"Wake up! Time to start another fantabulistic day!" The alarm clock rings you awake. Groggy and fatigued you get up in your usual rut. Stuck working under the boot of those who treat you as a tool rather than a person, yet forced to manufacture a smile as this is the only way in your current life. You don't want to do this anymore, you told yourself this a while ago, yet you continue out of demand rather than of passion. Hey, if it makes others happy then it has to be worth it right? So you trudge along, stretching yourself until you find yourself deflated, only to go back home and lay in your bed only to hear your alarm clock signal you to do the same thing over and over again. This is We ❤️ Katamari.

Knowing anything about the history of this game makes the humorous tongue-in-cheek dialogue feel more cynical. It's still funny, but it's obvious that this game was written this way as a way to cope and reason for the need of this game. "Welcome to the sequel to our hit game Katamari Demacy" is very blatantly the theme of everything that happens, it even says so in the opening cutscene. While there is still more work to be done, the King is rather dismissive of continuing to make katamaris. Only when a fan of his work mentions how much they loved what "he" did does he entertain the idea of continuing work. Now, with new ideas being thrown at you, you are forced to continue with the demands, no matter how zany or obtuse.

Everyone praises the work, so we must continue going. Everyone looks up to the King of All Cosmos as this bringer of joy, when the worker, you, are made to mass produce. When you get things right, all goes well and we continue on to work on more Katamari making, but when you slip up or underperform, then you are met with the wrath of your boss. Everything mirrors what it must have felt like for Keita Takahashi to work on a sequel he never wanted, or just anyone suffering from industry abuse. Working on products well past their time because they are popular and make money, one of the most dreadful outcomes of any franchise or IP in media entertainment.

It should be noted that unlike other Katamari games where the game over screen is a playable minigame with a high score to track that makes losing arguably fun, this game holds no punches. It is impossible to avoid the onslaught of lasers from the King, and there is no scoring system. Once he is done berating your "incompetence", you are sent back to the level again to make it right this time. Forced to continue after mental and physical harm come your way.

I should also just mention the abuse you suffer in this game. I had only played Forever and Reroll before this game, and it's very apparent that the King is not a good father/uncle. Disregarding the physical abuse of his child nieces and nephews, there is also this general dismissiveness he holds against you. Only if you surpass his completely made up expectations does he shower you in praise, but not reaching those bars is met with a blase reaction. Going for the standard set isn't enough, it has to be better. You ARE royalty, after all. Even in this game which does not have a scoring system and he is generally nicer on stage completion The King still shows his ugly side when rating you every now and then if you do not meet the goals he never tells you about. Only now, as I played this game did I find out the reason.

Generational trauma is something that affects many, including myself. The awful experiences of an event cause us to be met with abuse and neglect in a viscous cycle, and it appears that The Prince and his cousins deal with it themselves. We get to see a younger version of The King in flashbacks during this game, The Prince of All Cosmos if you will. His father holds this same level of dismissiveness as The King would later go on to adopt, from physical abuse to seeing anything below the best as failure. Granted, it is a kid's game, and eventually The King makes amends with his father and inherits the crown, but it doesn't feel right. The last cutscene of the game is seeing The King, all grown up when his wife shows him the newborn prince and they all party around. A sweet moment soured by the realization of the torture that would be inflicted later.

Honestly it all rings true, to me at least. I will not go into it but I did grow up in similar, although not as hyperbolic scenarios. Physical abuse was common as a child, and even now as an adult, while everyone around me saw me getting straight B's in my last semester as something to be proud of, my own mother didn't, which made me undermine my own success when I had felt like I was going to fail two of those classes. I want to say this is something I have gotten over, but that would be a lie. Having this type of behavior be what I'm exposed to has damaged me. Even while trying to be better than those before me I still have a short fuse and get easily frustrated, just like my mother and my grandmother before her. I've lost friends to it and much worse as I tried to end the cycle. It's not gone, it is currently a part of me, but I like to believe it's gotten better.

For a surreal arcade game about becoming a giant mass of objects, something about this game specifically is very profound to me. Maybe I am reading into it too much, but it's hard to overlook what is being shown when I relate to it so much.

