Discount We Love Katamari - PlayStation 2

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With "We Love Katamari," the good and crazy folks at Namco managed to produce a game that keeps almost everything from the original, alters things just a trifle, and yet created a sequel that feels a whole lot richer than the original.

For those who don't know, in Katamari games you control a super-sticky orb (a katamari) that rolls throughout a world packed with stuff. Roll up enough caramels and you'll be big enough to roll up a mouse. Roll up enough mice and you can roll up cats. And so on, until you're rolling up clouds, islands and thunder gods. All this is built up over the course of a few levels, but it can be disorienting to roll up cookies under a car at the beginning of a level and roll up the car itself in the end.

With each level a new star is added to the sky (replacing the ones your monolithic and rather drunken father, the King of All Cosmos, accidentally destroyed).

The original is still one of my favourite titles, but as innovative as it was, it was a bit on the short side and there were really only four kinds of levels:

1. Build to a certain size, and then as big as you can get.

2. Build to as close to a certain size as possible.

3. Gather as many of a particular thing as you can.

4. Gather the largest of a class of thing as you can.

Not so with the new one. In some levels, you have to build yourself as large as possible with a limited number of objects, in others you're self-propelled and have to control the katamari to maximize what you get, in others you have to move quickly or snow gums up your katamari, making it difficult to move the variations are all of a similar kind to the types listed above, but different enough that each level plays differently.

Getting the levels is different as well, with as many as half a new dozen levels available at a time. The final level is actually accessible early on, but you don't have a hope of winning it for a very, very long time. The King of All Cosmos is back, and with all the popularity of a rock star, people clamour him with requests to have particular stars created. And, of course, it falls to you to do his work for him.

Gameplay and controls are identical to the original, and fans of that one will love the added complexity to the levels while newcomers will have no trouble picking up on the way things work. Recommended for all ages and levels of play, at least by me.

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Talk about an odd game that almost defies description! In the Katamari games, you are rolling a sticky ball. That's it! It's amazing how addictive it can get.

This is the second game out, after Katamari Damacy. You are a prince. Your dad is the eternally bizarre and self-absorbed King of All Cosmos. He sets a series of challenges up for you, with the aim of creating stars. You wander along a grassy meadow, meeting up with people and choosing which challenge to work on next.

The graphics are just amazing here, in a cartooney sort of way. You wander through an undersea world, rolling up various sea creatures. You roll around a home office, gathering typical office supplies. In each case you start with a little ball. As you roll the ball over an object, if it's small enough, it sticks onto your ball and you can actually see it rolling around. As you pick up more items, the ball gets larger and larger.

You're ranked, depending on which section of the game you're in, on how quickly you make your ball grow large, on how large you get the ball to be, and various other ranking schemes.

The music is fine, although I would have liked a little more variety. It's just a little too techno for me, all the time. I like to hear a variety of music types in a game like this.

This is really a game that is PERFECT for all ages. There's no bloody shooting of enemies. There are no super complex puzzles to solve. All you do is roll, roll roll. It's very soothing, in a way, a mindless way to rid yourself of the stress of work or school. You're achieving something, and you just roll along to do it.

My only complaint is that the co-op mode is rather challenging. It's tricky to get two people to roll a ball together. With this being such a great game for kids, I *really* wish they could think up a way for a parent to play with their kid (or even a grandparent to play with their kid). It's a game that appeals to all age levels but there just isn't much of a way for those people to play "together". Surely there'd be some way to do that maybe give one character a 'freeze ray' to stop items that are in motion, so the other character can then go roll them up.

In any case, the game is quite a lot of fun, for those times that you want a relaxing, mindless, casual game. Well recommended!

