Why would We write a review about Katamari Damacy? We could be doing better things with Our life.
Your highness is so cool!
......................so cool.............
Yes, We LOVE Katamari Damacy. We must simply write down our experiences posthaste.
Did you know there's a new Katamari coming up? I'm very excited for October. So excited, that in this little month gap where I needed to put a game, I decided to put some of that towards Playing a Katamari game to help sate the appetite.
I love the original game. It's one of my favorite games of all time. Not sure why it took me so long to get to this one, but I'm glad I did anyways.
From the very start of the game, it's presented with the general message of "the fans wanted more, so we made more." Looking up some backstory, and it seems that the director (who does not care for sequels) only came back because Namco was going to make a sequels regardless, and figured he might as well have a hand in it.
I kinda like that the game has this vibe embedded in it? It's meta feeling, but also still fits within that Katamari style and aesthetic. My favorite bit is before each level, the King seems very uninterested in the game until someone compliments him, where he is then completely on board with more Katamari.
It's more Katamari. The base gameplay is essentially unchanged from "roll" but you won't find me complaining. Where the innovation, or, well, differences? Not really innovation, lies is the level design. The original game had some different levels, like grab crabs or grab one cow (worst level), but for the most part it was roll in gradually larger and larger spaces, with 3 main levels (there might have been other ones but I do not remember them; I remember the 3). We Love Katamari has a lot more level variation. You have the base room/city, but that's also actually just a small space of the "the whole world" level. There's underwater, the zoo, the campsite, flower field, etc. A lot more variation in location makes the game a little more interesting, and while a lot of the levels are "roll big", there's a lot more "roll specific items", plus a couple weird ones that add just enough difference, despite still being the same core gameplay, to feel unique, like the one where you roll the sumo wrestler over food, or the infinite snowball level. It's nice. My favorite level that wasn't a simple roll level was probably the first race track level, where your katamari is constantly accelerating forward. It's chaotic and you're bouncing everywhere, but not too much to be annoying and just remains fast and fun.
Couple other things beyond the levels; the cousins and presents are back from the previous game, but the cousins actually become playable in single player which is cool (I just stuck with the Prince, my favorite boy). There's also a collection tab, full of every item you've rolled up and dialogue for each one (there's a lot). Very good for replayability, on top of just trying to get bigger katamaris/faster times.
In this version of the game, it adds "Royal Reverie", which ultimately just comes down to 5 bonus levels where you play as the younger King. Neat, creative, great for score attack brained people, but not something I focused on too much, especially that ghost level. I do not like the avoid things levels. (I didn't mention it but I cannot believe they did the cow level again but added bears to it; fuck off lmfao)
The story this time is actually a lot more understandable than the last game, hilariously. It's simple, and not the deepest thing in the world (you should not be playing Katamari for the story), but it is nice to get some backstory on the King of all Cosmos, and I feel like they were able to communicate perfectly despite no words and only music. It kinda got me right at the end when the King's dad showed his love.
It's Katamari. The music is gonna be amazing and weird. I think the original OST still captures me more (NOTHING tops Lonely Rolling Star), but there are still some really good tracks this time around, AND the original songs are available as well. I really like how you can select the song that plays for the level. In a game where you're gonna be doing the same levels over and over for better score, it's nice to be able to shake it up. Baby Universe is my favorite song in this one.
I don't have terribly much else to say. Again, like the game says at the start. The fans loved Katamari Damacy. The fans wanted it again. That's what this game is. It's just more of the same classic, more of the same core. There's some difference, some polish, but it ultimately is simply more.
I'm happy with that. When you have a core idea that succeeds so much, you don't need Much to make it enjoyable. It's why Pokemon's still so popular, despite its flaws. Is it good to have innovation and differences? Yes. Absolutely. But I do think there is merit, especially in a game about redoing the same stuff over and over, of getting some new content.
10/10. More Katamari goodness, I'm certainly not complaining.