I normally like to end reviews with a shitposty type joke, and I was going to do one with the sumo level and how you just vore people, but I think I found my own capitalism metaphor in it. In that level you help a sumo gain weight so he can defeat another sumo, and what starts as a humble binge of food and random objects eventually leads to him getting so fat that he devours other people and destroys the city if you go big enough. The fact that to often fulfill your life's ambitions requires trampling over others regardless if you know of it or not is reflected in this level, and if I'm still reading too into it you can just say it's the funny vore level and laugh.

That's what I would say about this game in general. My views and experiences are mirrored here, so the game is a lot more profound to me, but I know for many others it is just a silly game that is very very fun. And sometimes that is all a game needs to be.

Pure kinaesthetic bliss. The immaculate aesthetic aside, just the sheer act of rolling stuff up in this game is incredibly satisfying.

First game is good but this game cleans up the mechanics and has a lot more level variety. I personally like the soundtrack more too.

I know Takahashi didn't want to make this game but I'm glad Namco seemed to force him into doing it. There's a weird push/pull balance between him and Namco that worked out really well. Like Takahashi didn't even want there to be a time limit on levels in the first game. Namco kind of set him straight on some of the more accepted video game standards. The first game was probably like 90% Takahashi and 10% rigid business suit boys and this one seems more like 85/15 which I think is juuuust right.

But that's all just a theory. A GAAAAAAME THEORY.

This and Taco Bell are the only good things to come out of Capitilism. If you haven't tried the 2 dollar Fiesta Veggie Burrito you got to get on that. It's incredible. It does have guac in it though so watch out if you're alergic.

Essentially the perfect sequel - it expands the original experience in every direction to create a much more full-featured game while sacrificing nothing.

The understated writing of the 'story' is once again wonderful, but is now very explicitly a metatextual exploration of the director's complicated feelings about the original game's success and the necessity of a sequel. Not particularly well-trod ground for mainstream video games in 2005! That a game this good was essentially made under duress, and that the game itself is constantly pointing that out and making light of it only makes it that much more funny and intriguing.

But most importantly .......... guys ......... you can roll so much bigger in this one!!! Even having played it like ten times over the years, this STILL activates areas of my primitive game enjoyer brain that have been dormant since sometime in the arcade era. Pure, primordial gaming stuff in here.

one of the most magical and special games to me. it takes katamari damacy and perfects it by improving on just about everything that could even be improved. i know a lot of people prefer the original damacy soundtrack but i'd hardly say either have a much better soundtrack than the other and i definitely like katamari on the swing way more than any of the damacy songs, sorry que sera sera. i also personally find the cynicism in this game compared to the first refreshing and i find that it makes we love katamari a great statement on video game fanbases and the culture of sequels.

That's a damn true title, I love Katamari.

This game starts off with a meta narrative with how everyone loved the original Katamari Damacy game even though it wasn't represented as a game in Katamari Damacy it was just the king fixing the stars of the real world but who cares it's a Katamari game.

Gameplay wise these two games are practically identical, the main difference between the two games is the style and presentation how We Love Katamari try to be more like a comedy with weird humor that just honestly works for me I think it's really charming and I love these cutscenes about the king's youth it's way better than the cube family from the original game.
The other main difference is how the stages are built, they are still the same thing but they have much more theme and gimmick in this game so it ends up being more creative for the better or worse. I think the stages in this game tend to be a bit hit or miss, some gimmicks can be cool while some can be annoying, while the original just did the "Roll to get bigger" for most of the main stages and these are still my favorite type of stages. Though when a We Love Katamari stage is good it's damn good like all of the objects are really well placed and the city stages feel a whole lot more lively they are way better than how they were in Katamari Damacy but unfortunately there are only two of them or so in the game, at least ones where you are tasked to get big.

Overall a good sequel to Katamari Damacy that improves and mostly just does the same as the original rather than straight up replacing it.

The refined and cheekily self-referential sequel to Katamari Damacy was the last truly great game in a series that like no other defined the era of experimental mid-budget PS2 games, until its original creator left, and it got turned into a hotpot of cynical cash-grabs that never again recaptured the magic and avant-garde qualities of its first two entries.

