We Love Katamari
2005
- puzzle
- adventure
- action
- comedy
- party
- single player
- multiplayer
- split screen
The story
We Love Katamari, is a third-person puzzle-action video game where the player controls the Prince, the 5-centimeter-tall son of the god-like entity the King of All Cosmos, who rolls around a "katamari", a magical ball that causes objects smaller than it to attach to it. Throughout each level, the play must collect objects in order to fulfill objectives set by the prince's father.
What it’s like
Bright, candy-coloured and deliberately flat: a low-poly world of pastel toys, food, snow-dusted mountains and underwater reefs, all rendered in clean primary hues against plain backdrops, with a bouncy, looping soundtrack of ukulele-ish pop, cheerful chants and sudden silence when the Prince's giant ball rolls to a halt. The sense of play is physical and tactile, the katamari swelling and gathering tiny objects as the camera chases it across rooms, streets and seas until a time limit or an objective calls the round to an end. Its vibe is joyful, goofy and gently absurd, the sort of game to put on for a lazy afternoon, a quick session after dinner, or a shared couch session where everyone takes a turn. Pacing is brisk and cyclical, with each stage a short rush of rolling, growing and grinning, and the tone stays warm and low-stakes throughout; the only arc is the small, silly one of a tiny prince earning his father's approval, one object at a time. Intensity is very low: no violence, no gore, no threat beyond a ticking clock. It suits players who want something playful, forgiving and unhurried, especially those who enjoy quirky Japanese design and easygoing couch multiplayer.
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