Bandai Namco’s We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie rolled onto Xbox Game Pass during the Tokyo Game Show, arriving alongside two belated RPG conversions from Square-Enix. The timing and pairing with new titles made me briefly believe it was debuting on Xbox after leaping from the Switch. But no – We Love Katamari REROLL launched on all formats simultaneously last year. So, while a review is out of the question, a ‘most played’ certainly isn’t.
Ever since the Western press latched onto the original Katamari’s wayward premise, shortly after it became a hit in Japan, the franchise is one I’ve always had a fondness for. We Love Katamari was the first to be released in Europe, co-published by EA on PS2 (yes, really) and I distinctly remember picking up a copy at launch for full price. This was a time when very few publishers were willing to take chances on anything quirky or offbeat, and with more disposable income back then, I would often buy just about anything a little different. Metropolismania, Mister Mosquito, Global Defence Force 2, Flipnic, Gregory Horror Show, and even the awful Battle Construction Vehicles – anything vaguely unique was snapped up in hope that publishers of the era would take more chances.
To recap, and for the uninformed, the Katamari games involve a small chap known as the Prince rolling a sticky ‘katamari’ ball around quintessentially Japanese locations to achieve a goal set by the game’s flamboyant King. Items stick to the ball, making it swell in size, and so the majority of objectives involve making a katamari of a certain size within a tight time limit. Some stages start with the Prince collecting small items such as bugs and paper clips, and end up with a ball so large that it rolls up cars, large animals, and even innocent screaming bystanders.
Upon playing We Love Katamari REROLL for the first time, I was hit by a surprise waft of nostalgia. This is a game I haven’t revisited since the PS2 iteration was released, and over time I started to recognise level layouts and remember the locations of the hidden playable cousins. The catchy music, too, held nostalgic appeal. The loading screens in this re-release are mercifully shorter but still appear mid-stage; I’m not sure on the reason behind this aside from it being possibly emulated, but I’m glad these brief scenes are still included as the King of All Cosmos has some insightful musing to share during these interludes.
The mission objectives, or requests as they’re known, still stand out. One request has no time limit and simply involves rolling snow to make an appropriately sized head for a snowman. Not too big, not too small. Another sees a lonely dog looking for friends, commencing a quest to roll up as many zoo animals and visitors as possible – with the total running into the hundreds. In my mind, these locations were once scattered with seemingly random objects, and now as a man of the world with a moderate understanding of Japanese culture, they seem (slightly) less random and arbitrary. The low poly nature of the visuals means it has retained its style too, even if the game’s front end has a slight ‘80s BBC One children’s program vibe.
I also didn’t realise at the time that We Love Katamari was supposed to be a ‘thank you’ to players who purchased the original, hence the title. This is evident more nowadays with the quest givers asking to see what’s so hip about Katamari, and there’s some hidden fan service to the first game tucked away. This was easy to miss in the PS2 version as the original Katamari never made it to Europe until Katamari Damacy REROLL saw a release in 2020.
It’ll be interesting to see which Katamari game gains the ‘REROLL treatment’ next. The PSP’s Me & My Katamari was the next instalment, but chances are it needs a lot of additional work to match the standard of the existing REROLL re-releases. The Xbox 360’s Beautiful Katamari seems more likely and would be welcome – providing it includes all the additional DLC for free. The original was heavily criticised at launch as it was essential to purchase DLC to see the proper ending by making a super-sized katamari, even warning that downloadable content was required. It’s about time Bandai Namco makes things right.