Rating: 4/5

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Played through this game with my fiance (who doesn't really play video games), we both had a great time. They've given you all the classic Katimari gameplay plus they've added a few new things like rolling in the sky (rolling clouds), rolling up the countries of the world (to prevent a meteor strike) and rolling up plants and stardust (so you can get something big enough to roll up the sun). Plus there was a really funny Sumo level where you roll around a skinny Sumo Wrestler over food and he slowly gets fatter, and a snowman level where your rolling around a ball of snow.

Also, the cinematic story clips between levels are way better than the last game (as off the wall as the story is).

We were singing the theme song for days ("na na na Katimari Damacy")

It's just fun!

~Danny

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I have recently had the oppertunity to play the Japanese version of this game. I am looking forward to playing the American one. The game's format remains mostly the same with a few changes. The cute objects and lanscapes are mostly the same except this time you are rolling up planets. (No, I do not know story details as I do not speak Japanese and could only gather what I could from inferences.) Game play seems smoother this go around as far as controlling your Katamari and general level rendering. Some of the environment changes include an underwater level and a classroom level. Katamari rolling has now turned into a quest to help people. One level is actually a race where you guide your self propelled Katamari around an island to collect objects. My favorite new aspect of the game is a change from the blocked view when you roll behind an object such as a desk or wall. Instead of a grey circle you now get a cut out view of where you are rolling your Katamari. Failing a stage will ensure you not only a psychological belittling by the king but also a physical one as he shoots lasers at his son. You can try to dodge them, but it can be rather tricky. Each time one hits the poor little prince he shinks in size. The music is catchy and unique blend of JPop and techno as well as an orchestral score during one stage. Stage objectives for some stages has also been redone. At some points you have to beat your old score or personal best. The game seems like it is longer then the first one as well because stages are played more than once. Plenty more new and exciting changes are included and I don't want to give them all away here. If you were a fan of the first one you will certainly enjoy this one.

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Over the years, Japan has given us some really great rolled things. Sushi. Legendary scrolls. Pocky brand cookies. Uh, m... marijuana. From Japan. And believe me, the people who created this thing were on a lot of it.

In keeping with the great Japanese rolling-things tradition, we are given 'We Love Katamari!', the sequel to 'Katamari Damacy', by the land of the Rising Sun, a game in which you roll a giant sticky ball over stuff and try to make it bigger!

I won't mince words with you people: This game is insane. The cutscenes which serve to forward the already slightly incomprehensible story are completely nuts, the soundtrack is giddy and crazy, and the concept... well, you get to roll a ball around and pick up stuff with it. Not exactly 'Asteroids', this game. But I suppose even 'Asteroids' was considered odd in its heyday, and hey, that's why we now consider it great. The thing that makes those classic games really fun are their simple structure, which progressively becomes more difficult as time wears on. And I'd like to think that the 'Katamari' series is an effective attempt at recapturing that simple playability of the early video games. Story-based games are fun and everything, but the "story" as it stands here is a lot more 'Ms. Pac-Man' than 'Final Fantasy VII'.

Colorful and chipper, the game is a surefire pick-me-up in a sea of bleak atmosphere'd games featuring world weary soldiers in the midst of combat. If you've been obsessing over some survival horror title for too long or need a well deserved break from the likes of "Halo" and "World of Warcraft", look no further than this vibrant original. You might just remember what fun is!

A favorite comedian of mine once mentioned in his act that by the time this generation's kids are grandparents, they will sound completely insane talking to their grandkids about the games they used to play. They will have elaborate virtual reality sets right in their own living rooms, and the old folks will meanwhile be screeching, "well, in my day, we had a yellow circle that ate dots and fruit. And it was chased by ghosts! And then there was this other one where a monkey would throw barrels at you--" ("Whatever, grandpa.") "Wait, wait, I didn't tell you about the frog that tried to cross the street yet!"

Hopefully one day we can also tell our befuddled offspring about the glory that was rolling a ball over stuff and having it stick. I don't think they'll get it, but at that point, they won't need to. We'll know that something like that once existed, and we'll also be able to remember when something like that was enough.