Basically, We ❤ Katamari plays like a twisted version of a Peter Molyneux god game through the eyes of an absurdist artist, who looks at the world in a Brechtian "seeing something familiar from a confused outsider's perspective" kind of way. Above all, it's just such a pure expression of a video game, with that distinctly Japanese quality of being childlike and goofy and light-hearted on the surface, while at the same time having a sad and eerily sinister undertone. Experiencing it is hard to describe, but maybe best summed up by its soundscape: Imagine listening to a jaunty upbeat J-Pop song while people are screaming in terror in the background. In the end, you can't help but laugh.

The Sequel That Is About Being A Sequel is something I'm familiar with, but I didn't expect We Love Katamari to be one of these. The title itself is a statement that is certainly true for the fanbase, for many of the people who made it, and for anyone who made money off of it, but for creator Keita Takahashi, the title was more of a question that needed an answer. Do we love Katamari? Why? Do we want more Katamari? Do I want more Katamari?

The game opens by summarizing the events of the first game, declaring that Katamari Damacy was beloved by all, so of course there had to be a follow-up. But The King of All Cosmos, the flippant and prideful figure who caused the catalyst for the first game, doesn't really get it. He enjoys being beloved, and he'll gladly take any opportunity to boss the Prince and his cousins around, but when it comes down to it, he seems to want to do anything else besides play Katamari. He only does it for the sake of the humans who loved Katamari Damacy, or are curious about why people love it.

These humans, while at first expressing their love of Katamari, also are very demanding and petty. The player is used to being insulted by The King on their first try in any level, but sometimes the "fan" is even harsher, and even when you do pretty good, they still never fail to throw in something like "Yeah, you could do better, but I guess I'll settle for this." While I'm sure exceeding at every stage will get you more unqualified compliments, the average player will often disappoint these fans, or see would-be fans says something like "Is this was Katamari is? Doesn't seem that good to me." The game is constantly referencing the first game, as The Prince is working entirely in service of people who are only thinking of the first game. The cosmos are just fine, exactly as you left them at the end of the first game, The Prince and The King are only doing all this because they've been asked to, because they feel the need to prove themselves to any naysayers in the world.

The unbridled joy and fascination with the world that was present in Damacy is still here in the art, gameplay, design, and music, but We Love Katamari also has a surprising cynical streak that it never really relents from. In the end it kind of suggests that no sequel is entirely uncynical, that revisiting the well will never truly result in something just as good, but it also ends up being an extremely fucking solid sequel to Damacy that rivals it in quality. I love the gimmick levels in this game, like the one where you're moving super fast on a race track, or where you're trying to search for every paper crane in a level, there's so much creativity in the variety of level types. I don't think it ever surpasses the original like some people believe, but it's a strong as hell follow-up.

It ends up making We Love Katamari bittersweet, it's incredibly fun to play, but it's a game that believes being "as fun as the first" isn't enough, and therefore no sequel to Katamari Damacy will ever be worthwhile, even the one you're playing. It especially becomes a bummer when you check the Wikipedia page for the "Katamari Series" and see that there's been around 4 different mobile games since We Love Katamari, along with countless other entires with no involvement from Takahashi. We Love Katamari was his way of expressing gratitude to anyone who enjoyed Damacy, while also being his way of letting them know that it's OK to let Katamari go, and that he'll be the first to do so.

It's always been a bit of a shame that this was the first Katamari game we got in Europe. We didn't even know if we loved Katamari when we bought it. There's few gaming sequels as heavily predicated on the player's familiarity with the original game. It's practically a fan disc.

The game's setting regards everyone loving Katamari Damacy and The King of All Cosmos gaining a huge ego about it. The levels are sillier, and frequently, more gimmicky than those in the original game. There's a couple daft new renditions of Katamari on the Rocks, with a wild acapella arrangement and one sung by animals, but I really just wanted the original back then.

All this time later, after playing the NTSC/J original, practically every sequel, and the REROLL remaster, We Love Katamari makes perfect sense. We do love Katamari. We're ready for it now.

