We Love Katamari

"Has anyone seen the Eiffel Tower? It went missing after a large ball came by an hour ago."

We Love Katamari for the Playstation 2 is a wonderful game and the second game in the Katamari Demacy series. This game is still as innovative as the original, with a bunch of perks thrown in. This game is what gaming can do, and in some strange way is like a piece of artwork. We Love Katamari is a great game that has tons of charm and is tons of fun, and here is some reasons why.

GRAPHICS

We Love Katamari is absolutely one of the most uniquely styled games out there. The character models are absolutely funny to behold and charming to look at. The Prince is a small guy and is fairly detailed despite his short stature. The characters you roll up are blocky and hilarious looking. In fact all the blocky little people and things look like the things they are supposed to represent. The Katamari are even more detailed, and you will laugh with glee when you get your first human victim stuck to the Katamari by the head. It is funny how they wiggle around and shout for help while stuck to the Katamari.

Each world in the game is highly detailed and colorful. You'll go from a house to a school to roll up your Katamari, and be amazed by the multitude of different colored objects, people, animals, etc. that can be rolled up on the colorful Katamari ball. The timer clock in the corner of the screen, and even the diameter measurement meter are in rainbow colors. The game itself is just beautiful and colorful, and gives the atmosphere of a good time that the developers want you to have.

The cut scenes are even more colorful than the game, which is hard to believe. They are all very detailed and very well animated, throughout the game play experience. The cut scenes are so well done and drawn that you will be able to tell what is going on even if there is no spoken dialogue. It is often very funny, and at the same time very strange.

SOUND

The music in this game is the best music in a game in a long time. The music is so freaking catchy, that I still have some tunes stuck in my head. The music also goes along for the world that you are in. It is up tempo for places like the house or the kids room that you have to clean on a time limit, and down for collecting fire flies to light a camping ground. It also sets the mood during the cut scenes, and most of the times sounds just plain wacky. However, that is wacky in a good way, because when bad things do happen in those cut scenes, the music does become sad, even if you may not know what the heck just happened.

The sound effects are also very good. The humans screaming right before you roll them up is just funny. Listening to cats meow and cars honk as you swerve your Katamari into incoming traffic to roll them up, is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many sound effects that lend a hand to this game that it is impossible to name them all. However, I will say that not even one sound effect is bad. Even on the screen where you go around to save, and pick up missions, the prince sort of hums. This is funny and is a nice touch as he walks around

The spoken dialogue at the beginning of the game is absolutely hilarious. The voice actor that did that part of the game did an absolutely marvelous job with the small part that he plays in the game. The rest of the game just revolves around dialogue boxes, and the occasional Hey! This by far is the best audio I have heard in a game since Gears of War.

CONTROLS

The Prince's moves are a little difficult to learn and master. However, fear not gamers, because there is a tutorial level at the beginning that teaches you the controls and the basics of the game. After going through this tutorial you will have the skills learned partially. I would recommend just playing the tutorial to learn the controls through and through before continuing on. Even if you do not do this, the game starts off a little slowly for those unaccustomed to the controls. It'll give you a start at what to expect for the future, and to learn the basic controls and practice the advanced controls.

Once you master the controls the only thing that you sometimes have to worry about is the camera. The camera does like to get stuck in unorthodox places, but is easily remedied by the responsiveness of the controls. The controls in this game all respond very nicely to your input and the only frustration you will have will be because of something you did, not the controls. This game is perfect for even the most inexperienced gamer out there and is a true achievement in control schematics and design.

STORY

Basically the King of all the Cosmos has returned to continue to repopulate the night sky with stars, etc. So he has the Prince come back to Earth and gather as much "useless junk" roll it up into a Katamari and fling it into the sky. The story also seems to be aware of the cult following this game has, because it makes numerous mentions to all their fans out there. The game has cut scenes, but for the life of me I have no idea what they have to do with the plot. The plot is easy to understand and is easily spelled out in the instruction manual.

GAME PLAY

The game centers itself around the story mode where you go on missions to rid the world of "excess junk" and bring it back to see if it made specifications. This and the ability to go back into levels and try various degrees in difficulty in the level are in my opinion, a genius idea. It has tons of replay value due to this fact, and to the fact that rolling stuff into a ball is huge amounts of fun. The challenge in this game is to try and beat this game without getting the bad ending. It is a lot of fun to go back and try to start from such a small Katamari size and make it as big as possible, in the allotted time limit.

There is a multi player component to the game as well. You and a friend can try to roll each other up etc. in this game. This is the other part of the fun of the game. Now you can have two people rolling around trying to stick each other, etc. to their Katamari and have tremendous amounts of fun while doing so. All in all this game is a masterpiece and a work of art.

RENT/BUY

For me this is a must buy. This game is quirky for sure, but in a good way. The quirks in this game give it a charm that can hook you and have you playing it for a long time to come. This game is just too good to be missed and passed up.

THE RUNDOWN- Did I just use my Katamari to race a race car?

GRAPHICS 10/10 Blocky people, objects good? well yes, only in this game!
SOUND- 10/10 Curse those catchy tunes! Can't..get..out..of..head....
CONTROLS- 10/10 Once mastered, the easiest control scheme ever!
STORY- 10/10 So what if the cut scenes don't make sense!
GAME PLAY- 10/10 Charming, and a wonderful game.
RENT/BUY- BUY an engaging game that is fun to play, period!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/07