A Review by Chris Burnham

“Katamari Forever” on the PS3 introduced me to a world I never knew existed. A colourful zany world lorded over by a kind and enigmatically gigantic King, his Queen and their son, the Prince. It is the latter character that you find yourself controlling throughout this game, although with the additional option of playing as one of his many strange cousins that you unlock throughout the game.

The story is simple... ish. The King flies off into space to punch away a stray meteor, which ends up hitting him across the head. The king falls back to Earth fast asleep and no matter what they do, no one can awaken him. A giant robotic replica of the King is built to rule in his place, but it goes off on a rampage, destroying all the stars and planets in the night sky. The prince’s job is to replace all of these stars and planets, by collecting the necessary materials, by using his Katamari.

In order to make the replacements for the planets and the stars, our 10cm tall hero has to roll his Katamari, a large sticky ball, around various different locations on Earth. Everything that he rolls over with his Katamari, sticks to it and adds to its mass, as long as it is not too large. You start off being able to pick up stuff like drawing pins and coins, but the size of the items gradually increases and soon you’re picking up people, cars, buildings and even whole continents.

The aim of most levels is to roll up enough random stuff, in order to build a star or planet. This often involves a size of Katamari to achieve within a time limit, although other game modes see you watering plants with your Katamari, lighting fires and one ingenious game mode that sees you trying to roll up hot items only, in order to increase the temperature of your ball. Cold items decrease the temperature. The levels are not particularly hard, but may require a few replays to achieve success. This type of gameplay is encouraged with the addition of ‘Cousins’ of the prince, who are hidden throughout each level, ready to be rolled up. There is also a whole slew of presents hidden, which include ways to customise your character with various hats, costumes etc.

Controls are simple. The analogue sticks control all movement, with both of them having to be pressed in the same direction to move. Press one stick on its own, to turn around. Push down both analogue sticks into the controller (L3 and R3) and you do a quick 180 degree turn. There is also a handy motion controlled jump, which sees you flicking the controller up in the air (or alternatively pressing one of the shoulder buttons) allowing you to jump up a step or over an obstacle. There are no buttons to press and no complicated combos to master. Just point the analogue sticks in the direction you want to go and try not to roll up stuff that’s too big for your Katamari.

There is a two player mode, which is either cooperative or a Vs battle. These have their own levels, set aside from the others in the main game. There is a massive emphasis on the word ‘cooperative’ in the 2 player game. You both have to be pointing in the same direction in order to get anywhere, instead of the usual attempts to complete the levels between you. The Vs battle sees The Prince fighting against one of his cousins (controlled by player 2) who have to race across a map and try to end up with the bigger Katamari than each other. You can intentionally ram them too and steal their stuff.

I like this game, because it’s quirky and instantly accessible. Its controls may take a few minutes to master, via a handy tutorial, but after that you’ve got everything you need to enjoy the game. The control system could even be tweaked a little to use motion sensing equipment, like the Wii Nunchuk and Wiimote. It’s a fun, madcap jaunt through a colourful and often humorous world and well worth a play if you’re bored of all those sequels that promise lots, but offer little new ideas.

Try something different today. Roll yourself a Katamari.

My rating: 4 Stars