I don't think it's quite as good as Katamari Damacy, despite the quality of life tweaks and a more varied set of levels. I think it's a bit more hit or miss. There's some levels that are a bit of a struggle to have much fun with. There's a couple that are basically just dumb jokes (the Cow/Bear-themed level doesn't make as much sense to English-speaking players as the Uma/Kuma one would have made to the Japanese audience), and they break up the flow amusingly, but they're a bit of a pill if they're a substantial portion of the Katamari content you have access to. The soundtrack sometimes approaches the heights of Katamari Damacy's, but they feel like b-sides to the original's world-blazing chart toppers.

Likely the best thing about We Love Katamari is how much fun they've had setting up little scenarios with the animals, vegetables and minerals scattered around the levels. A pirouetting ballerina leading a parade of swans. Armed policemen who immediately start firing at you when you approach. Elephants spinning around on top of giant mushrooms. We Love Katamari is very funny.

Keita Takahashi was making a lot of noise about the similarities between Wattam and Death Stranding's themes when they were both coming out, but really, most of his games seem to be about that. Appreciating all aspects of the world and connecting them together. From paper airplanes and towers of AA batteries to oil tankers and a legally-distinct Ghidorah. It's lovely. I'm glad there's Katamari.


(Disclaimer, edited in months after initial publication: I have been privately and considerately called out on the uma/kuma thing. "Uma" is Japanese for "horse", and not cow ("ushi"). I often have Japanese horses on my mind, and jumped to a false conclusion that I had cracked the code, though I later realised my mistake. I didn't want to edit it out of the review, as I think there's value in the assumption that things that don't make sense to you might just be a joke that went over your head, but I don't want to spread ignorance either. Please continue to respect Mr Takahashi whilst you deal with the conflict of not understanding what he was doing with that level)

Katamari at its core always has a perfect gameplay loop, but the vibe and setting of this entry are the best in the series. The King has a tragic backstory! The Katamari fans are excited, but ultimately just as demanding as the King was in the first game. All this makes the King soften towards the Prince, and their relationship is actually nice this time!

The final level is utterly serene and brilliant in how it lets you roll up the other Katamari and stardust that you've previously created. A wonderful send-off to a lovely game.

Although it has only been a little under a month since I beat Katamari Damacy, I have thought about it at least once a day since then, as I've been listening to the soundtrack very often (with "Que Sera Sera" and "Roll Me In" being on repeat in both my mind and my computer) while also checking out speedruns and world record rolls. All of this has made me incredibly excited to check out the game's sequel, We Love Katamari, and I was curious to see what it was about the game that made so many people consider it to be the better experience, and the ever-so-sweet Japanese box art featuring the game's development team posing in front of Namco being another motivator to finally give the game a go. Like the first game, I was won over by the charm of We Love Katamari right when I saw its intro play for the first time, and not only did this game retain the spirit of its predecessor, but it also brought so many new ideas to the table that I can't see it as anything other than the definitive Katamari experience.

Whether you were grabbing everything in your path, trying to collect a specific kind of item, or trying to grab the biggest single item while avoiding its smaller lookalikes, pretty much all of the levels in Katamari Damacy end up with you rolling the biggest ball you possibly can, and while those level types are still here in the sequel and are as fun as they've ever been, We Love Katamari features a lot more variety in terms of levels and objectives. We Love Katamari takes the core mechanics of the first game and expands on them through its constant recontexualizations, and moving on from cleaning up after the King of All Cosmos' mess and instead doing freelance work for the fans of the previous game means that you're completing tasks such as cleaning up a kid's room, helping a sumo wrestler eat enough food to prepare for his next match, rolling up a head for a giant snowman, or even trying to light a bonfire while also keeping your own katamari's flame from going out. Not only do these new game modes make the already unique concept of the first game feel fresh again, but one of the original modes involving rolling up a certain item type was made much more interesting, as collecting flowers in a beautiful meadow or rolling up a gingerbread house for Hansel and Gretel was infinitely more compelling than collecting objects simply because the King of All Cosmos wanted you to. Speaking of which, We Love Katamari featured a lot more locales for its levels than the first game, and while the satisfaction of learning your way around each level so that you can get bigger in a shorter amount of time is still here to an extent (especially with the addition of alternate objectives for completed levels), I still loved just how new almost all of the levels felt.

