can be a nice way to play some levels from some great games! as long as you don't mind worse performance and worse object pop-in and worse balance due to new mechanics and worse writing. there's some pros here like a new game+ "go really fast" mode and like 2 new levels, but hardly anything essential even if you're a fan of the series. the remixed soundtrack has some highlights but feels less consistent to me compared to the PS2 entries in the series.

it's also a little off-putting to me that it doesn't really seem to advertise that it's more of a level remix/repack than a full new game? maybe I'm being unfair or maybe I'm missing something but nothing on the game's case really indicates that fact. when I picked this up at a retro gaming store I was under the impression that it was brand new stuff like the xbox 360 one, so it was a bit disappointing to figure out that wasn't the case.

well it's still katamari anyways, so it's still fun. not much of a point in seeking this out now that the modern HD ports exist. maybe listen to the soundtrack on youtube?

I'm a big Katamari Damacy fan, and replaying/playing through all of them in one big marathon a couple years back, I stopped after my 4th game and left Katamari Forever on the shelf. I finally took to trying to finish it these past few days, and while I'm glad I waited, this was still a fantastic experience. It took me about 12 hours to do the whole game, and that was mostly just playing each stage once (although failing some quite a few times XP).

The main reason I'm glad I waited is because this is more of a greatest hits collection than a brand new game. This is a collection of 32 stages, almost all of which are comprised of a selection of the best levels from the previous 4 Katamari games. However, as a result of how previous entries reused actual stages for many levels, you don't often actually repeat the stages, meaning this has the best stage variety out of any previous Katamari game. On top of that, there are tons of remixes of songs from previous games as well as a "Katamari Drive" mode that you unlock upon completion of the main game where your Katamari is SUPER fast (making some stages very easy and some SUPER hard).

Other than that, it's the same old Katamari you know and love. You use the joysticks to roll the Katamari around the stage, rolling into smaller things to clump up your main Katamari into a bigger and bigger destructive force as you try and meet the goal of the level before time runs out. The physics engine is great, so it plays as well as you could hope for. The load times are also SUPER fast, and there's FINALLY an instant retry button on the pause menu, and those two quality of life features alone make this a very easily recommendable game. The only slight negative is that when you start getting REALLY big or in really item-packed levels, the framerate tanks pretty hard. This doesn't really affect play though, as the whole game slows down too, so you aren't losing time or anything.

The story is as light as ever and the writing is as silly as ever. The King of the Cosmos has knocked himself unconscious by hitting his head on a star, so The Prince and the Cousins build a giant Robo King to replace him until he wakes up. Going back and forth between the Robo King's more general "build it really big" missions (as he contemplates the terror of his existence as an explicitly temporary sentient being) and the sleeping King's dreams (which are more specialized levels, like the first game's "get one cow or bear" level) while he spouts nonsense about how he's supposedly lost his memory are both very entertaining.

The graphics have a kind of style that makes them look less matte and flat as previous entries and now have more of a sketchbook look, like there are pencil hashes on textures instead of them just generally being flat, bright colors. It looks nice, but has some occasional very annoying problems. The King's levels have a monochromatic tint to every type of item you haven't collected yet, and this can make already hard levels (like where you need to collect/avoid very certain kinds of items that were made more obvious in their original games by their coloring) far harder than necessary. That poor decision on how to color the King's levels is really the only serious complaint I have with this game.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you're only gonna get one Katamari game, make it this one. It has a crazy amount of levels and stages, online play, local co-op, smaller mini-games, and tons of high-scores to aim for as well as presents & cousins to collect. This game's mission statement was to be a Greatest Hits collection for everything Katamari, and it has succeeded in flying colors. Considering how well Katamari ReRoll sold on Switch, I really hope we can get this game a Switch port because it absolutely deserves it~