To settle any questions long-time readers may have had, I was not under any contract, either from Namco or Netjak, to mention my love of Katamari Damacy every third article. I just did that on my own will; I loved the game that much. So did many people; Katamari Damacy was one of the most well-received games I've ever seen (I saw a grand total of one negative review ever on the game). Of course, a successful game demands a sequel, but the announcement of another Katamari game was met with mixed signals. Some people took to the game because of its unique gameplay, and it wouldn't be unique if it was just a sequel. However, the only fair way to judge is to play, and I've got the combination of gross impatience along with a Japanese Playstation 2. It's time to look at Minna Daisuke Katamari Damashii, soon to be released here as "We Love Katamari".
But before I begin, let me address all those people who are dreading the sequel, because it will make the first game less unique: get over it. We aren't talking about some dramatic work of art that echoes through the ages and speaks to our core humanity. We're talking about an endearingly silly video game. If a sequel to Katamari Damacy ruins what you loved about the original, then you didn't really love the original. You just loved that it was unique, just like you and everyone else who liked it. I can rightfully say that Katamari Damacy remains just as much fun as it did before Namco released Minna Daisuki Katamari Damashii in Japan. If you only loved the original because it was different, then you didn't really enjoy the game.
Okay, with that bit of invective settled, it's time to get to the story of the game, helpfully told in recap right off the bat. The game recaps the entirety of the original, from the King of All Cosmos' stellar-destroying bender to the efforts of his tiny son, the Prince, to roll a sticky ball called a katamari to collect stuff from Earth to remake the sky. After this was all done, it was time for the universe's royal family to take a break, right? Well, they were about to, but then one fellow from Earth called out to the King. It seems that the doings of the Prince were incredibly popular on Earth, and they want to see even more katamaris rolled up. The King thinks this is a delightful idea, and thus dispatches the Prince to go down to Earth with his even odder cousins to please the fans of the original game.
You know, I really don't think we've ever seen an entire game's plot based on metahumor before. Namco is going right out and saying it - they're making this game because the fans of the original want to see more katamaris. It's a bit trite to say, but this game is like Namco's thank you to the fans that made the first one a runaway hit. The King is arguably breaking the fourth wall every single time he orders the Prince and family to roll around another level, to make everyone happy. Not only that, but there's the delicious irony of the King ordering the player around to make the fans of Katamari Damacy happy. He's basically saying that it's up to each of us to yank the enjoyment out of this game. The game is one long, subtle joke on everything about video games, in its own way.
However, this isn't to say that the game doesn't try continuing the story of its predecessor. While the Hoshino family (whose odd travails appeared between the major levels of the first game) makes cameos in this game, the actual in-game story focuses on the King of All Cosmos. Yes, at one point, he was merely Prince, and in fact the same size as the current Prince. I don't know about anyone else, but I did always wonder about how such a gargantuan man had such a tiny son - well, it turns out he was tiny once too, and the game shows in flashback form his time as a young child trying to please his father to the day when he finally became a father himself. It's not particularly deep, but it's highly entertaining and silly to watch the eccentric oddball with the elongated head when he wasn't in charge. Given how serious he was brought up, it's no wonder he let loose one day and destroyed all the stars in the sky.
Of course, you're not here to listen to me expound upon a storyline even more based in absurdity than the original; you want to know about the game play. Well, let me assure you that the basic controls have not changed at all. The actual rolling of the katamari is handled similar to tank controls - you push the two analog sticks in the same direction to move in that direction, or you press them in opposite vertical directions to turn quickly. Just like before, there are the same tricks to help you get around easier, including the katamari flip and the katamari charge, but you can go out and beat the game using just the basics. They handle just as responsively as they did in the first game, so veterans can jump right in and get started. However, don't feel that you need to have played before to get the concept - you start in a tutorial level (on top of the King's head, no less), which will show you the ropes.
The controls might feel a bit different at times, though, because the game's physics are vastly improved. The game recognizes different environments cause different effects on drag and resistance, and the game takes this into account to a much greater degree than before. Different slope grades will cause different amounts of slowdown. There's increased drag underwater but also increased buoyancy, which results in huge bounds when the katamari bounces around. Large objects that push at different speeds impart different amounts of momentum onto the katamari, which will in turn impart different momentum when it knocks down moving objects. It takes readjustment if you're used to the physics of the first game, but they make sense in this game and it actually becomes easier to compensate for once you get the hang of it.
