We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie Review
Summary: We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie is challenging and crazy in the best possible way.
4.1
For the Fans
We Love Katamari and it’s easy to see why; the simple act of rolling up everything you find into a ball that starts as a tiny spec on the living room rug is now the size of a bungalow is immeasurably satisfying and the kind of crazy I am always going to be there for.
If you haven’t come across Namco Bandai’s cult action puzzler before the premise is a simple, and slightly strange one; you play as the Prince of Space, a tiny green guy pushing a Katamari (a big spiky ball) with the aim of rolling up everything he can find. As the Katamari gets bigger so too do the items it can assimilate. Starting from small items like bottle caps and pennies all the way up to small children, then people’s homes and national monuments. It’s whacky, satisfying, and the kind of silly fun that seems to often be lacking in most modern games.
The controls are rather unique too and feel a little like driving a digger. To move the Prince and his big ball of stuff forward you hold both sticks forward you turn by releasing a stick or making really sharp turns by pushing them in opposite directions, you can also pull a quick 180 by clicking the sticks or dash by rapidly pushing the sticks in opposite directions, like he’s running, see. Though the controls do take a little getting used to, once you get into the swing of things they start to feel fairly natural and offer a surprising amount of control over your Katamari.
The sequel to Katamari Damacey, one of the most bonkers game’s I’ve ever had to pleasure to play. The narrative and general tone of We Love Katamari is just as mad, and very meta.
Rather than rebuilding the Galaxy with creations made by Katamari, in We Love Katamari, the King of All Cosmos instead, has you helping fans of the previous game solve their problems. Turns out the answer to everyone’s problems as far as the King is concerned is rolling everything up in a Katamari.
Once you’ve found a fan to help you’ll be sent to an area to roll up everything you can find. These start as fairly suburban settings like a bedroom, small town, or campsite. At its most basic all you need to do is make a Katamari of a certain size before the time runs out. However, some levels have specific goals like trying to keep your Katamari alight while you make it big enough to light a bonfire, and in another stage, the Katamari was replaced with a slender sumo wrestler and it was your goal to fatten him up to the size of a Yokozuma before bashing his opponent out of the ring at the big sumo meet.
Throughout the levels, you can also find presents for the king that unlock new accessories for the Prince to wear, since the King has no interest in them or they simply don’t fit.
Complete your task and the fans and most importantly, the King of All Cosmos, is pleased, and shall tell you how big your Katamari is… by comparing it to random household objects. Fail and the King chides you harshly for your shoddy performance, with eye lasers.
Succeed though and you’ll be treated to some hilarious cut scenes showing the King of All Cosmos melodramatic rise to power. It’s absurdist comedy at its finest and each new chapter is worth the effort.
For returning fans there’s also a whole new set of stages available in Royal Reverie. This new expansion has you play as the King of All Cosmos when he was still a Katamari-pushing prince. These five extra stages are no pushover and demand some serious Katamari skills to beat. For old hands at the series they may well be a lot of fun, but I found them a little frustrating. But still, more Katamari is not something to be sniffed at.
For the best part, We Love Katamari Reroll is an absolute blast. Though there were a few things I found mildly irritating at times, some levels feel like your success or failure is just as much down to luck as good rolling. Also occasionally your Katamari will get stuck on a part of the scenery or lose momentum which wastes just enough time to make winning impossible, and there are no checkpoints.
Final Thoughts
We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie is a lovingly created remaster of an often overlooked sequel that is a stone-cold classic in its own right. By dialling the melodrama and outlandishness the series is known for up to 11, adding more variety to the gameplay, and with it looking and sounding better than ever. it’s easy to say We Love Katamari. Because we do. A lot.
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