Second Look - Touch My Katamari

As the popularity of the Katamari series continued, the series later ventured back into the handheld space, this time with a launch title for the PS Vita in 2012 (2011 in Japan) called Touch My Katamari. Unfortunately, the game was a failure, resulting in the series going all but dormant for 14 years until the announcement of Once Upon a Katamari, at least partially attributed to the PS Vita itself failing as a system. The formal return of the franchise led me to dig out my copy of Touch My Katamari, which I last played in 2013 according to my save data, to reevaluate my opinions. Looking back on it, although I noticed more flaws in the game this time, I still found it an ultimately entertaining experience, even if not the best.

A family talks about how awesome the King of All Cosmos is, putting him on the same level as a principal. The King overhears this conversation, concluding that he’s not as awesome as he once was. Feeling as though he is slacking off, the King has the Prince roll up more Katamari to fill up the cosmos.

While the gameplay loop takes more from We Love Katamari in that you are fulfilling fan requests, the core gameplay expands on that of Katamari Forever. For starters, Prince Hop makes a return, initiated by double tapping the rear touch pad or by simply pressing R, with quick turn mapped to rolling the sticks backwards or simply pressing L. Taking advantage of the PS Vita’s features, you can use either the front or rear touch pad to morph the Katamari (pinch to squish, pull to stretch, tap with two fingers to reset), enabling further options for gathering objects and increased maneuverability for squeezing into tight areas. The hub world is also compressed further by taking place on the King’s head, however it has some slight momentum that can make it a little difficult to navigate effectively. Whereas previous games either had rerolled stars automatically replace the previous roll or allowed you to make them into something else, this game does something different and simply erases rerolls that don’t surpass your highest result.

 

You can now stretch...

...and squish the Katamari.
(Japanese version pictured.)

A new form of collectible introduced in this game is Candies, which are earned upon completing a level, the amount of which is based on your performance. Depending on how well you do, the King may feel extra generous and offer you a Candy Ticket, which can be spent to Sweet Talk (max. 3) and multiply the amount of Candies you earn. There’s also a chance for fans to have Big Candies with them, granting you even more Candies for completing a level. Candies, in turn, can be spent on a number of items, including music tracks, cosmetics to customize the King’s appearance and extra gameplay modes (Drive, Eternal) for each of the included levels.

Although the game has a number of levels, it overall ends pretty quickly even by Katamari standards, with no real running plot to connect them aside from the Goro the Slacker side story. The ability to unlock extra content does give it more replay value to some extent, but there’s not much incentive to keep playing beyond trying to increase your score. That’s not to say it isn’t fun while it lasts, especially with its gameplay ideas that expand even further on its PS3 predecessor, but it can feel underwhelming when coming directly off that game.

Similarly to Beautiful Katamari, this game features some DLC, including music packs and extra levels, which can still be downloaded from the PS Vita store (oddly, most of this DLC is not viewable in the store unless you access it through the game). There are nine DLC levels, known as Download Requests, all of which can be downloaded for free. However, there is a catch, in that once you’ve downloaded them, you cannot access them unless you collect 10 Fan Damacys each to unlock them. Fan Damacys have a random chance to spawn in a stage, of which the King will helpfully inform you before you begin, or you can bypass the grind completely by spending money on them in the PS Vita store; any Fan Damacys you don’t want can be exchanged for 3 Candy Tickets. Not wanting to spend too much money on them, I used a technique I found to grind for Fan Damacys more efficiently, but after doing it enough to round out 40 across multiple lengthy sessions due to long streaks of bad RNG and trying to stave off RSI, I decided to just buy the remaining 50, feeling I had gotten that down to a more reasonable price.

 

These can be a pain to grind.

While the first Download Request recycles a level from previous games, the other eight are wholly original, each one providing increasingly difficult challenges. As it progresses, however, the series’ stricter time limits since We Love Katamari start to really show themselves. The sixth (“Katamari Soccer”) and eight (“Athlete Abyss”) levels were difficult for their own reasons and started to push my limits, but I was still able to complete them with some perseverance after a few tries, however the ninth level (“The Great Journey”) was so difficult for me that even the seemingly-generous 12-minute timer felt too short; it’s even structured similarly one of the larger stages in Me & My Katamari, but unlike that game, you don’t get any time extensions between parts for performance. Since each level includes a Drive and Eternal variant for free, the last stage was the only one where I felt the need to skip straight to the Eternal variant just to reach the end, where I was able to confirm my suspicions about my own skill against the timer. Regardless, I would still say that the Download Requests are worth it since they provide some much-needed additional content and replay value, but at this point you’re better off just buying the necessary Fan Damacys if you can afford it, while you still can.

Rather noticeably, Touch My Katamari uses a radically different visual style from previous games, at least as far as cutscenes are concerned. For better or worse, this does help it stand out from previous games, though I personally had some mixed feelings on this approach. The soundtrack is also different, but I personally felt more positively on it since it still felt within the spirit of the games and went well with the game’s unique style.

There’s also noticeably fewer Cousins than previous games, but are oddly made to resemble fusions of multiple Cousins, an approach I was not really a fan of. Despite having more horsepower than the PSP and having far better loading, the game also suffers the same draw distance issue as Me & My Katamari, where objects have a tendency to pop into existence, sometimes making it difficult to keep track of the state of a level. Although I had gotten somewhat used to it, the design of the King is a bit uncanny in 3D, but mostly in the face to it sporting more realistic features while retaining the cartoonish triangular nose. Interestingly, the Download Request “Maid Paradise” features an appearance of both the Japanese anime store Animate and its mascot, Meito Anizawa.

 

Animate mascot Meito Anizawa makes a cameo in the DLC.

For better or worse, Touch My Katamari has a unique personality compared to other games in the Katamari series, which may not be for everyone. Still, while short on its own, it’s still fun while it lasts, and the DLC helps provide a heftier package.