Playstation 2 - We Love Katamari

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Namco
Developer
Namco
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Puzzle

We Love Katamari

By David Rasmussen
23rd Oct 05

No, this time I won’t go on forever about Hilary. I’m over it.
This is the full 100% review of the series you know you’ve been waiting for this year!
The game that, yes, will make me forgive Namco for screwing up one of my favorite RPG series with their (bleep)y “Arc the Lad : End of Darkness” collaboration with Cattle Call.
The game that brings back everything you loved from Katamari Damancy and improves it… starting with the vast improvement that it gets ported to EUROPE this time out! And, yes, if they were smart they’d roll out a Katamari Damancy Greatest Hits edition in Europe to capitalize on this game’s coming success!
The game that will be best of the year even IF Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts 2 and Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess were coming out, which they aren’t.
You know it, you’ll love it, embrace it and enjoy it, it’s We Love Katamari.

Ever since it came out in 2004 fans all over the world… or at least parts of the world where the game could be found and had… fell in love with this game. With it’s wild and original gameplay, it’s lovable Dashing Prince and the King of All Cosmos, the beautiful trippy original j-pop tunes that were as addictive as the gameplay itself, and the fact you get to roll up the world at the end once you break through into “Eternal” mode kept players rolling their Katamaris throughout last year into this.

But as the new year came fans slowly began to despair. When would the next game come out? How long would fans have to wait for their next Katamari fix? Would Namco jump the gun and botch it by trying to answer fans’ wishes with a halfass “sequel”? Apparently, as you’ve seen posted in the We Love Katamari thread in the forum, they tried to do just that. However, thankfully, they were stopped by the original director of Katamari Damancy who (instead) crafted a suitable sequel, and this is that sequel!

You know the story of the game, right?
There is none wiser, stronger, fairer or better known than the great King of All Cosmos.
He who seems to have an obsession with playing the guitar has done no wrong in his rule as the head of our beloved cosmos… until he accidentally snuffed the stars and planets of the cosmos in a freak accident.
To fix his wrong he set the Dashing Prince (his one and only son) to right this wrong by rolling up the contents of the Earth to re-create the stars in the sky.
This is the original Katamari Damancy.

But as the game hit the fans began to materialize, and it was soon a major hit! The newfound fans of this highly original slice of puzzle gaming soon began to clamor for more. More of the King of All Cosmos, more of the Dashing Prince, and more of rolling the world up into giant balls of Katamari goodness.
So as this game opens you (the Dashing Prince) has been called forth before the King of All Cosmos who informs you of this fact, and sets you to the task of speaking to the fans of Katamari Damancy in an attempt to answer all their wishes (and continue to make them happy, and in turn insure that they continue to be happy with Katamari Damancy).
That and there’s a certain something about the original game that was not exactly as you thought it was, so you sort of need to -- well -- fix that in this game (you’ll see).

Thus we come to the first of the many many things that make this game great, and fun.
Instead of throwing you a whole menu system with categories and sub categories the whole operation of this game is worked out of the “Select Meadow”. In this green field you’ll meet fans (who have requests for the King of All Cosmos), find objects that’ll handle the game functions, access to extras you find in the form of “gifts”, the place to save the game and a place to engage in 2-player gaming.
This is also where you’ll locate the many cousins of the Dashing Prince that you’ll unlock during gameplay, but more on that in a bit.

As you start you are first given tasks by the brother and sister duo from the original game, this is where you’ll learn how to roll the Katamari (using both the left and right analog sticks, aka the L3 & R3 buttons) as well as how to make it do what it does (turn, roll fast, etc). Once you do their jobs you’ll be able to go out and find more and more tasks to undertake, but it’s not a one shot deal! You’ll be able to go back to the same person and get DIFFERENT tasks in some cases, while in others the task is not something you’ll master right away and you’ll need to work on it to get it right.

As for the tasks? Like the standard rhythm and roll of the Olympics motto of Higher Faster Stronger you too have a motto for your Katamari rolling, and it’s thus : Larger Faster Special.

Larger : This is as the name implies. The King of All Cosmos gives you a set amount of time, during which you must roll a Katamari to a set size. However do this quickly ‘cause the real point of this job is to make the Katamari as LARGE as possible! Surpass the target number quickly and roll it as big as possible!
Oh, about that. Note that on the upper left side of the screen is your Katamari (sitting in the middle of a round circle). The circle is the target size, and you need to roll until the Katamari completely fills this circle (don’t worry, you’ll be able to keep track of the size as you roll as well as the target size since there’s easy to read readouts covering that on the left side).

Faster : Instead of rolling it large you need to roll it to a set size as fast as possible. And I do mean fast, ‘cause it seems the game is obsessed with making you roll it in about a minute or so… which I have not yet done. I have gotten it to 1:50 which is still the fastest I’ve ever done… though I could do better.

Special : Several tasks will challenge you to roll the Katamari in new ways.
For instance the aforementioned sumo wrestler level from my original preview review.
First off there doesn’t seem to be “side missions” as earlier noted. Why? Well it seems ALL the missions given by game fans leads to a larger mission which, it seems to me, is probably the way to get to this game’s Eternal mode but… well… no more on that since you can find that out yourself. Anyway as for the sumo mission he’s a sumo wrestler who loses so he wants the King of All Cosmos to train him, which means you have to feed him until he gets nice and big. That would be a Larger mission, right? Wrong! Apparently just making him big in the time limit is NOT enough! Once you reach a set size you must roll him into the “ring” with an opponent and knock him out of the ring.
Of course if you mis-calculate and don’t roll him big enough it’ll be you who gets knocked out of the ring and, well, then you fail and it’s time to get a major scolding… and I do mean major scolding.

