Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

Coming to a new wave of systems, the Katamari franchise rolls out the same old gameplay with very little twists. While that may seem terribly disappointing, the game is still so fun and the King so funny that you're just happy to have some new levels to roll around in.

As always, the story of the game starts with the King of All Cosmos having a mishap that imperils the universe. He then calls on you, the Prince, to fix his mistake for him. This time he's inadvertantly created a black hole, necessitating both replacing what's been swallowed up, and eventually making a katamari big enough to put a cork in it. So it's up to you to re-create the solar system by rolling around and picking up objects, each one adding to your size like a snowball, therefore allowing you to pick up yet bigger things. Smaller planets (which the game still insists on calling "stars") see you only go from 5cm to 20cm, larger ones may see you start at a meter and have to get to 25 meters, and others eventually send you rolling on a planet-wide basis. The fun of taking a katamari barely big enough to grab a slice of cheese and eventually snagging cars, boats, and small buildings always pleases. As you slowly churn through the levels, you'll be treated to some of the King's trademark wit and one-liners. Your grade for a planet is also now tied to grabbing certain types of items, with Neptune placing a premium on ocean-related items, the Sun on energy-producing items, and so forth. After you've replaced all that's been lost, you're finally tasked with stopping up the black hole once and for all in a massive, lengthy mission that takes your katamari to sizes never seen before in the series.

As always, one of the strongest points is the amazing music they compose to accompany you on levels. Every song is hummable and perfect, and they even tossed in a few popular songs from earlier games. Interesting twists on some levels add a bit of spice, like one in a grocery store where you're scored by calories rolled up and the recreation of Mars done by getting your Katamari to 10,000 degrees. It's also about as family-friendly as a game can get, with zero to offend even the most finicky parent. Time attack is also enhanced by having XBox Live leaderboards, letting you see just how good that last score of yours really was.

It would've been nice if they took advantage of the increased oomph the newer systems have. The graphics could have been updated and polished a bit if they chose, so it feel like you're stuck in last generation. Most sound effects are recycled, as well. Special moves like dash attack are occassionaly tough to pull off, leading to wasted time. The camera getting momentarily caught behind a wall is another issue from the PS2 days that persists, but is generally not a big deal.

The classic gameplay is intact, and the tank-style controls help make the game accessible to those who generally don't play videogames. While not updated, the graphics still convey what they need to, and given the thousands of individual item types in the game, a little lack of detail is forgivable. Aside from the amazing music, the sounds are really just competent. To just play the game with no downloads or trying time attack can be done in under ten hours, even by slightly spazzy people as not much is difficult. Online offerings are sparse, and won't hold interest for long. If you're a fan of the series you'll want to grab this game, but those with a PS2 still hooked up who've never dabbled in this series might want to first opt to get one of the cheaper Katamari games for that system first.