Me and My Katamari
Me and my conflicted emotions.
Published: April 15, 2006
There are few people in the games industry that I admire as much as Keita Takahashi. To create a game as simple and purely adorable as Katamari Damacy and then tell his employers that he was done making those games because he didn't want to let the franchise peter out into a chain of mass-produced sequels that would dilute the fun of the original. But Namco is a business, and when they saw how much instant appeal the games had, they persuaded him to make another Katamari adventure.
By most accounts We Love Katamari was a worth successor, expanding on the storyline of the impossibly pompous King of all Cosmos and giving gamers a chance to guide his son the Prince around, rolling stuff up. Now, the series had made the leap to the PSP, and though in many ways it takes advantage of the hardware and overcomes the deficiencies of it's control setup, there's a very tangible sense that the series may be running out of steam.
Don't get me wrong, rolling stuff up is still a blast, but the King isn't quite as amusing, and the Prince's world not quite so impressive in scale, and because the game doesn't quite ooze the same sense of charm and personality that it did in the big brother console versions, some of the things about the game that were annoying, like the camera and getting trapped or hung up on stuff starts to grate a little more. Once you've played through the game for a few hours, you'll find that visually and concept-wise, this is a full Katamari game, but the experience is left feeling a little lacking.
Let's just dispel the biggest misconception about the game: that the PSP's single analog nub can't do the job of two proper analog sticks. As a matter of fact, the analog nub isn't really used at all (except to scoot the Prince around in the overworld menu). Instead the d-pad and face buttons work as a digital version of the sticks, and they actually work well -- after you get used to them. More complex things like a quick flip in the other direction or changing views requires a bit more creativity, but it's just a shoulder button here or there, and the intro tutorial level gets you up to speed quickly.
No, Me and My Katamari's biggest issue is just that it's not terribly compelling. Yes, rolling stuff up is very, very fun, and the game makes a much stronger transition to the PSP than you'd think. Graphically, the game may actually look better than the PSP version (but we'll get to that in a bit), but it isn't a true exploration of the same kind of scale and seamless increase in size that the console versions do so well.
In fact, there are only a half dozen levels to play through, mixed and matched up with minor variations. It's enough to keep the spirit of things alive for a while, and you'll get plenty of opportunity to experience various sizes, but the true fun of the game -- that is, going from smaller than a little dog to so big you're rolling up entire island, tropical storms and clouds, is completely lost here. In a slap in the face of those that loved the final few levels of the first two games, you're stuck just going from one area to the next in a daisychained sequence of levels rather than growing exponentially.
I'm trying not to sugar coat my disappointment with the overall scope of the game, but I will happily admit that it is still fun in small batches -- and even a little harder than most will remember. The return of Eternal Mode, which lets you roll up stuff with no time limit is great, but then you really notice the lack of grand scale in some of the levels. Even more demanding are the animals that require specific kinds of materials for the islands you're creating from rolled up stuff. These requests are mainly for replay value, since some will obsessively play through every level until they've gained enough favor from both the King and local fauna, but the overall difficulty is ramped up a bit.
I said it before, but it really is true, Me and My Katamari is at least on par with the console versions in terms of overall graphical presentation. You'll sometimes run into some hiccups and the framerate will take a dip for a few seconds, but thanks to a game that already lacked any kind of texture filtering and an intentionally basic art style, shrinking it all down to the PSP's gorgeous little screen means you just concentrate the design, and that's a good thing indeed.
Another thing I want to give Namco props for is their use of beautiful, crisp text. It seems like such a minor thing, I know, but the PSP is hampered by a lot of games that don't take into account the size -- much less the font -- of their text, and this game is an amazing example of both. It's unbelievably clear and hi-res, and I just couldn't get over it.
One thing I got over rather quickly, though, was the music selection. Because of the increased difficulty, you'll often have to retry levels a couple times before you finally nail them, and this means you're stuck with the song you originally picked. You can fail, back out and then retry the level, picking a new song, but it tends to make the original soundtrack-heavy selection wear a little thin. I'll probably never really tire of the game (my incessant listening to the soundtrack a work would have taken care of that a long time ago), but it just doesn't add to the kitsch value of the game when it's recycled so liberally.
The rest of the effects have been carried over from the console versions perfectly intact. The little plop sound as you roll up objects, the screams from people (or "bibibibimmm bibibimmmmm" from punks), the bouncy whirl as you stun objects,all of this survives and makes its way over. About the only thing that has changed is the King's turntable scribbles and the Prince's loop as he walks around, which work. I do find myself wishing I could hear someone yell out "OWIGAAMIII" again, just so our kitty (who we've named thusly) could hear her name coming from the TV.
If it were any other game, this would likely be celebrated as a massive accomplishment. This is portable Katamari, and it's fun in small spurts. Under the surface, though, there's an inescapable feeling that the series is losing some of its magic. Part of that might be that this, the third game, is now twice as expensive as the original and yet is a portable game, but it's more likely that the formula just had enough steam for a single game, something that Keita Takahashi understood from the start. Without another injection of that soul, let's just hope the series ends here, on a modestly high note, and a worthwhile, if slightly lacking portable translation.
