We Love Katamari is my favorite game of all time (and one I've been meaning to write about), so the prospect of a new game after all these years was enticing. I was halfway expecting Bamco to drop the ball (no pun intended) on Once Upon a Katamari, so I curbed my enthusiasm to shield myself from any permanent psychological damage. Fortunately the developers at Rengame, while not matching the same high as the older entries, deliver an incredibly solid revival of the series I can recommend to fans and newcomers alike.
The simple gameplay of Katamari returns with a few tweaks; if you’re unfamiliar with Katamari, you roll things up and... well, that’s kind of it. But there are more goals than just making your katamari as big as possible, such as picking up specific items or rolling up every item within a time limit, and there’s just enough variety to stave off what is, at its core, admittedly repetitive gameplay. The repetition is part of the appeal though, and few games send me into a blissful trance the same way Katamari can. Once Upon a Katamari’s main gimmick lies in its time travel setting where you jump through eras ranging from the Mesozoic period to the American frontier (my personal favorite) to modern times. The map variety is quite nice, and other than a few duds (the level where you roll up dinosaurs really, really sucks) I found myself thoroughly entertained. Though I would have liked a futuristic era – the potential there is endless – I can’t fault the game too much when we already have so many time periods to choose form.
Power-ups also make their debut, and in retrospect it’s surprising it took this long for their inclusion – they feel like a natural extension of katamari’s gameplay. There are four power-ups in total: a magnet that picks up all nearby items, a stopwatch that freezes the environment (and timer) in place, a self-explanatory rocket boost, and a radar that points you toward the game’s various collectibles. The magnet in particular is ingenious, as it adds a layer of strategy (e.g. do I get a head start or save it for later when I can pick up more stuff?) that the gameplay benefits from. Freezing time isn’t as exciting, but for the game’s part they do include a few obstacles to traverse and items to roll up that are easier when time is frozen, and there were a few clutch instances I managed to eke out an S-rank (the new ranking system is vastly appreciated) or achieve a goal in time thanks to the few seconds I saved. Overall, a nice inclusion.
The rocket boost is the lamest power-up of the bunch. While you gain a prolonged speed boost, most levels don’t particularly benefit from it and the speed can be more cumbersome than helpful. You can’t switch powerups when you roll over a new one so I found myself avoiding the rockets unless the map layout was linear enough for me to dash in a straight line. Considering you already have a dash button (just not as fast or prolonged), the rocket just doesn’t feel exciting. Similarly dull, though much more useful, is the radar pick-up: it only shows up once you beat a level and it makes collectible hunting much smoother so I can’t really complain, though it’s still not terribly interesting.
My biggest point of contention with Once Upon a Katamari is how 'off' the collision detection feels (and I'm pretty sure it's not just me), leading your katamari to get stuck on obstacles or tight areas much more than necessary – certainly much more than the original games. I don't really mind if the game doesn't copy the old physics engine 1:1, but what we have here just doesn't feel quite as fluid and natural. I’d imagine Once Upon uses an entirely new engine, so perhaps chalk it up to growing pains. The gameplay isn’t hindered to a significant degree but it’s something that really needs to be addressed in a potential sequel (I wouldn’t mind seeing one either). To the game’s credit, however, your dash roll is now mapped to a single button as opposed to making you go ham on the two analog sticks, and it’s one of the most welcome addition Once Upon makes.
This is more of a personal nitpick, but in its wider scope Once Upon does sacrifice some of the beauty in Katamari's simplicity. The time travel aspect is indeed clever but the multiple hubs and occasional progression gated behind the number of collectibles you’ve picked up (though never particularly egregious) give Once Upon a slight degree of bloat the original games were largely free of. The power-ups also hurt the game's visual design: they appear as large garish pickups and have a timer near the middle of the screen while used. Also worth noting is that sometimes the King won't SHUT THE HELL UP and his text box is displayed RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMN SCREEN, which to be fair is also a problem in the older games, but it's very frustrating nobody had the sense to think "hey, this sucks, actually" when its one of the very few issues the old games had.
The soundtrack isn't good as We Love but it's perfectly fine, with a few bangers of its own. To be fair I have an inseparable nostalgic attachment to We Love Katamari so the soundtrack could be soothing affirmations from the voice of god and I would still go "yeah... but where's Everlasting Love?" Which, by the way, the soundtrack doesn't have. So 3/10 blunder of the century.
Pros
- + Addictive gameplay that's hard to replicate
- + Unabashedly cheerful atmosphere
- + Incredible soundtrack
- + Collectibles and ranking add to replay value
Cons
- - Some issues with collision detection
- - We've mostly seen this done before
- - Occasional camera hiccups
8.2
out of 10
Overall
Even though Once Upon a Katamari lacks the genius and inventiveness of the first two games, it's still an absolute blast. As a Katamari veteran of 20 years (I have the scars to show for it) I left thoroughly satisfied, even with the handful of flaws. Maybe not a contender for my game of the year, but it's certainly up there.
