Katamari Series

Published: 8 Jun 2025

Katamari Damacy REROLL

Katamari Damacy REROLL Steam Banner

A definitive one-of-a-kind game, pure fun, pure quirkiness, pure ridiculous power fantasy - all deriving from the patently simple of rolling a ball (‘katamari’) and collecting up items into the katamari to make it bigger. It all sounds so basic and mundane when stripped to its core gameplay, but its speaks volumes to the surrounding presentation that all contributes to make it so engaging. On the gameplay side, the sense of level design and progression is fantastically done, especially on the levels where you grow large enough to start accumulating people, cars and buildings into a monstrous katamari - whilst aesthetically the massive array of vibrant, colourful objects to collect (which many make unique sounds upon pickup, more endearing silliness) all underpinned by a fantastic and thematic soundtrack, personifying the chaos of Katamari Damacy in audio form and with numerous standout tracks. Even the often-maligned tank controls represent how clunky and awkward rolling a katamari of miscellaneous nonsense would be, just riding the line of frustration to make its point with sufficiently finnicky controls.

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Steam Banner

From the singular brilliance that was Katamari Damacy, where do you take it for a sequel? Traditionally, sequels are “more of the same”, and whilst We Love Katamari is largely that, it instead takes a reflective, self-referential spin - “why did anyone find Katamari Damacy fun in the first place?” is piped pretty directly through the game, yet with enough charming Katamari sheen to guise the mere fact this was a game, and a sequel that its originator simply didn’t want to make. A smart way to perform a standard retread, but that doesn’t disguise that this is functionally a retread (of an originally fantastic game, sure!), with some attempted innovations with different level designs and objectives, but ultimately feels like a good, if not great, B-side - there’s multiple complaints I have, but they all realistically boil down to the simple fact that a sequel simply doesn’t feel exactly like the original.