Katamari Forever, a game that didn't need to happen.
That tagline may be one that ensues feelings of doom and gloom and negativity but my feelings for this game are quite the contrary.
Katamari are balls. Balls that are sticky. Sticky balls that attract masses. Sounds pretty porny thuse far but stay with me. Katamari are sticky balls that attract masses to stick to their sticky balls all in the name of creating stars. In short, a Karamari is a ball that you (the Prince) roll a whole bunch of random crap on, and create a random sticky crap ball that your father will then use to make a new star.
Here in lies the game play. You use a Katamari and you roll over stuff (or crap, depending on your feeling towards the stuff (crap) that you are rolling) and get points and follow basic objectives for the composition of such stars. In one level you will be asked to roll up flowers to make a pleasant flowery star, in another level the King will ask you to roll up masses of fireflies to create a bright star and the goal will to be to get to a high enough level of luminescence. This is generally the objective and game play style that you will get out of a Katamari and this is how it has always been. Katamari has been following this formula for game play since its release and it is no surprise that they stuck to their guns for the HD remake.
This game is an HD remake borrowing 31 levels from the past installments of Katamari. If you have played the old games, I think you will agree when I say that they went a great direction when doing this by picking some of the most memorable and well designed levels. Being an HD remake Bandai Namco did a fantastic job scaling up the graphics to fit in with the PS3 library and even included a feature that allows you to change the grahics style (my favourite being the cell shaded). The tracks aren't what I would call memorable, I can't sit here and say "oh yeah, that song is called Corneria and its from level 1 of Starfox", but what I can say is that Katamari's music is ambient and is always a perfect fit for the setting.
Although I do have boatloads of praise for this title, I do have my issue as well. It's strange actually, my complaint with this game is not title specific (because this is the most refined and well done of the series) it is a complaint for the whole series. These games control worse then a GTA helicopter. Turning is bad, Katamari hop is bad, dashing is bad. The control scheme is what I can only refer to as, unintuitive. This game has a big beautiful world that is begging to be explored but its hard to do so because the levels are so interesting and full of depth that you will not be able to explore fully until you spend a few hours with the game-or long enough to master the controls.
Like I said earlier, a HD compilation of the best levels of a series of near perfect games did not need to happen...but I am glad it did. This game is truly an experience.
Best,
Matsura
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worrrrrd!
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