I remembered that I had a few levels left on this one to do so I polished it off. It's interesting to see how the series moved forwards both in terms of the game itself and its presentation. It's pretty clear that the game doesn't involve the original people behind it as the tone's noticeably changed for the worse but as a game it's a definite improvement.
As a package though it doesn't quite hold together. The clarity of ratings is a much needed improvement, as are the improved physics. The jump button I'm ambivalent about; it makes everything much speedier as you don't need to contend with the climbing as much, but it does kinda feel like cheating, just like it did in Crazy Taxi 2. I don't rate the soundtrack anywhere near as much as the original, and there's much less sense of the game building towards the last level; the second-to-last is a target of 12m and then it just sets you on the way to the finale. I'm not convinced by the stretching mechanic either, as while it's very occasionally useful, having to remove your thumbs from the sticks to make it happen is pretty bad and it feels imprecise.
The tougher time limits and requirements do make it more of a game, you can't just sort of dawdle your way through as you go on. I think the original would have made that frustrating but with the physics improvements it's clearer that it's your fault.
I'd like to see a properly new one of these, taking advantage of modern systems' memory capacity and resolutions to jack up the numbers of items. That moment when you hit something that's been built out of parts and it just collapses onto the katamari or when you're rolling around on something and then you get big enough to pull it out of the ground is like nothing else. Feels like I'm chasing a high that I got 15-plus years ago.
As a package though it doesn't quite hold together. The clarity of ratings is a much needed improvement, as are the improved physics. The jump button I'm ambivalent about; it makes everything much speedier as you don't need to contend with the climbing as much, but it does kinda feel like cheating, just like it did in Crazy Taxi 2. I don't rate the soundtrack anywhere near as much as the original, and there's much less sense of the game building towards the last level; the second-to-last is a target of 12m and then it just sets you on the way to the finale. I'm not convinced by the stretching mechanic either, as while it's very occasionally useful, having to remove your thumbs from the sticks to make it happen is pretty bad and it feels imprecise.
The tougher time limits and requirements do make it more of a game, you can't just sort of dawdle your way through as you go on. I think the original would have made that frustrating but with the physics improvements it's clearer that it's your fault.
I'd like to see a properly new one of these, taking advantage of modern systems' memory capacity and resolutions to jack up the numbers of items. That moment when you hit something that's been built out of parts and it just collapses onto the katamari or when you're rolling around on something and then you get big enough to pull it out of the ground is like nothing else. Feels like I'm chasing a high that I got 15-plus years ago.