more Prince, more rolling;
demise of a continent,
and King's new swimsuit
Additional Comments:
It's always a joy when a new platform is added to my list. For one, it keeps me bouncing from one system to another instead of stagnating on one or two favored choices such as the NES or Genesis. Though, I'll admit, after the PS2, Sony has failed to wow me with their offerings and I've always had little to no incentive to continue on with their products. Not really sure why. Perhaps the PS2 was such a powerhouse that it seemed difficult to live up to its standards of a nearly infinite lineup of incredible games. Although, to wit, No Man's Sky may be the first title to genuinely change my perception of Sony's merit. Or, in the PSP's regrettable case, Sony decided to enter the handheld market. I hate handhelds. I loved the idea as a kid because they're great for long trips or any other situation that starts to gnaw away at a child's short attention span, but as an adult, it's a useless, unwieldy, eye-straining medium that further affirms what video games have already shamefully proven - myself and every other gamer out there who grew up in the pre-3D revolution are nothing more than children trapped in adult bodies. Why would I want to encourage such a stereotype all the more? But then, considering how iPhones, Galaxys, and what have you have brainwashed the greater masses with mobile gaming, it's quite likely unfair to slander handhelds that at least stay true to the notion of gaming console.
Nowadays, if I can't play a handheld console on a TV, I consider it a lost cause. Though I admit, handheld consoles have come a long way from the Game Boys, and Game Gears of my youth. They're still eye-straining nightmares, but at least with the latter generations we can see everything no matter the quality of light we may be afforded at a moment's notice. Still, it saddens me when there's a game I know I'd love to play only to find out it's a DS release, or a PSP release - games that will sadly never see a home console release of any kind. Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7 are prime examples of this. Would love to play them, but doubt I ever will. I have no desire to buy a 3DS, and as far as an older DS model, while I do have one, I unfortunately fried it after performing a screen swap and haven't bothered attempting to bridge the fuse. A shame, but in some respects, no real loss since it's a handheld - a device concept that I have no real admiration for to begin with. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the gaming community at large viewed this as fair evidence to patronize me in my own considerations as a gamer. As if that's going to instantly alter my stance.
All that being said, it's obvious I repudiated my own terms. Clearly, a handheld title has been tackled, and unless I heavily modded my PSP to play on a TV (I didn't), I was forced to navigate the thrills of handheld gaming. I've Katamari's lovely franchise to thank for that. In fact, after finishing We ♥ Katamari, I even stated my eagerness to continue the series would likely lead to me finally buying a PSP. That it did, though it took me approximately a year to finally track down a copy of Me & My Katamari. In the meantime, numerous other PSP games came into my hands, but for Beat All Games, my plan was to knock Katamari's third installment out as the first PSP title. And, huzzah! So it is done. Maybe handheld gaming isn't the shameful crime I made it out to be after all. Hmm, I do have that WonderSwan Color sitting on the shelf. Should I...?
But enough about handhelds; time to read through the lengthy proceedings of more ball-rolling excitement - literally. Admittedly, I wasn't sure what to expect. Given both We ♥ Katamari's improvements and shortfalls, I was worried that Me & My Katamari would follow suit; sort of meandering off on level ground instead of raising the bar. Although, even casting my personal opinions regarding any innovation, or lack thereof, between the first two titles aside, I was especially distraught over the obvious lack of analog sticks on the PSP - the key element, nay, the only element to Katamari's tried and true control scheme.
Would the controls translate over to the d-pad and organic shapes button layout with relative ease? Sure, the controls essentially relate to cardinal directions, but I envisioned a real lack of overall smoothness that the analog sticks offered. Upon entering the tutorial stage - which was a carbon copy of We ♥ Katamari's tutorial stage; an uneasy grimace immediately surfaced - I fumbled with the funky controls. They're exactly the same as the analog controls, but somehow feel miles apart. No joke, I struggled like a fool just to get on the podium in the center of the stage, This was not a good sign for things to come, never mind Namco's lazy recycling of the tutorial stage - right down to June's important Prince tackling maneuvers for those of us who must collect everything on Sunflower Continent. However, after ambling about like a drunken jackass for a couple of stages, the controls became just as fluid as their analog counterparts. Other than performing a quick flip, which seemed to work roughly 30% of the time on the first attempt, I no longer found the control scheme clumsy or unresponsive. Still, I can definitely sense a certain disconnect in confidence between the traditional analog controls and the more smudgy, smear your thumbs all over the buttons layout of the PSP. Though I clearly had control of the katamari, the general responsive nature still felt relatively spongy at times. Using the Prince's special moves, however...eh, they just don't translate as well. Double tapping left and circle, as I said, failed far too often, and while trying to get a quick burst of speed was less of a gamble, it never felt as seamlessly intuitive as the original analog design.
Here's the interesting thing about struggling for speed bursts or flips. For the most part, they've been rendered unnecessary. Me & My Katamari took a giant step backwards in regard to difficulty. Other than trying to successfully nail 100 points in the Canary stage, this game is far too easy compared to its predecessors. Once you move on from the three town stages, you can literally roll with your eyes closed and probably sweep the stages clean racking up enough strange everyday objects to score 100 points on your first attempt. Ok, in all fairness, that may be a bloated exaggeration, but once I hit the state stages, it really isn't. I not only wiped the slate clean and managed to rustle up 100 point finishes for whatever animal who selfishly wanted an extravagant, tropical island all to themselves, but I managed to 100% all three states on my first go. And no, that's not an exaggeration. Knowing that I fully picked off three stages just like that left me grief-stricken. Considering the long list of items in the game, and the fiendishly cruel location of a few of them in the three town stages, how can the latter stages be so easy to clean up? Hell, it only took me two rolls to fully knock out the final stage; racking up 100 points on my first try. By the way, this additionally irritates me as I had no reason to re-roll the final stage outside of Eternal and as such failed to unlock the final song until everything was said and done and had to go scrounging around the darkest depths of the internet to try and find out how to get Katamari of Love days later after the frustration of a missing song truly grated at my obsessive compulsive nature. Contrary to this game, in Katamari Damacy, I think it took me a good ten to twenty rolls before I picked up that last stupid piece of advertising that I somehow kept missing in the Moon stage. A lot of this game's ease I pinned down, and possibly foolishly, to the PSP itself. Then again, the three town stages managed to push my required rolls to fully complete their item lists into the double digits, so who knows.
