Katamari Damacy Reroll

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Splitscreen)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Katamari Damacy is one of those games where, if you haven’t played some version of it yet, you absolutely should. There’s not really anything else like it out there, and it’s such a unique and wonderful experience that you need to try it for yourself. And this game, an HD remaster of the very first game in the series way back on the PlayStation 2, is as good a place to start as any.

The game’s story and presentation is all kinds of Japanese-flavored crazy on caffeine-infused Pocky overload. The King of All Cosmos, a flamboyantly-dressed fellow with a log-shaped head, has just gone on a huge bender all over the galaxy, destroying all of the stars. It’s up to you, as his beleaguered pipsqueak of a son, The Prince, to gather up a bunch of random objects the King has strewn about the Earth, which will then be transformed into stars of corresponding sizes of their collective bulk.

No, this doesn’t make any sense. No, it’s not supposed to. And the absurdity of it is part of the game’s charm. Trust me, just go with it.

In order to collect these objects, you will be pushing around a little ball called a Katamari that rolls up any objects smaller than it into the ball, sticking on the surface. So the more objects you collect, the bigger your ball becomes, quickly transforming into a jumbled mess of random stuff.

The ball controls kinda’ like it has tank treads, with the left stick acting like the left tread and the right stick acting like the right tread. It seems strange, but before long it’ll seem like second nature.

The strategy of the game is judging which objects you think you’re big enough to pick up, and where to go to roll up the most objects quickly. Try to roll up something too big, and you’ll smash into it, breaking off things you’ve already collected, but if objects are too small, your ball will grow more slowly than it would if you found something bigger you can take on.

The result is a joy of a visceral experience as your little ball grows and grows, and items you once couldn’t pick up, you now can chase down, and seeing just how little by little, you’ve snowballed the thing into something that dwarfs its original size.

It can be really impressive, the way this game gives you a sense of scale too. Even on modern consoles, while the game’s graphics aren’t anything to write home about (though they look soooooo much better in HD, the change is a huge improvement), the sense of scale you get is truly amazing. You’ll start off taking a Katamari the size of a moth ball and having a few minutes to grow it to the size of a soccer ball… but by the end of the game, you’ll be given a Katamari the size of a beach ball, and by the end of 25 minutes you’ll be rolling up entire countries.

Oh, also, I can’t forget to mention this game’s delightful and odd soundtrack, its fun 2-player competitive splitscreen mode, the hidden treasures tucked away for you to find, as well as alternate “princes” to find and roll up… this game has plenty of joy packed into its nice little package.

Now, if you’re wanting to know about how things have changed in the re-release, read on…

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Not much.

Aside from the HD visuals and silky-smooth framerates Reroll offers (and to be fair, this is a huge improvement over the original), the content of this game is much the same as the original, which is a bit disappointing. It would have been nice to have some extra features, or maybe, you know, also throwing in the game’s sequel, We Love Katamari.

I suppose I should mention that the Switch version offers a gyro motion control option, which seems like it would be perfect for the game, but… no, actually, they’re a horrible mess, and you’re better off sticking to the twin-stick controls.

While Katamari Damacy Reroll isn’t quite the extensive remake one might hope for, the original game as it was was a unique, must-play experience, and remastered in HD with better framerates, this is absolutely the best version of it. If you’re a fan of the series or if you’ve never played these games before, you’ll find this to be an excellent game to roll up into your little ball of Nintendo Switch titles.

tl;dr – Katamari Damacy Reroll takes the excellent and crazy-inventive PS2 game about rolling up objects into a giant ball, and brings it into the modern day with HD resolution, higher framerates, and not much else. Still, as the best version of a fantastic game, it’s well worth getting.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Katamari Damacy Reroll

Genre: Arcade

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Review:

The Katamari Damacy series has never been a graphical powerhouse franchise. Where it’s impressive is in the sheer number of things it has on-screen at any given time, and how scalable they all are. So how does this game fare on Nintendo Switch 2?

Well, the resolution and framerates seem unaffected. The main difference is in the loading times. On Nintendo Switch, it took 14 seconds to load into the game, 5 to load a game save, and 14 to load into a level. On Nintendo Switch 2, those loading times have shortened to 7, 3, and 4.

Not exactly transformative, but it’s a good-sized reduction in loading times that makes this an all-around more enjoyable experience. I would have liked a framerate bump, but otherwise, this is a decent improvement over the Nintendo Switch version.

tl;dr – Katamari Damacy Reroll takes the excellent and crazy-inventive PS2 game about rolling up objects into a giant ball, and brings it into the modern day with HD resolution, higher framerates, and not much else. Still, as the best version of a fantastic game, it’s well worth getting.

Grade: A-

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