We Love Katamari
We do, we really do.
Published: September 27, 2005
What a perfectly fitting title. As a $20 game with enough personality and fun for five times the price, it was impossible not to like Katamari Damacy. Even if you tried, a rabid fanbase singularly committed to getting any and everyone around them to experience the game would have made you play it until you were converted to the Cult of Katamari. As a result, the game became a runaway (okay sleeper) success, and millions chewed through the game, happily asking for seconds.
It took a while, but we finally have that second helping, and it's even more tantalizing than the first. We Love Katamari is quite literally more of the same. Sure, there are tweaks to the formula, and we'll get to those, but the main bulk of the game; the personality and the rolling and the Prince, that's all brought over from the previous game, so if you haven't played that one yet, go read our review, then buy it, then come back.
The best thing about the sequel is that it's a complete fanservice tribute to the first game, at once paying homage to and incorporating into its very core the people that helped make the game such a phenomenon. The whole approach of the game is to simply fulfill the wishes of the people (or dogs or cats or whatever) that experienced the first game.
This does a couple of things; first off, it opens up the game to bit more than just the "roll stuff up" premise of the first game. Yes, you're still rolling stuff up, but the requirements for passing a level - as well as the levels themselves - are infinitely more varied than the first game. Now, you'll find yourself trying to gather as much as possible in the shortest amount of time, light a campfire, help a wanna-be sumo wrestler bulk up, reach a certain size with the fewest number of rolled up objects, simply roll up as many objects as possible, light a bookworm's studying, save the Earth from an approaching asteroid, and more.
It's the variety in place here that makes the game so damned fun to play through. Sure, it feels like an extension of Katamari Damacy, falling somewhere between an add-on pack and a full-fledged game, but the addition of stuff like an absolutely awesome storyline that explains the King of All Cosmos' origins and more variety in what you do (though, sadly, the game's about as long as the first one).
Visually, the sequel looks nearly identical at first glance, but there are some subtle changes. The sense of scale that the first game offered has been built upon a bit more here, so the levels feel bigger at first (and indeed the draw distance is improved), and there's a smoother climb as you grow your katamari. It's still an odd kind of thrill to go from about the size of a hubcap to so big you're rolling up small island in the span of about five minutes, and the transition is so smooth that you never do really "get" that you're growing steadily.
The actual complexity of the levels has been upped a bit, and the camera tweaked just a smidge to actually push through solid objects when it gets stuck behind a wall rather than just displaying a light outline like the first game used. In a fun little touch, the shape that the "hole" the camera makes in an object relates to the level or the goal for the level. It's yet another nice little touch.
The interface is now more interactive. As the Prince, you can run around the levels talking to people and starting a mission as you see fit. All the options for controls, sound, your collection, saving the game and so on are represented by objects on the map, which has a cute sort of kindergarten finger painting look to it. As you roll up and rescue cousins in the game, they'll start walking around the map too, and switching to them (though this doesn't seem to have any real benefit aside from aesthetics) is as easy as talking to them.
Much was made about the soundtrack for Katamari Damacy, and rightly so. Namco wisely left it all untouched in its quirky Japanese splendor, and it suited the game so well, some people (like me) actually got the soundtrack. The fusion of big, brassy, jazzy sounds worked so well, it's hard to think of anything else in its place.
We Love Katamari does slip something else in there, though, and the shift in the soundtrack to a more j-pop bent isn't quite as in sync with the game as the first one was. It's not a bad fit, and the remixes (particularly the a cappella rendition of the KD theme) are at once awesome and unfamiliar. Not every track is great, but these dips are offset by some genuinely great orchestral pieces that play during the cutscenes that chronicle the King's rise to power. They really do make the scenes better.
The effects feel more or less the same, and that's not a bad thing. There are some small additions, but the effect libraries are pretty much identical to what you heard in KD, though I was a little sorry to have missed the Playful Punk's "bibibimbimmmbibibiimmmm!"). The plunky beat that cycles as the Prince runs around the map is also pure awesome in aural form.
When it comes down to it, the only real question you need to ask yourself before buying the game is "would I like more of the same?" For most, the answer will be yes, and if you haven't played the first game, this is actually a more complete version of the ideas that it introduced, and thus a better game overall. It's still Katamari, though, so if you weren't hooked by the first one (is that even possible?), this probably won't convert you either.