But, no. I truly believe the PSP is at fault here. I haven't looked at the numbers, and honestly, I don't care, but I have a sneaky suspicion the PSP's specs, or lack thereof compared to the PS2 are to blame for much of the game's misshapen difficulty. Loading zones unfortunately kill off far too many items and processing power must be the reason. Otherwise, I can't understand why items that are only a few centimeters shy of the barrier's required height are suddenly erased from existence. There are a few items I kept missing time and time again because you have such a small window of opportunity to pick them up. These are items that should still be present after you load into the next zone - not stage, but zone. What makes the matter even more confusing is when an Animal Book, which is 35cm, is present, but a Clay Stove, which is just over 5cm shy of the 75cm barrier isn't. Why? Why is the Clay Stove suddenly removed from existence? By the time the Katamari reaches 70cm, 5cm is diddly squat. Needless to say, the Clay Stove was like the second to last item I picked up on my way to a completed overall item list. That's just bollocks! In the previous games, item negation scaling never seemed to err on the side of stupidity, at least that I recall. Items that stumped me in those games were because they were well hidden among the visible world as opposed to this game where most of my head scratchers appeared to be the fault of overcoming processing gremlins. Well, that and shit hidden in trees.
A note about about hidden items. Most, if not all of them are one off collectibles. However, they aren't necessarily tagged as rares. If that's the case, then what's Namco's definition of rare? Honestly, I wouldn't question it if certain rares weren't more abundant than certain non-rare items like the Lamp Ghost. Then you have items, rare or not, that are hidden that additionally fall victim to zone loading disappearance, such as the Lantern. I believe the Lantern was the final item I picked up in the game; first off because it was a tough item to find, but more importantly, it was typically negated after bulking up into the next zone before I ever had a chance to find it. The Lantern ended up being one of five items that I had to end up looking up to find their whereabouts. However, even after "cheating," I still kept missing it because it had already popped out of existence. Dammit! Even more incredible, four of those five items that continually outfoxed me ended up being in the town stages.
Not to be showed up by loading based shenanigans, slightly spongy controls, and general blasé when it comes to difficulty, Me & My Katamari continued the trend of general laziness by building a soundtrack of recycled songs. Fortunately, most Katamari music is gold, but I find it disappointing that I'm listening to the same stuff all over again. Roughly 80% of the soundtrack comes from the previous two titles. In fact, I think there's only one new song used within the stages proper. Otherwise, all of the new music is relegated to Prince Island and the surrounding archipelago. However, as much as I want to stamp "lame" all over Namco's can't-be-bothered attitude with this game, Yū Miyake knocked it out of the park with Katamari on the Funk. What a killer track!
Another element I enjoyed was how each stage consisted of three variants and eventually they were all tied in to the single mega stage, Sunflower Continent. Albeit, I wish there was a bit more variety in topographical design among the variants. There was little snippets of variety here and there: a dip in a frozen pond, a strange, magic mystery tour through Japan's mythical underbelly, or...uh.... Well, everything else sort of blended together. At least the camel allowed me to access a desert oasis, but given the sum total of all the stages, it equated to a whole lot of dreary uniformity.
Of the three titles conquered thus far, Me & My Katamari is easily the weakest, but again, I believe a lot of the issue is the medium on which it's played. Even with the few meager innovations, I find that the PSP hurt the title more than anything. However, I'm okay with that because I can accept the game as a handheld interpretation of a wondrous classic. It'd be foolish to expect the flawlessness of the original title and more. If the game had seen a home console release (PS2/PS3) instead, then yes, I'd hold the game to a much higher standard. I suppose it affords a free pass in that sense; after all, I still enjoyed the game despite its rough edges. I just don't think I could properly recommend the game, even to a Katamari lover, since it lacks the passion and oomph of the first two.
Even the King has loosened up, apparently leaving his humorously acidic tongue at home. He's still a little condescending, but he's lost his generally caustic appeal. Like that's possible. Well, apparently it is and it's diminished the beloved juxtaposition of royal vitriol and the sickeningly sweet and adorable world of Katamari Damacy. If anything, I feel as though I'm more of the ass now as I immediately bound through the world disregarding the King's rather unexpected compliments. I've no time for you. Consider it payback for your haughtiness in games past.
Nano-Win:
Likely expected considering I've yet to bring up the one truly peculiar feature in this game. The 2D platforming crossover levels are a delight. Again, like much of the game, they're rough around the edges - namely the physics which I feel are a tad flighty. However, it's a clever concept that I'd love to see further developed into a full game. From my understanding, based on various conflicting accounts on the interwebz, a 2D Katamari game existed on mobile devices, however, it is exactly the same as what's found in Me & My Katamari. Hmm, that's a shame. Well, here's hoping for the future....
Rating: 3.5 intelligences out of 5
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