Like I mentioned earlier, We Love Katamari focuses on paying tribute to the fans that made Katamari Damacy the surprise hit that it was, and while the first game was already filled with joy (save for the verbal abuse coming from your in-game father whenever you fail a mission), this felt like a game made out of pure love and passion, and my mood would improve immediately whenever I sat down to play it, including the times where I was in an already good one. We Love Katamari retains the timeless artstyle and surrealist comedy of its predecessor, and its quirky look really got to shine during the grandiose, gorgeously animated, and often hilarious cutscenes that showed the King of All Cosmos' upbringing and how he fell in love with the Queen of All Cosmos. As expected, the shibuya-kei soundtrack was absolutely phenomenal, and while I'm not sure if I can decide between the music for this game or Katamari Damacy just yet, I will say that the song "Angel Rain" from the flower and firefly levels might just be my favorite individual track out of both of these games. Because this was essentially a direct improvement on the original game in pretty much every way, I'd go as far as to say that We Love Katamari is one of my favorite puzzle games, and while I'm not all that interested in checking out the other games from the Katamari franchise due to the lack of involvement from its creator, Keita Takahashi, I do want to eventually play some of the games that he made on his own, including his upcoming game To a T.

Oh man, it's good. Like, really really good.
I gotta say, for a director like Keita Takahashi, a man that absolutely fucking HATES the ideas of sequels, despising them to the point of categorizing them as anti-art, whistles, he actually might have made one of the greatest sequels of all time.

The result of how this game turned out is such an insane achievement; The guy absolutely didn't want to work on the game when the idea of a sequel was presented to him. He immediately declined when it was brought before him shortly after the predecessor's release, and in good old fashion business lingo, they basically told him we're making it with or without you. Either way, this was going to be made, so he reluctantly accepted his position as Director once again. Despite the deck being completely stacked against his wishes, I'm thoroughly surprised how excellent this ended up being.

For starters, nothing was cut, you've got that signature Katamari Damacy gameplay: You roll shit up, and attempt to make it bigger than the State of Texas. On top of that, collectables are back as well, returning in the form of presents, and The Prince's diverse assortment of cousins. However, not only do old collectables return, such as the camera, but all the cousins from the previous games make a return, INCLUDING the addition of brand new ones. My favorite had to be Slip, he's basically a Paper version of The Prince, à la Paper Mario. It's such a simple design, but it's so goofy and different compared to the originals cast of what were pretty much mostly color swaps.

So yeah, you've got all your old stuff, but you're probably thinking...that's it? More of the same? Well, yeah, but the real charm of it all is how the levels are structured this time.
In an attempt to become a bigger acid trip than the original, the story of the game centers around fans of the previous game, yes, THE GAME Katamari Damacy, asking numerous favors from the King of All Cosmos, as a result of their adoration of the previous game. It's a metanarrative plot, but it uses this self awareness in one of the best, and most heartwarming ways possible.
The game itself is basically a giant thank you note to all the fans, that supported, and played the original Katamari Damacy, hence the name We ❤️ Katamari. It's a neat way to show the dev's gratitude, while providing an explanation on why we have another bolder, improved, and ambitious Katamari game.

For example, as mentioned before, you have your standard levels where you reach a certain size, within a certain amount of time. However, levels similar to the first game's: collect this specific item structure make a return, but with a much more unique twist. One of these levels involves a fan asking the King to help start a bonfire at the local campgrounds. You do this by setting a Katamari on fire, and fueling the flaming Katamari with objects you collect, whilst keeping the main goal in mind of lighting a pile of wood on top of a hill. These missions are what make the gameplay loop of this particular installment so much fun, you never know what type of level you're going to get.

One of my favorite levels in the game had to be the racetrack; Some dude asks if you can show him cars being rolled up, and you go about this by entering a race with your katamari, and collecting shit at high speeds the entire time. It's your standard "get bigger" level, but you can't stop the katamari from moving so fast.
Another one of my favorites had to be the snowman level; It's such a refreshing pace breaker from the rest of the game's structure, since all you're doing is rolling up a ball of snow, like how you would in real life, except there's no time limit. You can just relax, enjoy the snowy scenery, and choose when you want to stop rolling around the snowball.
This overall, made the game immensely enjoyable from start to finish, and I never got bored because of it.

