Games worth discovering

I’ve never played a Katamari game before; here’s why I love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie

2K View2023-06-17

In 2004, a game was released that was so charming and addictive that it instantly became a cult classic and created a hit series that would win the hearts of players of all ages for its humor and originality. I was not one of those people. Maybe, I was busy that year, or perhaps I had to wash my hair that weekend. Whatever the reason, I have never taken it upon myself to play any games in the Katamari franchise. That is until now. Recently, I rolled into the We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie on the PS4. It is by far the most absurd and ludicrous thing I’ve played all year, and I absolutely loved it!

In case you are as unfamiliar with the franchise as I was, let me fill you in. In Katamari Reroll, I played as a prince sent to Earth after your father, the King of All Cosmos, happens to destroy all of the stars in the universe. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie remasters the classic 2005 We Love Katamari and adds a new feature where I could play as the King of All Cosmos as a boy.

Whether I was playing as the prince or his dad, my task was simple: make a huge Katamari ball out of random objects on Earth in a set time limit and bring back the starry sky. Sounds easy, right? Well, it isn’t! Mastering the controls and moving my Katamari around the globe without incident was one of the main challenges in this game. It was so simple in concept but difficult to pull off. Once it all clicked, though...I couldn’t stop rolling.

I’m sorry I’ve missed out on this series until now! Although I found the environments of each stage quite similar, something about rolling a massive ball and sucking up everything in my way is incredibly satisfying, and accumulating the larger objects just feels like a win. As the King of All Cosmos says, “Earth has a lot of things.” It sure does, and Katamari Reroll made me realize just how fun gathering those things can be.

In many ways, It almost felt like I was playing as a kaiju as I grew my ball in size and amassed objects that were once out of my grasp—from picking up pins and dice to casually adding ocean liners and skyscrapers to my collection. The larger my Katamari ball became, the more unstoppable I felt.

Katamari Reroll is also filled with quirky Japanese humor, such as little quips about the minimalist art movement when my roll was too small. I laughed out loud at how charming and self-aware Katamari Reroll’s dialogue was in its tone and delivery.

There’s also tons of replay value here. I was always trying to find the secret presents the King of All Cosmos had littered throughout the planet, requiring me to play certain stages multiple times. After all, Katamari is all about collecting, so I would be remiss if I skipped out!

But it’s not just the humor or gameplay that made We Love Katamari so fun to play, but also the music. The Shibuya-kei-filled soundtrack is something I would never find myself listening to in my own life. Still, it has elements that are familiar. Hip-Hop, jazz, and pop are all fused in their own way and mixed with a dope Japanese style that had me nodding as I amassed everything in my way.

It’s funny how I could have missed something so popular, and now that I’ve played it, I demand more! Like the Prince of All Cosmos, I won’t be satisfied until I’ve amassed hours of Katamari Reroll, collected everything, and broken my record for the largest Katamari ever. If you haven’t played yet, be careful with this one or you, too, will find yourself with Katamari Fever. Then again...maybe that’s a good thing.