Katamari Damacy Reroll (PS4)

 

With the increasing complexity of the gaming landscape at the time, director Keita Takahashi created Katamari Damacy with the intent of creating something simpler that was also fun, though he had difficulty getting it off the ground due to him being in Namco’s art department at the time. When the game first released for the PS2 in 2004, his efforts paid off, spawning a long-running franchise across multiple console generations, only for it to becomes largely dormant following Touch My Katamari on the PS Vita in 2012 before coming back into full swing in 2020 with Katamari Damacy Reroll, a remaster of the original game for then-modern hardware. When I first played the original game on the PS2, I was instantly hooked by its simple, yet addictive nature, leading to it becoming one of my all-time favorite series. Due to the large gap of time following the PS Vita game, I became instantly excited by Katamari Damacy Reroll (Reroll) when it released for the Switch, but ended up holding out until it received a PS4 release, as it was my preferred platform anyway since I more heavily associate the series with the PlayStation brand, though the timing of its release led me to not play it until recently when its sequel, We Love Katamari, received a remaster of its own. After having not played the game for so long, Katamari Damacy Reroll served as a great reminder of why I loved the series in the first place.

After accidentally destroying all the stars in the night sky while in a drunken stupor, the King of All Cosmos assigns his son, the Prince, to replace all the missing stars by rolling up objects on Earth with Katamari. These events are supplemented by a story involving the Hoshino family making their way to a space shuttle launch, with the two plotlines eventually crossing paths. Due to its minimal nature, there’s not much to say about the story, though the Hoshino family plotline that plays out between levels does give an interesting idea of what the events of the game look like from a normal person’s perspective.

The game has a very simple, yet addictive gameplay loop, in which you roll a katamari using both analog sticks to roll up objects and make the ball as big as possible within a time limit. A larger katamari also means being able to roll up increasingly larger objects, and in later levels allows you to explore further areas of the given map, though hitting a wall or an object too large to roll will cause some of your collected objects to fall off the ball. There are, however, some additional mechanics that can make rolling sessions easier, including the ability to instantly flip around to the other side, jump up to get a perspective from above or rock the sticks back and forth to give the ball a burst of speed. Additionally, your katamari is visible at all times when behind a foreground object, with an indicator of your katamari’s location underwater, plus the game will warn you if a larger moving object is getting dangerously close to your ball. Levels also often have collectibles that you can look for, namely Royal Presents that unlock cosmetics for the Prince and Cousins that unlock new playable characters, plus any stars or constellations you reroll can either replace the original or be turned into stardust, and replayed levels can be ended at any time through the pause menu with big-enough katamaris turned into stars.

 

The game has multiple contingencies in place for a smoother experience.

Some levels involve creating constellations rather than stars, with each of these having their own unique challenges involving rolling up enough of a certain type of object, though Ursa Major and Taurus are especially difficult due to how they respectively only require a single bear or cow, ending the stage immediately. I will mention that, since the gameplay area is still active while the King of All Cosmos explains the objective, it is possible to roll up at least three crabs in the Cancer stage without having to do anything as they walk straight into the katamari, but this can also lead to getting kicked out of the starting area in the Virgo stage, in which you have to roll up maidens/girls. Also worth mentioning is that Reroll is also slightly more lenient with the time limits, adding an extra minute in some stages, making them much easier than in the original game.

 

The first level, for instance, gives you 4 minutes rather than the original's 3.

Much like the gameplay, the game employs a simple, yet effective art style with low-poly models due to the original PS2 game’s hardware limitations, though Reroll gives these models an updated look with cleaner designs and newer lighting, with the PS4 version also having faster load times than the original. Along with this is a soundtrack full of catchy and memorable music, even the ancillary audio, setting a precedent for future games in the series. Worth noting is that, while the English PS2 version had English audio for the cutscenes, Reroll opts to only use the original Japanese voice acting, which can be weird for those used to the English audio. While the overall quality of the English voice acting can be debated, mainly with how much it contributes to the experience, it would have been nice for it to be included as an audio option for those who wanted to hear it without having to buy the PS2 version.

With the aid of some modern gameplay tweaks, Katamari Damacy Reroll is a perfect reminder of why the games were fun to begin with, with its success proving that there is still a place for the series in the modern gaming landscape. For fans of the original wanting to experience the game on modern hardware, this one is a no-brainer, otherwise this is perhaps the perfect entry point for those who have never played any of the games before and want to see what the fuss is about.