Me & My Katamari

With the success of We Love Katamari on the PS2, it was natural for Namco to want to capitalize further on the Katamari brand with or without Keita Takahashi’s involvement. In a first for the series, Namco proceeded without him for a new entry made for the PSP, Me & My Katamari, in 2005. Regardless of its issues, the PSP was my handheld of choice for many years and helped get me through high school, with this game being part of my library since I was obsessed with the series at the time. With the announcement of Once Upon A Katamari on modern platforms, I decided to take another look at this game on another save file, though I was surprised to see that I hadn’t played it since 2010. While I would still consider the game to be pretty fun, enough time has passed that its flaws stand out more to me through fresh eyes.

As with most Katamari games, the plot is pretty simple. While the Royal Family visits Earth on vacation, the King of All Cosmos has so much fun that he accidentally submerges nearby islands. Once a turtle brings this to their attention, the King tasks the Prince with rolling up new islands based on the animal residents’ criteria.

While the general gameplay is similar to Katamari Damacy, the gameplay loop is more akin to We Love Katamari in that you are, as stated, fulfilling requests from animal NPCs, though the fact that you’re creating islands instead of stars helps it stand out from other games in the series. These can be replayed later by visiting the animal again on the starting island (named Prince Island by default), with the option to turn the new result into a rock or replacement island. Getting enough points in a mission also unlocks Eternal Mode for that stage, removing the time limit at the cost of making any new islands. Additionally, five Strange Requests are unlocked on the neighboring Volcano Island over time, comprising of timed challenges given by new animals that result in new islands when completed.

 

The core loop remains the same. (Screencap from MobyGames)

 

While the Strange Requests offer some gameplay variety, the lack of variety in the standard missions is not helped by the level design, which makes most missions feel same-y since it’s largely a handful of environments reskinned to represent a new location. While I chalk this up to the PSP’s hardware limitations, said limitations result in a lot of loading upon unlocking a new area when the Katamari gets big enough, as well as some questionable draw distance despite the series’ art style translating perfectly to the handheld. Aside from the iconic sound design, the soundtrack is noticeably largely recycled from the first two games; while I still generally liked the songs, I fell like more could have been done here to help it stand out more from previous entries.

The PSP’s limitations also result in some altered controls to account for only having one stick, with the D-Pad/stick and face buttons being used to roll the Katamari. This awkward control scheme takes some getting used to, but is mostly smooth once you get the hang of it; I had an easier time using the stick instead of the D-Pad, but rolling without also moving the camera is still a balancing act and holding the face buttons for an extended period can hurt your thumb after a while. Also worth mentioning is that you can press Select to activate Photo Mode.

Me & My Katamari is a flawed entry, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still get some enjoyment out of it, since the gameplay loop proves to be just as addicting as ever. If you’re looking for a way to play Katamari Damacy on the go without having the Switch port of Reroll, this is still a pretty decent option if you can deal with its hangups.