This is, of course, just ONE of several special missions you’ll uncover. Each challenging you to roll a different way which is, yeah, another of the many things that make this game great.

Now I haven’t seen the original game so I don’t know how many of the songs are from that, and how many are new, but they are all selectable before each mission. While the fan is talking to you (before you head up to see the King of All Cosmos to ask him about the request) you can select the song you want to roll by with your right analog stick. There are quite a few songs to choose, and they’re all good… though I wish there was more, but then again I’m kind of greedy so I would wish for that.

Next we have the cousins. As you know during this game you’ll be able to unlock the Prince’s many cousins… well, unlock isn’t as much the right term as roll-up. You’ll find them in many of the requests you are given, hanging about. Lord knows I’ve rolled up quite a few cousins by accident without even meaning to! I’m just rolling my Katamari next thing I know I’m being told I rolled up something strange! This is, of course, a cousin. Each cousin comes to inhabit the Select Meadow after you rolled them up, which means you can now select them and play as them. This, of course, means not much since they don’t have any special abilities that make them different from the Prince, but still it’s fun and it add a little bit of a customization feature to the game since you can pick your favorite cousin to play as during gameplay and 2-player mode.

Another thing you can roll up, besides cousins, is gifts. However for the most part these are just for decoration to change your look (three different types of wearing items exist) with the EXCEPTION of the camera! Once you get a camera you can snap photos ala Legend of Zelda : Windwaker, along with three available slots for picture storage ala Windwaker… I haven’t used this yet though, I’m too busy having fun rolling the Katamaris.

Are there any downers on this excellent game? Well… nothing worth speaking ill about the game but there are a few things I wish were a little better.
- I know I don’t play online but some of you do, and an online option for this game would have been excellent! Having the ability to go online and roll with or against friends (using either the 2-player co-op mode or the newly revamped challenge mode) would have been fun. It’s not going to lower expectations about the game since it’s still hot, but having it would have been just that much nicer.
- Having a little differences between each Cousin and how they roll their Katamaris would have been nice, but again I’m not suffering from that here since the game is still sweet.
- More music… but I’m greedy so I always want more.
- A sequel… which means Namco should “make” a bad sequel to lure the director out so he “saves the day” by making another masterpiece… who knows, maybe Namco… uh… no, I saw what happens when they’re allowed to run willy nilly without supervision (Pac Man World 2 & Arc the Lad : End of Darkness) so I guess they didn’t do that on purpose. A Christmas “rethread” edition? Sheesh.
Ok. Breakdown since you know it’ll only be good tidings to all!

We Love Breakdowns… I mean Katamari.
What’s Hot?
- Did I praise the game enough? I didn’t? Ok. Let me count the ways that this game rules.
It has original gameplay that hasn’t been seen since the original Katamari Damancy (duh).
- The music is a hopping j-pop tunes parade that’ll make you want to run out and buy the CD ASAP, and the music won’t even hurt you in a musical sense ala some of the bad songs in games that still sell like crack-cakes (yeah, Koei, I’m talking about Dynasty Warriors 5 and it’s (bleep)tascular rock music. Damn).
- The story is out there, the characters are great, and then there’s the rolling of the Katamari and the screaming people as they are rolled up along with pets, objects, food, buildings, fencing, neighborhoods, cars, trucks, trains, planes, helicopters, boats, oil tankers, towns, cities, major shrines and monuments, islands, continents, worlds… oh, heck, everything!
- And it’s all bundled together into an original puzzler with new ways to roll that Katamari, new 2-player options and the revelation of the origins of the King of All Cosmos (in flashback movies).
Need I say more… I mean past the rest of the breakdown that is.

What’s Not?
Yes. It needs an online feature… unless it sucks the life out of the game the same way the online feature sucks the life out of Arc the Lad : End of Darkness… then forget it, I’d rather the game be fun.
It needs more music (maybe the CD has more or I just need to hope I can get ahold of both Katamari Damancy CD), and the cousins could have had abit of difference in how they rolled their Katamaris but that’s not worth complaining about. Overall this is just too fine a game to have misgivings about, period.

Moments to Remember?
Yeah. One more time just for clarity. (holds up case) It’s all memorable. Just point at it and there you go, this should be your gateway to one of the most memorable gaming experiences you’ve ever had.

What to Ignore?
I’d like to say that you should ignore me if I held up Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD V. 1 by accident but…
Maybe you should ignore your own fanbase. If you do not live up to their expectations, even if you roll a darn good Katamari, they’ll let you know how displeased they were with your efforts… sheesh.
I know it’s supposed to compel you to roll larger, faster and… well…. Special but come on! It’s not like I didn’t bust a capsule headed blood vessel working my rear off to make this the best it could be!
Yeah. I know. Not a bad thing but… people! Come on! I’m working my best here!

Overall
Hmm… think I was positive enough about this game?
Get it. Get the original. Buy the CD. Get ready for a hopeful sequel.
There’s nothing wrong, and everything right about We Love Katamari.
A solid gaming experience that’ll make you glad such an original slice of wonderful exists.
The title is We Love Katamari, and we do, yes we do. We Love Katamari. Truth in advertising right here.

-- David Rasmussen 23rd Oct 05

Playstation 2 We Love Katamari Images