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.