Me and My Katamari (PSP) - Review

[zex]

Here's a scoop, this is the review I sumbitted to apply for the review team, hope you like it


Me and My Katamari (PSP) review

Rollin’, rollin’ on the portable

Katamari Damacy released on the PS2 in 2004 to great critical acclaim, with most people noting the innovative, quirky gameplay and delightful and eclectic soundtrack. Then came We Love Katamari, which kept the formula intact while offering some new gameplay options, and after that the first change of platforms, as the series went portable with Me and My Katamari for the PSP. But how well does the experience translate into a handheld?

Me and My Katamari, as every game in the series, tasks players into making the biggest possible katamari (a ball); you do this rolling it over objects, which stick into it making it grow in diameter. Objects can only be stuck to the katamari if it has a diameter large enough, and as such you’ll be rolling over small objects so you can then move on to the bigger ones when your katamari is big enough. You’ll start with a 5cm of diameter katamari picking candies, stamps and pencils, then move onto people, animals, trees, houses and even famous monuments like the Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower. By the last stage of the game your katamari will be more than 1000m long, and it’s a great sense of accomplishment seeing it grow so big.

The game consists of a number of missions where you, as The Prince, son of the King of All Cosmos, are assigned by your father to make a katamari of a determinate size before the set time. In every mission, also, you’ll be tasked to collect the biggest possible number of objects that fill a certain category (like “delicious”, “warm”, “beautiful”, and so on). At the end of the mission, you’re valued (on a 0 to 100 scale) depending on how big you made the katamari, how soon you reached the goal and how much of the “category” you’ve collected. You’ll soon realize that the objective of the game is not just completing the level, something which is very easily doable, but to get the biggest possible katamari in the allotted time, because just getting to the required length will get you a very low score at the end of the level.

The game reuses the same five-or-so environments over and over, you have the inside of a room, when you get bigger you can explore the house in its fullest, including the backyard. Bigger-sized katamaris drop you to the streets of a town, and even larger ones will lead you to an archipelago, that depending on the stages is covered in snow or not, and that’s pretty much it. In fact, normal missions aren’t much different whatsoever from one another, as they all task you with getting to a certain size in a similar landscape; later missions will be split in parts, where completing the task will have you transported to a another place (for example, if you were inside the house, you may be moved to the streets of the town) with a new time and size for goals, and time bonus if you completed the previous part speedily enough. Fortunately, there are side missions, dubbed “Strange Requests” that have different goals, depending on the mission. You’ll have to collect “age”, where every object has a certain number of years and you’ll look for older things like grandmas and mammoths to get a better score; there’s a mission where you’re tasked to make a “sweet” katamari, where only sweet things like candies and fruits will make your katamari bigger, and so on. These side missions are very fun, and they help to offer an alternative to the “pick everything you see” nature of the main quest.

In the PS2 games, the katamari was controlled with both analog sticks, which represented a very intuitive control system that I found myself loving in an instant. Obviously, the lack of a second analog nub in the PSP means such control scheme is not possible here; instead you control the katamari with the D-Pad and the four face buttons. While you may be skeptical of such change, the control gives no trouble at all and Katamari fans won’t have any problem in getting into it. It’s difficult to describe how the control scheme works, but a handy tutorial in the game teaches you every possible button combination you can do, and after struggling for one or two stages it quickly became second nature for me.

The game sticks religiously to the standard formula of the series, and as such, you may feel that there’s nothing new to see. While that’s true, it also shows that such formula hasn’t aged in the slightest, as the game is much fun to play, and the possibility of playing it for short bursts “on the go” is more than welcome. It helps that load times are kept to a minimum, and while in the middle of stages you’re presented with loading screen when you get to a certain size, they’re short enough (5-10 seconds) to not be a bother.

Me and My Katamari looks pretty much the same as the PS2 versions did, with its very distinctive blocky (almost LEGO-like) figures and colorful environments. While not cutting-edge, it’s distinctive enough, and the big scope of the game is very satisfying. But, while the graphics are pretty much intact, the game takes its toll in the frame rate, which can get very sluggish when there are a lot of objects in screen. It doesn’t break gameplay or anything like that, but it can get somewhat annoying.

The music is all (except for one song) reused from the last two games. This is both good and bad news. For one, if you played any of the PS2 games, you already know the music; it would have been nice to see more original songs in the game. On the other hand, the PS2 games had a brilliant and quirky music that never got old, and as such I’m more than happy to see all of my loved songs back. Tunes like the school-chorus-sung Cherry Blossom Color Season (now strangely re-titled Cherry Tree Times), the frantic J-Rock-like Kuru Kuru Rock and the already classic Katamari on the Rocks (known by most as “the na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-katamari damashii! song”) are all included, and they’re as good as ever. Sound effects are standard, every object you pick makes a particular sound, and it’s nice to hear people and animals screaming when they’re rolled in. As with other games in the series, there’s very little voice acting beyond those screams.

The game filled with humor in every single corner, starting with the nonsensical storyline: the 4km-tall King of All Cosmos, his Queen and his 5cm-tall son (the Prince) are vacationing in a tropical island when the King suddenly erases all the islands in the sea. As such, animals will come to the King to ask for recreating their islands, and the ruler will convert every katamari you make into a new island with his “Royal Puff”. The narcissistic King exhibits his entire repertoire, speaking with Royal ‘we’ and deprecating the Prince in every possible way. The game also sports one of the funniest “mission failed” screens I’ve ever seen, where you’re hanged from a rope (still in full control, as you can swing left and right as you see fit) and the King lectures you while throws punches at you, that you may try to avoid or not; it definitely needs to be seen once. The game also features a catalog with every object you’ve collected; it’s very funny to see the description the King makes of normal objects, like a toy dog: “Having it come up to you and wag its tail is nice. Realizing that it does that to everyone is not so nice”

With around 20 missions to complete, Me and My Katamari will take most people around 6 hours to complete. The game also features ad-hoc multiplayer where you compete against other players to get the biggest katamari. But, while the 6 hours may seem short, how much the game will last you depends on whether you want to come back play them again to get all the Prince’s cousins (you can play as any of them) and Royal Presents (different costumes you can wear while rolling). It’s definitely rewarding to replay a stage to get a better score; but some players may find the game too repetitive to come back.

In the end, Me and My Katamari is a solid addition to the series that gets the most important attribute, fun, spot on. While it has some rough spots, such as the erratic frame rate and the lack of diversity, the gameplay is still as solid as ever, and that combined with an amazing soundtrack and a good dose of addictiveness that encourages you to get better makes this a katamari worth rolling.


PRESENTATION: 7.5
GAMEPLAY: 8.0
VALUE: 7.0
OVERALL: 7.8

[Kenzomatic]

Good review did it get published?

[zex]

Good review did it get published?

Thanks. I don't know yet, I sent it to Naz but haven't received answer yet. Still, I checked with Torillian before sending it and he said it should get me into the team....we'll see

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