For everyone else, though, it's an unequivocal must-buy, and absolutely can't be missed. Buy this game. Now. It's one of the best ways to spend your money this year, and should be the first thing you recommend to newcomers to the PS2. Hey, anything to add more people to the Cult, right?
It took a while, but we finally have that second helping, and it's even more tantalizing than the first. We Love Katamari is quite literally more of the same. Sure, there are tweaks to the formula, and we'll get to those, but the main bulk of the game; the personality and the rolling and the Prince, that's all brought over from the previous game, so if you haven't played that one yet, go read our review, then buy it, then come back.
The best thing about the sequel is that it's a complete fanservice tribute to the first game, at once paying homage to and incorporating into its very core the people that helped make the game such a phenomenon. The whole approach of the game is to simply fulfill the wishes of the people (or dogs or cats or whatever) that experienced the first game.
This does a couple of things; first off, it opens up the game to bit more than just the "roll stuff up" premise of the first game. Yes, you're still rolling stuff up, but the requirements for passing a level - as well as the levels themselves - are infinitely more varied than the first game. Now, you'll find yourself trying to gather as much as possible in the shortest amount of time, light a campfire, help a wanna-be sumo wrestler bulk up, reach a certain size with the fewest number of rolled up objects, simply roll up as many objects as possible, light a bookworm's studying, save the Earth from an approaching asteroid, and more.
It's the variety in place here that makes the game so damned fun to play through. Sure, it feels like an extension of Katamari Damacy, falling somewhere between an add-on pack and a full-fledged game, but the addition of stuff like an absolutely awesome storyline that explains the King of All Cosmos' origins and more variety in what you do (though, sadly, the game's about as long as the first one).
Visually, the sequel looks nearly identical at first glance, but there are some subtle changes. The sense of scale that the first game offered has been built upon a bit more here, so the levels feel bigger at first (and indeed the draw distance is improved), and there's a smoother climb as you grow your katamari. It's still an odd kind of thrill to go from about the size of a hubcap to so big you're rolling up small island in the span of about five minutes, and the transition is so smooth that you never do really "get" that you're growing steadily.
The actual complexity of the levels has been upped a bit, and the camera tweaked just a smidge to actually push through solid objects when it gets stuck behind a wall rather than just displaying a light outline like the first game used. In a fun little touch, the shape that the "hole" the camera makes in an object relates to the level or the goal for the level. It's yet another nice little touch.
The interface is now more interactive. As the Prince, you can run around the levels talking to people and starting a mission as you see fit. All the options for controls, sound, your collection, saving the game and so on are represented by objects on the map, which has a cute sort of kindergarten finger painting look to it. As you roll up and rescue cousins in the game, they'll start walking around the map too, and switching to them (though this doesn't seem to have any real benefit aside from aesthetics) is as easy as talking to them.
Much was made about the soundtrack for Katamari Damacy, and rightly so. Namco wisely left it all untouched in its quirky Japanese splendor, and it suited the game so well, some people (like me) actually got the soundtrack. The fusion of big, brassy, jazzy sounds worked so well, it's hard to think of anything else in its place.
We Love Katamari does slip something else in there, though, and the shift in the soundtrack to a more j-pop bent isn't quite as in sync with the game as the first one was. It's not a bad fit, and the remixes (particularly the a cappella rendition of the KD theme) are at once awesome and unfamiliar. Not every track is great, but these dips are offset by some genuinely great orchestral pieces that play during the cutscenes that chronicle the King's rise to power. They really do make the scenes better.
The effects feel more or less the same, and that's not a bad thing. There are some small additions, but the effect libraries are pretty much identical to what you heard in KD, though I was a little sorry to have missed the Playful Punk's "bibibimbimmmbibibiimmmm!"). The plunky beat that cycles as the Prince runs around the map is also pure awesome in aural form.
When it comes down to it, the only real question you need to ask yourself before buying the game is "would I like more of the same?" For most, the answer will be yes, and if you haven't played the first game, this is actually a more complete version of the ideas that it introduced, and thus a better game overall. It's still Katamari, though, so if you weren't hooked by the first one (is that even possible?), this probably won't convert you either.
For everyone else, though, it's an unequivocal must-buy, and absolutely can't be missed. Buy this game. Now. It's one of the best ways to spend your money this year, and should be the first thing you recommend to newcomers to the PS2. Hey, anything to add more people to the Cult, right?
