Grumpy Game Review - We Love Katamari

So I already did a mini-review of this game, but I've had the time to play it a lot more, and offer a more in-depth review of it. We Love Katamari follows the same formula as the previous game. Same gameplay, same controls, same idea. So what's different this time around?

First off, the controls and movement. In the last game, I complained that you were incapable of actually traveling up a surface, and the game seemed to glitch out and force you to not be allowed to "climb" anything. This game is no different. I don't know why they keep doing it, but they do. As far as clipping goes, the game is a lot better at letting you through narrow passageways that you couldn't physically get through. It only seems to do it, though, if it's a necessary doorway. Like going through the doors in the school stage. Lastly, turning is harder now for some reason. It's slower while moving, which seems to encourage you to use the 180 turn maneuver.

So how does the actual gameplay compare to the first game? Well, this game seems to have more content. In the first, you had ten regular stages, and a handful of side stages. In this one, you have only five regular stages, but many more side stages (that are also necessary to complete now, instead of being able to skip most of them). Also, most stages have at least two different objectives that make them just a little more unique. In the "Make a Planet" stages, you have the typical objective to reach a certain size, and then continue to make it as big as you can until the time runs out. There's also a "As fast as possible" mode, where you have a size you have to reach, and you do it as fast as possible. If you do the best in these stages (in the previous game, the King would say "we are moved to tears by the size of this thing"), you get a shooting star, which comes into play later on.

This game flows better than the last game too. Maybe it was my experience playing these games, but with this one, it didn't feel like I had to run around forever trying to find things to roll up. This is probably true, given that the time limit on the stages is less than before. A lot of them give you time like 5-6 minutes. Also, in the "last" stage, you grow at a better pace. One main reason for this is, instead of islands being picked up as a whole, they are now split up into pieces. This makes for much smoother transition from place to place, since it doesn't just feel like you're grabbing one item and moving forever to find the next.

So, with all that said, let's look at some of the different areas and stages.

"Make a Planet 5": Not technically the last stage, but the one where you get the biggest. Like the last game, the five basic levels are connected in a bigger world. This game added a lot of real-world landmarks, including the White House, Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, the Easter Island head thingies, the pyramids, and the Sphinx (who has reproduced and is alive and mobile. It's still a silly game after all). In the first game, you had a goal of 300 meters, and you could get to about 860 meters. In this game, your goal is only 500 meters, but you can get over 3600 meters. Also, after you clear it once, the Queen shows up, and you can roll her and the King up. Fun times.

Underwater stage: Yep. You get to roll up a katamari in a pond. So you're rolling up fishes and baby turtles and stuff. Also, a cat fishing, and mermaids. Anyway, this stage is fun, despite being really hard. The water physics means that if you get knocked around by anything, you're gonna fly really far. And since most of the stuff in the stage is alive, it can happen really easily. Also, while most of the stages seem really inclined to give you an obvious path, this one is basically one big open area, and it's hard to find the next place to get bigger. And don't worry. Plenty of "craffs" around.

Pet stage: You're in a zoo, because a dog wants you to roll up as many animals for him to be friends with as possible. Fun stage, also unique zone. Actually, most of the stages are unique. In the first game, even all the side stages were connected to the world, and it kind of made the game a little boring at times. In this game, most of the side stages have unique areas you won't find in the "Make a Planet" stages.

Flowers: You're in a flower bed, and you have to roll up as many flowers as you can. Also, there are fantasy creatures here, like faeries, centaurs, and seven dwarves. The side stages in the first game also felt a little bland. Get this many of this item, and that's it. While the objective remains the same in these stages, it feels a lot more fun. Possibly due to the whole "unique stages" thing mentioned above.

Origami: You're in the school, collecting origami. I don't like this stage. It's super hard. Side note here though: The "Select Meadow" is where you pick your stages this time around. Multiple screens. It wouldn't be so bad, but all the characters yell at you to talk to them as you're walking along It's super annoying and I wish there was a way to turn that shit off. And yes, the origami one yells out "Origami!" in that broken, Japanese-sounding accent.

Snowman stage: Your ball gets bigger as you roll in the snow, but I could not figure out what your objective is. There is a bottom half already made in the center of the stage, and you have to make the head. But, I could not figure out what size it was supposed to be. Also, because the snow makes you bigger, there's not much to actually roll here, making it a boring stage.

