These extra wacky missions are much more imaginative and focused than the first game and help to make the experience even more unpredictable. All these more peculiar objectives are presented as requests from fans of the first game, with the egotistical King insisting that you help everyone out. Others vary considerably, from pushing a flaming katamari around to light a campfire, to rolling a sumo wrestler over as much food as possible, so he can grow to win his fight.Ĭhildren have to be rolled up to get them to school on time or you have to roll fireflies to help a guy study in the dark. Approximately half of the missions give you a time limit and a fixed height to make your katamari before the timer runs out, just like the original. There never was any major evolution in terms of gameplay, between the first two titles, but We Love Katamari tries to offer more longevity and variety. That means moving can feel a bit awkward at first, but you quickly get used to it and while levels do often have time limits it’s rare that it ever comes down to the wire. Your only input in the game is via the two analogue sticks, which use a tank style control system. Some of the larger levels see you working your way from one end of the scale to the other, as your katamari gets bigger and bigger, and while the graphics are simple the scale, and sheer oddity of the concept, is strangely awe-inspiring. At the beginning of the game you’re stuck rolling your katamari over paper clips and dominoes, by the end of the game it’s skyscrapers and continents. You do this by pushing a big ball called a katamari (Katamari Damacy means bundle of souls) to which objects stick as they are run over. In terms of the gameplay, everything works largely as before, as the Prince is sent to Earth to roll up objects to make new planets and stars. The script often seems like surrealist nonsense, and on one level it is, but it’s also surprisingly heartfelt and you get the feeling that the game’s storytelling is coming from personal experience. Naturally, it’s all gone to the King’s head, as he reminiscences about his childhood and his domineering father. That’s the plot set-up, such as it is, but really the game’s story, and the ramblings of the King, are all a thinly veiled reference to how surprised he, and by extension Takahasi and Namco, were that the first game was a hit. By the end of the game it seemed like the damage had been repaired (by you, the Prince) but apparently some were missed. In the first game, The King Of All Cosmos got drunk and destroyed all the stars in the universe. Takahashi left the company shortly after and while Namco continued to make more games the only ones worthy of consideration are this and the original. And while it could never hope to have the same impact, it is still just as joyously entertaining as before, while also being a more refined version of the original idea.
Namco was crazy to try and turn it into a franchise, but Takahashi did stay on board to oversee this first sequel. Its gameplay mechanics are unique but extremely simplistic, kept interesting by the game’s relentlessly bizarre imagination. The first game, by the marvellously loopy Keita Takahashi, is a wonderful mix of absurdity, profundity, and camp charm.
The second Katamari Damacy game gets a remaster and new content, in what is one of the weirdest video games of all time.Īlthough we haven’t thought about it in a while, or at least not since the remaster of the original Katamari Damacy, we definitely do love Katamari. We Love Katamari REROLL – things start off small (Picture: Bandai Namco)
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