what's the perfect roll?
shops, sushi, trophies and cats?
think bigger - the sun!
Additional Comments:
After finishing Katamari Damacy, I couldn't wait to dive into its sequel. The game had wowed me so much, I just wanted to experience more - more levels, more worlds, more zany interpretations of every day objects and more tongue-in-cheek explanations of unfamiliar items from the far east. However, not to be put off on rolling, I decided to put We ♥ Katamari on the back burner for a bit while I tried my hand at a variety of gems and failures. Eventually, with the end of Dark Cloud, I decided it was time the Prince was put back to work; exploring and interacting with every conceivable object on this strange, cubist re-imagining of Earth.
From the get go, it was obvious this game took everything we knew from the original and turned it up a notch. The Select Meadow alone was more than prophetic that, while the same, I wasn't quite playing the same game. Additional game modes are thrown into the mix to help add variety to the already tried and true formulas. The developers certainly added some unique ideas, be it rolling a fledgling wrestler on a calorie binge so that he may become champion of the ring, a strategic roll through the zoo to attain record size while only picking up a predetermined amount of objects, or an epic gardening marathon that can literally go on for days (eh, I'll come back to that one). But despite all the new modes, at its core, We ♥ Katamari is still the same game as its predecessor: roll a giant ball around and collect everything you can. Splendid!
Then why do I feel so disenchanted after playing this one as opposed to the first? After all, it's got everything Katamari Damacy had to offer and more! But somehow, it felt like it took a step back. I can't pin it down to anything in particular; more a culmination of varying aspects managing to sap some of the frenetic, quirky energy prevalent in the first. Yet, even then, I can't say what they did wrong and what they did right. I could pin it down to some of the new game modes, for instance the Firefly stage, but for every useless or uninspired stage, We ♥ Katamari impressed with numerous new modes such as the Sumo stages or Save the Pandas. But perhaps that is the difference. Whereas the original game offered fun within every one of its stages, here we had to put up with a few snores such as the aforementioned Firefly stage, Sweet Meadow, and especially 1,000,000 Roses. And pair some of these "lazy" stages with a now, for the most part, lackluster soundtrack and tedium begins crawling from out of the woodwork.
Fortunately, most of the stages that offer little to no excitement are one time gimmicks and can be easily completed in the sense of collection purposes. If, however, achieving the Super Clear is your goal, they not only become tiresome, but begin to drag down the overall experience of the game. I suppose the same could be expressed for any Super Clear, but I never found attempting to clean sweep Paper Cranes an issue whereas striving for dazzling on the Firefly stage was just boring. Come to think of it, I didn't like the campground layout no matter what stage it was used for. Perhaps that's the thorn in my backside - the campground.
There are a couple other fiddly bits in the game, however. One, is the music. Whereas I loved the entire soundtrack of the first game, We ♥ Katamari's soundtrack sounds phoned in. The same bouncy, kooky cheese and pop hooks are still present, but it all sounds so muddled and secondary. The soundtrack plays like an afterthought, which is no surprise when you consider Yū Miyake originally wanted to take it in a completely different direction, but unfortunately the resources to do so were unavailable. As a result, we get to enjoy a watered down imitation of the first. Ah well. At least there are a couple tracks of note thrown in there, namely A Song for the King of Kings. This piece makes me feel like I'm watching some epic Spielberg movie. Honorable mention goes out to Overture II - very Guaraldi like.
Of lesser note, but definitely detracts from the expected feel of the game, is the overall loss of the King of All Cosmos' sassy demeanor. Yea, it's still there, but it's more hokey or forced now as opposed to the straight up casual dickishness on Katamari Damacy. He no longer apathetically "loses" presents that he originally picked up for the Prince with every little bit of love and sincerity in mind. However, he might attempt to chastise the Prince's rolling technique - key word: attempt. And then there's the cutscenes. While they're still quirky - in it's cutesy, fairy-tale presentation - I no longer watched them with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. I suppose We ♥ Katamari sort of lost its way when it came to all the bells and whistles that made the original seem so out there. Or maybe it's just that Katamari Damacy absolutely nailed it coming out of the park. But there are plenty of admirable improvements present, so.... Is it really that much of a back step?
No, it isn't. Even with a few uninspired modes, a relatively weak soundtrack, and a nauseating post game event that makes Final Fantasy X's two hundred lightning jumps look like a walk in the park, We ♥ Katamari is still an absolute blast. I'd highly recommend the game to any fan of the series, and I can't wait to play another installment - looking at you Beautiful Katamari. Heck, it may even be the series that finally forces me to add a PSP to my gaming collection. As a result, most of my whining is just that: whining.
Nano-Rant:
Whining that is until the asinine saga of 1,000,000 Roses snags you by its thorns and refuses to let go. Holy crap!!! At first glance, it doesn't seem that ludicrous until you realize you've been rolling for an hour or two and you're still shy of 10,000 flowers. It's at this point you start running various maths in your head trying to calculate minimal roses per hour just to make the stage remotely feasible. It doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. I read about rubber-banding the stage, but being the stubborn idiot that I am, wanted to try and do the event completely legit. I held fast over the course of a week or two of casual game play, managing a measly 150k. Fuck this....
Not proud to admit, but I succumbed to the lowly rubber band and let it man the controls over the next week until it added a mighty fine 800,000 roses. I rounded out the final 50k on my own, and voilà, one million roses for...nothing. Being a post-game event, I didn't expect much, but I expected more than the King of All Cosmos returning to his true Katamari Damacy form. But wait, earlier I laid into the game because the King had mellowed. Ah! I see what you did there. Bravo, Namco! Bravo!
[psst, 1,000,000 Roses is still a shit event...]
Rating: 4 pompadour-baguette fused hearts out of 5
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