Firefly stage: It's pretty, at least, but this stage is super hard. The fireflies have a tendency to either go out of their way to avoid you, or just be too high to get at all.

Campfire stage: FUCK this stage. Your ball is on fire, and you have to get big enough to light the campfire. The problem? Your ball goes out after a very short few seconds, and in order to keep it lit, you have to roll stuff up. And this stage seems designed to dick with you and force you to run around trying to find things to roll up. And of course, if you hit the water, it goes out. OH, if it goes out, you lose the stage. And there are three modes to this one, making you do it multiple times either way. Terrible.

Farmer: Remember in the previous game how the two worst stages were the cow and bear stages? You had to avoid all of them, roll up everything else, and find the biggest one to end the stage with. This stage puts those together, so you have to avoid both cows AND bears, and get bigger. So of course this stage blows. You're also on the racetrack for some reason. Speaking of:

Racetrack: Yay. This stage is fun, but annoying. Because it's a racetrack, you've got some nitro going, and you're always moving forward, super fast. So it's hard to adjust to grab things. It doesn't necessarily make it hard, just annoying at times.

Baby/50 item limit: Again, stupid idea. It teaches you a little bit, though. You have to get as big as possible, but you only have 50 items you're allowed to pick up. So you have to pick up the biggest item you can, avoiding everything else. And of course the game throws you in multiple situations where you have to finagle your ball around a ton of shit to get what you actually want.

Sumo: Weird but fun. Your ball is replaced with a sumo wrestler, who you're moving around to eat food and get bigger so he can roll up his opponent. And yes, you can roll up everything, including other humans and animals. So it's kind of like he eats them.

Saturn's Rings: In the first game, making the North Star required you to get exactly 10 meters with no way of knowing how big you were. This game gives you three different version of that, at different sizes. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to cheat this by knowing what item I can roll up that is exactly the size required for the rings (in the first game, the regular sized trees needed 9m50cm, which isn't exactly, but close enough to gauge. Actually, there's a sign in the 2m stage that requires 1m50cm, so I guess it's close enough.)

Roll up the Sun: Each time you clear a stage, you create a planet, or a satellite. You can create stardust if you play it again and it you don't do better than before. Also, if you beat certain stages super fast, you get shooting stars. Also, you can import your constellations from the first game if you have a save file on the same memory card. All of this plus a few random items are thrown into a section of the sky, which you roll around. Collecting this all up, you then attempt to roll up the sun. It's a good way to take all the stuff you've been doing, and giving it some kind of meaning. However, the stage itself isn't very fun, and because the way it's designed, it's hard to tell if you can roll stuff up (also, the stardust is basically invisible). Still, it's a nice way to end the game.

Save the Planet: After you "beat" the game, the astronaut from the first game offers another stage. Remember the credits in the first game where you rolled up the countries of the world? It's a stage now, and you have a limited amount of time to roll them all up and them roll up the meteor that's coming at Earth. It's really hard, because it's hard to even see the countries, especially after you've rolled some up. And, like the credits, you don't have your special abilities like your charge and 180.

Last thing about the stages. Scattered throughout each one are different cousins. You might remember these from the first game, but you might not because they only showed up after you beat the game, and they didn't do anything. But in this game, you can play as them. It's just a skin change, but it could be nice if they each had different stats and stuff. Anyway, there's like 40 of them, and once you collect them all, you get a new stage. You're in the flower garden, and you have to roll up all the cousins. Once you do that, you get a final bonus stage. You have to roll up a MILLION roses. Obviously, you can't do it all at once. You can leave and reenter the stage at your leisure, but that doesn't make it any easier really. There are three different areas of the game you go into, and it's a very limited area. The only thing around is roses, and that's all you do. Also, the roses don't get you bigger. So you're just rolling up a million roses. And it takes FOREVER. Actually, I don't know how long it takes, because I haven't done it yet. And I won't. I mean, it wold have been really cool if they DID get you bigger, and you could access all the stages at once, collecting bigger roses so the flow stays the same. The only way to enter a new area is to quit and try again, and it's random each time. It sucks. What do you get for doing all that. Not much, and nothing gameplay-changing. So screw that.

That's not all the stages, but it is most. So, final verdict? This game has a lot more to offer than the first, and its diverse stages and areas, and better flow, makes for a better game. So, 8/10? I don't know. It's a fun game, just play it. I just wish I had a PS3 so I could play Katamari Forever. Soon...