Game Review: Once Upon a Katamari

I’ll admit, I’m late to the Katamari party. I never played the games during their original run on the PlayStation and came to the remakes on the Switch and on PC and found them to be pretty enjoyable Zen games with a reasonably high skill ceiling. Once Upon a Katamari continues that trend with a wide variety of environments to roll through and enough collectables to keep the game engaging, even after clearing the main story.

The general gameplay loop is virtual identical to the previous Katamari games. There’s a ball, you roll it into things smaller than you to make a bigger ball, and gradually grow until you complete whatever mission there is for that level. Sometimes it will be to roll a fireball to a torch without falling in water, sometimes you’ll have to roll up specific objects like gold, roses, or tumbleweeds, sometimes you’ll just have to make the ball as large as possible within the timeframe. This time the pretext is that people have forgotten about the gods so you have to remind them that you exist by helping people out with their requests.

To say the game is short would not be entirely accurate. Most players will probably be able to get through the main story within one sitting, however the number of collectables available will keep them engaged beyond that. Once a level is cleared, three challenges are unlocked which allows the player to try and complete a level while rolling up a certain number of materials for the Katamari. This also doesn’t even take into consideration that each level also has three crowns, at least one cousin, and a present to collect. While the game does have a capsule system to collect expressions, it does not take as large a focal point for completion that other games (not going to mention any names but Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac knows who they are) and the rewards are not interesting enough to make it feel like it is an absolute necessity to complete.

As someone who only plays single player, the biggest disappointment for me was the KatamariBall mode where it’s a four-player battle royale with the intent to earn points and roll up opponents. I’m sure this is something that would be fun if you were A. great at the game or B. playing at a party, but the implementation across single player feels more like an announcement that it exists and not an integration of a new gameplay mode into the story. The only other criticism I could have for the game is that too many of the challenge stages are too similar and clearing level one with enough materials to also clear levels two and three should just clear all three, not require the player to play the level three times.

Once Upon A Katamari is definitely a fun experience that takes the franchise in a bold new direction. It is worth playing and keeping in your library as a fun distraction game or a palate-cleanser. It controls well, has a (expectedly) phenomenal score, and the time travel plot device allows the game to feel fresh and unique with it’s location choices.

★★★★★