By most accounts We Love Katamari was a worth successor, expanding on the storyline of the impossibly pompous King of all Cosmos and giving gamers a chance to guide his son the Prince around, rolling stuff up. Now, the series had made the leap to the PSP, and though in many ways it takes advantage of the hardware and overcomes the deficiencies of it's control setup, there's a very tangible sense that the series may be running out of steam.
Don't get me wrong, rolling stuff up is still a blast, but the King isn't quite as amusing, and the Prince's world not quite so impressive in scale, and because the game doesn't quite ooze the same sense of charm and personality that it did in the big brother console versions, some of the things about the game that were annoying, like the camera and getting trapped or hung up on stuff starts to grate a little more. Once you've played through the game for a few hours, you'll find that visually and concept-wise, this is a full Katamari game, but the experience is left feeling a little lacking.
Let's just dispel the biggest misconception about the game: that the PSP's single analog nub can't do the job of two proper analog sticks. As a matter of fact, the analog nub isn't really used at all (except to scoot the Prince around in the overworld menu). Instead the d-pad and face buttons work as a digital version of the sticks, and they actually work well -- after you get used to them. More complex things like a quick flip in the other direction or changing views requires a bit more creativity, but it's just a shoulder button here or there, and the intro tutorial level gets you up to speed quickly.
No, Me and My Katamari's biggest issue is just that it's not terribly compelling. Yes, rolling stuff up is very, very fun, and the game makes a much stronger transition to the PSP than you'd think. Graphically, the game may actually look better than the PSP version (but we'll get to that in a bit), but it isn't a true exploration of the same kind of scale and seamless increase in size that the console versions do so well.
In fact, there are only a half dozen levels to play through, mixed and matched up with minor variations. It's enough to keep the spirit of things alive for a while, and you'll get plenty of opportunity to experience various sizes, but the true fun of the game -- that is, going from smaller than a little dog to so big you're rolling up entire island, tropical storms and clouds, is completely lost here. In a slap in the face of those that loved the final few levels of the first two games, you're stuck just going from one area to the next in a daisychained sequence of levels rather than growing exponentially.
I'm trying not to sugar coat my disappointment with the overall scope of the game, but I will happily admit that it is still fun in small batches -- and even a little harder than most will remember. The return of Eternal Mode, which lets you roll up stuff with no time limit is great, but then you really notice the lack of grand scale in some of the levels. Even more demanding are the animals that require specific kinds of materials for the islands you're creating from rolled up stuff. These requests are mainly for replay value, since some will obsessively play through every level until they've gained enough favor from both the King and local fauna, but the overall difficulty is ramped up a bit.
I said it before, but it really is true, Me and My Katamari is at least on par with the console versions in terms of overall graphical presentation. You'll sometimes run into some hiccups and the framerate will take a dip for a few seconds, but thanks to a game that already lacked any kind of texture filtering and an intentionally basic art style, shrinking it all down to the PSP's gorgeous little screen means you just concentrate the design, and that's a good thing indeed.
Another thing I want to give Namco props for is their use of beautiful, crisp text. It seems like such a minor thing, I know, but the PSP is hampered by a lot of games that don't take into account the size -- much less the font -- of their text, and this game is an amazing example of both. It's unbelievably clear and hi-res, and I just couldn't get over it.
One thing I got over rather quickly, though, was the music selection. Because of the increased difficulty, you'll often have to retry levels a couple times before you finally nail them, and this means you're stuck with the song you originally picked. You can fail, back out and then retry the level, picking a new song, but it tends to make the original soundtrack-heavy selection wear a little thin. I'll probably never really tire of the game (my incessant listening to the soundtrack a work would have taken care of that a long time ago), but it just doesn't add to the kitsch value of the game when it's recycled so liberally.
The rest of the effects have been carried over from the console versions perfectly intact. The little plop sound as you roll up objects, the screams from people (or "bibibibimmm bibibimmmmm" from punks), the bouncy whirl as you stun objects,all of this survives and makes its way over. About the only thing that has changed is the King's turntable scribbles and the Prince's loop as he walks around, which work. I do find myself wishing I could hear someone yell out "OWIGAAMIII" again, just so our kitty (who we've named thusly) could hear her name coming from the TV.
If it were any other game, this would likely be celebrated as a massive accomplishment. This is portable Katamari, and it's fun in small spurts. Under the surface, though, there's an inescapable feeling that the series is losing some of its magic. Part of that might be that this, the third game, is now twice as expensive as the original and yet is a portable game, but it's more likely that the formula just had enough steam for a single game, something that Keita Takahashi understood from the start. Without another injection of that soul, let's just hope the series ends here, on a modestly high note, and a worthwhile, if slightly lacking portable translation.