the attempt to get to the target size as fast as possible. The third was used to special stages and would ask the player to prioritize collecting specific objects. We Love Katamari continues with these concepts but adds in stages like a fireball that needs to start a campfire and goes out if the player doesn’t keep rolling up items or falls in the water. One stage involves rolling a sumo wrestler around and collecting food so he can beat his opponent (and he starts the stage skinny and therefore doesn’t roll very well). There’s one particular stage that asks the player to collect the biggest cow or bear they can find which sounds simple except there are cows and bears everywhere. The basis of ball rolling is still there, but with far more depth.

The story, like all Katamari stories, is silly. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and is big into the meta-commentary of the first game being a surprise hit. The music ranges from horribly catchy to just plain silly. The characters and the world are just bonkers. Everything is perfect and this remaster actually adds in new content about the King of the Cosmos as a young child also rolling up Katamari and it is wonderful. It’s only a few stages that reuse areas from the main game, but it is appreciated as are some of the minor tweaks like being able to just select stages from a menu rather than running to characters on the world map now. I do think the new sticker scavenger hunt is a neat addition. In stages there will be stickers from various Namco franchises hidden in the world and using the camera accessory to take a picture of them adds them to the sticker book. This is on top of having a hidden present and a cousin in each level too. It’s more content in a great game.

Unfortunately, one aspect that the original North American and Japanese versions of the original PS2 We Love Katamari is missing, and that’s save data transfer from the first Katamari. The original We Love Katamari could import the stars made in the first game and I think also unlocked the music (don’t quote me on the music part). In this version they used what they did in the European PS2 release of We Love Katamari and just had a few planets in the solar system already. Some of the music is being sold as DLC but this time it includes tracks from all the Katamari games, and it does include LONELY ROLLING STAR which is a necessity in my opinion. Outside of that this remake really does run better than the original because there’s almost no loading times (which were rough on PS2) and I really didn’t have the slowdown the original game had even in busy areas of the world. I can’t recommend going back to the original which is sort of the reason for a remake isn’t it?

I may seem a little overzealous when I say this, but We Love Katamari is one of the best games ever made. Sure, the concept isn’t for everyone, but it does everything this concept has going for it perfectly. I think the series lost focus after this title which isn’t a surprise because this is the last Katamari game that the creator Keita Takahashi worked on. The other Katamari games are great do not get me wrong and I hope those get remastered too, but future games lacked the same innovation We Love Katamari had for the concept of rolling up junk. This is the top of the clump spirit folks, and I would suggest not missing it.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.