I also want to mention that I played through the PS2 version of this game, and this was my first time playing through it. The only other games in the series I played were half of the first game (although I recently finished it right before playing this), and about 70% of Touch My Katamari (yeah, that's the title). Reason why I mention this, is because I honestly recommend that, if you can, play the original, and this sequel on the PS2. Your saved progress from the first, to this, carries over; Without giving away how the game ends, it was nice seeing my combined progress from the first and second game come together to help me reach the end goal.
If you can't, playing the remaster should be fine enough, I only played the first two levels of it, and it seems like a nicely polished version for newer audiences.

That being said, this quickly became one of my favorite PS2 games ever, and I'm glad to have finally played it. It's so good that I bumped the first game down to four and a half stars, because this was such an awesome improvement. I'm actually a bit interested in tackling the other sequels in the series, despite Keita Takahashi not being involved with them. I'm curious about comparing those to these two games. So to follow this review, I guess I'll do a Beautiful Katamari review at some point. I WOULD do the PSP game but the controls for that look...clunky.
To conclude, here's my favorite track from the game, and go look at the manual for this, because this is one of the coolest I've seen for a video game.

Favorite Track : https://youtu.be/bhfnVc49S_I
The Game's Manual : https://archive.org/details/we-love-katamari-manual-ps-2/mode/2up

Probably my favorite game in the series, which is a bit ironic considering that, if you stop and think about it, this is a game all about poking fun at people who wanted a sequel to Katamari Damacy. You spend the whole game fulfilling the demands of fans who liked the first game and want more of it. They sit on the overworld and holler the same phrases over and over to try and get your attention so you can do their mission, regardless of how many times you've done their mission before or how well you did when clearing said mission. When you clear their mission, they'll be satisfied for a while, but they'll inevitably want you to play it again no matter what you do. Considering Keita Takahashi reportedly didn't want to make this game, I feel like that was definitely intentional.

...it's still really fun, though. You can go through the entire game and not even realize this is the message they're trying to send

EDIT: HELL YEAH REMAKE BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I’m not sure this is a common enough occurrence to call it a trend within game development, but I’ve noticed that a few games I love are reluctant sequels that likely wouldn’t have been made if the creator had a say in the matter. Kojima wanted Metal Gear Solid 2 to be the last game, yet he was obliged by Konami to make a third, thus creating what’s considered the greatest game of all time by many. We Love Katamari is another example of this, and the game itself is completely on the nose about its obliged creation.

That’s not an insult either, It totally uses this tone to amplify the game. I think it’s an incredible test of creativity to make a sequel to a game that really shouldn’t have one. How do you even make another Katamari game that doesn’t feel like more of the exact same. The whole game is essentially one verb: roll.

Katamari Damacy uses this verb to craft one of the most enjoyable games of all time. There’s a lot more underneath the foundation of this singular action. The first Katamari game slowly builds up a tension around our motivation as players. You wanna roll up cars, buildings, all the big stuff! For so long you struggle to even craft Katamaris that are large enough to engulf a single person. The payoff of this game is the eventual rolling up of the whole planet. You start off rolling up coins, batteries, ants, (an insane variety of assets), and soon you are picking up entire islands, rainbows, volcanos. All of this to the joy of one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It’s even surrounded by a strangely pure narrative and humor that’s localized to perfection. These games are hilarious.

So you have a game where you just roll up stuff level by level, each time getting bigger, with an occasional specific objective (such as roll up the biggest bear, roll up fish etc). How do you further enhance that formula?

