There are a LOT of issues to be had. As everyone has already mentioned the tutorial is incredibly long, especially for a kart racer. It gives the player so much information yet doesn’t really do anything to let you actually apply its mechanics in an actual race. There’s also some key information left out such as the starting position minigame and how items work.

Both online and modding are locked behind beating the first and fourth cups of grand prix respectively. I 100% see what they’re trying to go for here. They want to make sure you actually have a feel for the game before letting you hop in the deep end, which to some extent was a problem SRB2 Kart had due to lacking any form of single player. But when combined with the aforementioned lengthy tutorial it feels rather extreme to lock these behind anything, and will definitely hinder the ability to recommend it to others.

It’s such a big shame that it leaves such a bad first impression because if you’re able to get into it this game genuinely FUCKING ROCKS. There is so much to this that works. The ring system is a fun and unique twist on Mario Kart’s coins. The unlock system, when it isn’t locking major gameplay elements behind it, is a great addition. Considering how boring the unlock methods in games like Mario Kart 8 and Smash Ultimate are, it’s cool having something that actually forces you to engage with all the game offers. Although hopefully a cheat code is found for those who don’t wanna deal with it, since a lot of people probably don’t want that out of a multiplayer game like this.

I hope Kart Krew decides to go back and tweak the opening hours in order to make it a more concise and digestible experience. I see the vision here, but it really needs some work.

BRING THE NOISE!

When it was first announced that The Noise's playable form would not be appearing in the full release of Pizza Tower until sometime after the game had released, I was really interested in seeing what that would lead to. The idea that any of his old unique iterations would be revisited and polished seemed pretty unlikely. Especially with how the levels were designed specifically with Peppino's moveset in mind. And while they very easily could've just reverted him back to a Peppino clone with some tweaked variables as seen in the demos from 2019, it would've been incredibly underwhelming and probably not super fun either considering how slippery he was.

Thankfully neither of these scenarios came true and instead we kind of got the best of both worlds. While Noise keeps all the fundamentals established in Peppino’s moveset, he has multiple unique movement options that change how you approach levels. This leads to a much greater emphasis on aerial movement in comparison. Wall running is replaced with wall bouncing, which gives you an immediate boost in height at the cost of easy wall scaling. This might seem like an immense disadvantage… until you realize you’re allowed to super jump from a standstill, completely offsetting any disadvantages this may bring. You can also chain this wall bounce into any of Noise’s other midair actions such as the drill and Noise Crusher, which act in place of his dive and the bomb drop respectively.

Effective usage of these moves allows you to (quite literally) fly through levels in ways you never could as Peppino. It’s arguably overpowered, which is perfectly fitting for his character. The Noise is a fucking psychopath. He relishes in being the most unlikeable, egotistical, cheating piece of shit to ever walk the face of the earth. And his personality is applied to every single possible corner of his campaign, going as far to outright ignore certain game mechanics so he can have things go his way. He doesn’t even have any good explanation for fighting Pizzaface. He’s doing it simply because he felt like it. The Noise is all around just a horrible person (if he can even be called that), which makes his playthrough contrast Peppino’s in the best way possible.

EDIT 3/6/2024: After having played the game a bit more today and unlocking the eternal versions of the levels, I found less frustrating and was enjoying the game so much more than initially. I still think that the climbing isn't too good and levels can be rather claustrophobic (especially the house), but overall I find the game to be really fun.

I was considering rewriting the whole review because of this, but it's probably better that I keep that up and just add this on top of it and keep the original one as is.

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ORIGINAL REVIEW: I don't think there's much I can say about Katamari that hasn't already been said a million times over by people who are probably more qualified to talk about them bideo games than I am. It's an unbelievably charming experience that isn't quite like anything else. Truly one of the video games to ever.

It's not without it flaws though. The most notable of which being the Katamari doesn't always feel great to move. I found myself fumbling around in tight spaces on a number of occasions, leading to occasional frustration. The climbing can also be really finicky causing you to constantly bump into walls while losing progress. There's a chance maybe I'm just not very good and am blaming the game for my own shortcomings. But either way it's something that impacted my experience, so it feels worth mentioning.

It also seems to be a common complaint that the game is a lacking in the variety department. And while I do agree it could've benefited from some more unique levels/objectives I personally didn't mind it. Helps that the game is pretty short so it doesn't have much of a chance to overstay its welcome.

This review probably came off as rather negative considering it focused so much of the things it doesn't excel in, but don't let that fool you. I still enjoyed my time regardless. Glad I finally got around to playing this after having it sit in my Steam library collecting dust for over two years lol.