There is one new wrinkle to the controls for two-player mode, though. One of the two-player modes is a cooperative mode, in which each player takes a cousin or the Prince and uses them to control one side of the katamari in a stage. So long as each player coordinates, you can move around with ease and roll up a huge katamari. However, this takes regular discussion and teamwork, along with both players being able to quickly agree on what to do next. It's tricky, but I don't think there's ever been a cooperative mode in a game to compare to it. Each player effectively becomes one hand, and they need to learn how to work in sync with the other hand. Not often enough do people learn unison like that.
Don't take this to mean that two-player play is all about being as one, though. You still have the opportunity to roll different katamaris and compete to see who can produce the largest. However, instead of confining you to a bowl with random objects strewn about, We Love Katamari places the players in a stage, and they have to roll about in a normal environment. Honestly, that's exactly what multiplayer for this game needed. One of the largest frustrations of multiplayer previously was that you were stuck in a nondescript, if colorful, bowl and just let loose. The levels were where the fun was, and you wanted to have at it in the levels. This time around you can, which greatly expands how much you can mess around with multiplayer. Instead of one map with four different layouts of objects, you have the entire rest of the game to compete in. Multiple players will get vastly much more out of this one compared to the original.
Actually, to be fair, even the solo player will get much more out of We Love Katamari than the original. The first had two major flaws. Despite all the fun I had with the original, it only had four different level concepts: make as big of a katamari in a limited time, collect as many of a type of object in a limited time, collect the largest example of an object in a limited time, and one level where you tried your best to hit a target size with no time limit. Naturally, all of these make a comeback in this game. However, Katamari Damacy 2 also peppers you with additional new modes for different things to do with the katamari. There's one level where you have to collect fireflies, making a bright nimbus around the katamari so someone can read. There's a level where the katamari is on fire, and you have to collect fuel and avoid water so that it's large and hot enough to light a bonfire. There are levels where you have as much time as you'd like to hit a target size, or to collect a target number of specified objects. There are levels where you have to try to collect a number of objects as quickly as possible, and other levels where you try to build as large of a katamari as possible while collecting only a limited number of objects. You roll a sumo wrestler, letting him absorb food so that he can defeat an opponent. You even unlock a version of the first game's credit sequence, with a twist - you still roll up the countries in the world, but you do it so that the katamari is big enough to catch a meteor before it hits Earth. If you thought you had one more thing to do in Katamari Damacy constantly, you'll never feel at a loss for something to do in We Love Katamari.
The most famous flaw, though, was that it really only had three levels - the household, the city, and the world. This game adds several new environments, including a campsite, an island race track, a school, and an underwater grotto. Moreover, these environments are much larger than ones available in the previous game. You only had a given number of resizes per level, when the game would zoom out and show the katamari was ready for larger objects, in the original. While still true, the game resizes much more, and more often, in this game. You get to see a much larger world with many more items strewn about, resulting in bigger katamari in less time. Even as you roll up to sizes that you only dreamed of in the first game's final level, you're left noting how much more there is that you still can't get.
Of course, part of the fun is that the game throws in so many more objects this time. It's not just different varieties of people (though the students doing sit-ups, who try to sit-up away from you as you approach, are classic). It's not just extra school supplies and the like. You see more cousins (around 40 now, including all of the ones from the first game) - many levels have several cousins waiting for you to roll them up. You see famous landmarks - I've picked up the Taj Mahal, the Statue of Liberty, the Arc de Triomphe, the Parthenon, and even Stonehenge. You'll see all sorts of natural formations, from volcanoes to floating islands. You'll pick up cloud formations that look just like different objects and not just random fluffy bits. And these items can be immense. I managed to get a katamari over 2000 meters, and I still couldn't pick up the King of All Cosmos. Yes, even the King (and the Queen, to be fair) are fair game for picking up. The game just keeps offering more.
This is fairly evident from the graphics as well. On one hand, anyone hoping to see a more defined Katamari game is going to be disappointed - the blocky and angular look that was a trademark of the first game is still in use. The game does use curves a bit more, but mostly to help differentiate different objects. The main difference in the graphics is that for many objects, the game uses smaller polygons for a more textured look. The cats in this game are a good example - their tails move about fluidly, and they walk around more naturally. The elephants are similarly more flexible, albeit with their trunks. Alligators in this game look more like creatures and less like long boxes with mouths. You even notice it in food items, which often have more realistic shapes and containers. The style of the original hasn't been abandoned at all; it's just been rendered more sharply.