We Love Katamari tackles this challenge in a possibly obvious way, but its simplicity is incredibly genuine and smart. Without Keita Takahashi, a sequel could’ve been as basic as “roll up even bigger stuff, dude”. Maybe a simpler control scheme to expand the audience to people who couldn’t grasp the bizarre dual analog stick control scheme of the first, maybe add something resembling more obvious combat or platform-like scenarios. Health bars! Jump buttons! Instead we have a sequel that doesn’t try to outdo itself in scope alone.
We Love Katamari does have levels where you just get big and roll up big things, but it hammers down on the idea of goal based motivation. There’s almost a more strategic and puzzle like element to this game. You won’t always be aimlessly rolling up whatever you see to get as big as possible. You’ll have levels - like the campfire mission - where you have to roll a katamari on fire around and keep it burning as long as possible. Roll up snow to craft the perfect snowman. Really simple ideas that go beyond the basics of the first game. There’s still a meditative and zen feeling to the experience, but it feels a bit more engaging, and honestly less frustrating at times since bumping into things is less punishing. Everything else about its presentation is on par if not a little better than the first game as well. The meta narrative of catering to katamari fans is on the nose, but it’s not trying to be subtle. It’s hilarious, but it gets away with it because it does pull off being a fantastic sequel. I think the first two Katamari games are genuinely some of the funniest games of all time, if not the funniest.

Some people weren’t as hot on the more specific goals of the gameplay, but I think it shows off why this weird style of gameplay is so much fun.
This game aptly inspired a lot of “katamari-likes” (or whatever the proper term for these would be). Mobile games where you play as a thing and you absorb things to get bigger and bigger and bigger. It takes that satisfying element of Katamari Damacy and simplifies it down to the immediate payoff. There’s not really a buildup to it. They’re “just so satisfying” to play. These mobile games are harmless, but they miss the point of what makes games like Katamari Damacy satisfying. Not that they’re trying to be anything more than what they are, but Katamari Damacy being grouped with games of the like is a disservice to what Katamari Damacy is. I mean, the eternal mode where you get to roll stuff up aimlessly is indeed fun and satisfying, but the build up and payoff to get to that point makes it even better. There is an intended frustration to the process. You get hit or bump into things and your katamari loses items and shrinks, you get stuck in a tricky area, you have to put in a lot of effort to get up simple obstacles, and sometimes the King of Cosmos will condescendingly criticize the size of your Katamari at the end of a level. He still takes the katamari and lets you continue, but now the game is about pleasing your space dad too. The game is full of interesting problem solving and motivation, even if the actual gameplay is repetitive and simple.
We Love Katamari takes all of this into account and shows off the fine details of what makes these games great. It would be easy to go bigger and whackier, but instead we get a Katamari game that has more technical design behind its levels. It’s the same type of game at heart, but it’s full of little changes to presentation and gameplay motivation to makes it feel different from its predecessor. It’s fun, endearing, creative, beautiful, funny, and genuine. This is the last Katamari game made by the original creator. I believe he took this concept and maxed it out to its full potential.

They tried to franchise it out even more without him, but nothing ever stuck like the original two games. They’re isolated and amazing pieces of art and entertainment. Genuinely some of the best games of all time. We never needed a ton of sequels, though I’m really glad that We Love Katamari turned out the way it did.

Muito do que falei sobre o original se mantém aqui, com o adendo de que meu apreço e carinho pelos dois cresceu ainda mais com o tempo: Keita Takahashi sabe muito bem encapsular algumas pequenas delícias mecânicas da vida e transformá-las em algo além - neste caso, o simples rolar de uma bolinha - tudo enquanto consegue transferir através de todo o jogo a ideia de que só rolar tudo de novo é justamente o que ele não queria estar fazendo.

Adorei como o jogo faz de sua missão zoar todos os fãs que tanto queriam mais do jogo anterior, e ao mesmo tempo os entrega exatamente o que queriam: Katamari Damacy, mais variado, maior e melhor - e os fãs do jogo, que dentro dele te pedem inúmeros katamaris, sempre escarram em suas criações, falando que preferiam como estava antes ou que nem ficou tão legal assim ou que não entenderam porque o neto deles gosta disso.

We Love Katamari consegue ser um comentário muito bem humorado e divertido sobre os males da cultura do consumismo, e, ainda assim, bem conscientemente se entrega a esta fantasia megalomaníaca em um genial e engraçadinho playground, orquestrado ao tom de uma OST novamente fantástica (verdadeiramente, além de seu tempo e gênero). Porque no fim de tudo, rolar uma bola do tamanho de uma formiga até ela consumir o Sol é extremamente divertido.