Actually, in terms of graphics, the most notable change has to do with how the game handles smaller objects. During resizes, the game is famous for "clearing out" the smallest classes of objects as the katamari grows bigger - this was to reduce screen clutter and preserve processing power for the original game. The logic was, of course, that nobody would want to see the small stuff, nickel and dime really, when they want to focus on getting their katamari huge as soon as possible. However, because it's fun just picking up anything, many like myself wished that they could roll up smaller objects for longer. Namco worked on this, and allows you to roll up objects well beyond the size limitation you could before. Sometimes, you don't even have to be able to see it - more than once, I didn't see any object in front of my katamari, but I saw the tell-tale red bubble with a white exclamation mark to signify something was running from their impending collection. Moreover, some classes of objects are amalgamated when the katamari becomes too large - picking up a crowd of people or an entire lot of cars is about par for the course in this game. It works because many of your favorite objects, from ninjas to pirate ships, are waiting for you longer than before.
Finally, one neat touch involves the Prince's various cousins. For the most part, they were using the exact same character model, sometimes with only a minor alteration to the head shape and the color palette. This time, the cousins are noticeably different. In some cases, it's subtle, like Fujio's new moustache. Other times, it's as blatant as the extra pounds Ichigo has around her waist. But this time, at least, it's more than the head shape and color differentiating all of the cousins. They even get slightly different versions of the presents in each level - different color scarves, different types of satchel (my favorite is Opeo, the hypochondriac cousin whose satchel is a first aid kit), and different flowers for each one. And that's not getting into the bizarre shapes of the new cousins. There's Beyond, seeming like nothing other than a lavender banana. There's Kinoko, a yellow ambulatory mushroom. And then there's Cancan, who resembles a purple cube with limbs with a green spindle for a head. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that cousin, to be honest.
If there's any letdown at all to this game compared to Katamari Damacy, it's sadly the music. While there were one or two missteps amidst the music of the first game (notably, You Are Smart), the soundtrack as a whole was an incredible compliment that just pulled people more into the gameplay. I'm not saying that this game is totally devoid of good music. The main theme, Katamari On A Swing, is a delightful big band rendering of the classic Katamari On The Rocks. Everlasting Love is a surprisingly fast and rocking song, and there's a peaceful majesty to The Royal Academy Of Katamari. However, there are some notable weak points in the music as well. Sizzling Savanna (possibly to be renamed) is a fairly weak track along the lines of You Are Smart, and Kuro Kuro Rock is easily some of Namco's worst work. While the music is still fairly strong compared to other video game, it's not quite on the level of the first Katamari's tunes.
To be fair, though, you never have to suffer through the worst tracks. In one of the nicest bonuses to be thrown into the game, you can select which song you want to play in any level you attempt. Sure, maybe I don't like Kuro Kuro Rock. But I'll never have to sit through it, because I could listen to the same song the entire way through the game, if I desired. You do have to unlock some of the songs by clearing through the levels, but you start out with enough decent tunes that you'll never be caught without something decent to listen to.
Of course, you could always get a kick out of listening to the sounds. Namco expanded the available sounds in this game, so that even more different noises will be made whenever the katamari picks up a new object. From different car horns to different screams from each cousin, the game's sound effects are top notch. Picking up an object isn't just for adding to your collection - it's also for hearing what new cry you'll get for capturing something. Sure, simpler objects like fruit use the basic pickup sounds from the original. But overall, you'll hear a wider array of sounds as your "Clump of souls" grows.
Really, the capper to all this is the little touches that you may not think about but can appreciate. It's stuff like how icons on screen tell you how many cousins and presents you've yet to find in a level. It's in seeing the Hoshino family in various levels, ready to be rolled into the katamari once again. It's in being able to use whichever cousin you wish should you tire of seeing the Prince do all the work. It's in seeing the King of All Cosmos spout off randomly during load sequences, singing Katamari On The Rocks, repeating the website for the game, and spouting off the digits in pi. Every time you look, there's another little helpful thing on screen you didn't realize you wanted, or some other nod to the fans and how they've responded to the oddity that was the original. I'm probably missing stuff still that adds to this game.
Katamari Damacy is still on my short list of favorite games of all time. It's an incredible game, and I'm not giving up my copy for anyone. But We Love Katamari has managed to beat it, hands down, in almost every single way. It's very seldom that you can play a game and see just how much the designers appreciate the gamers. But it shows here, right down to the fact that the box art for the Japanese version is Namco's employees in front of their offices, waving to the camera. If anything, We Love Katamari is the real work of art - incredibly fun, incredibly varied, and made to make people happy. Now you'll have to pardon me - ever since he destroyed all the stars and made me repair the sky, the King has been asking for it. And I intend to call him out.
