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Katamari is a series of roll-em-ups. Basically, you push a magic ball, called a Katamari, around environments attracting objects and growing it bigger in the process. I find the games I’ve played so far not only to be very enjoyable but also somewhat relaxing. The concept is simple and trying to roll up as many objects as possible can be addictive. Plus, these games are very easy to jump into. Katamari began on the PlayStation 2 with the release of Katamari Damacy. That was followed up by a sequel, We Love Katamari. Both were remastered and released for modern consoles and PC. The third game in the franchise, Me & My Katamari, would be the first on a portable system. Developed and published by Namco, Me & My Katamari was released for PlayStation Portable in North America in March, 2006. For this review, I played it using the PPSSPP emulator.
The story goes that the King of all Cosmos and the Royal Family decide to take a tropical summer vacation on Earth. Unfortunately, the King’s over-exuberance creates a tsunami that devastates the islands. So he decides to make new islands for the animals by sending the Prince to push Katamaris around to gather objects. The story here is pretty straightforward but doesn’t really get as deep as that of We Love Katamari but it does retain the humor, surreal elements, and overall charm conveyed in its predecessors. It definitely looks and feels like a Katamari game. Just on a smaller screen. If you play it on the actual hardware, that is.
If you’re a veteran of the previous games, you should know what to expect here. The concept is simple and the game is easy to jump into. You play as the Prince or any of the cousins and push Katamaris around environments, rolling up objects. As a result, the Katamari will grow in size and when it’s big enough, you’ll be able to access new areas, and that means more stuff to roll up. The game can also be considered a collect-a-thon. Rolling up objects adds them to your collection. One of the biggest and most noticeable differences here is the controls. The previous games take advantage of the two analog sticks of the DualShock controller. You use them to push the Katamari around. The PlayStation Portable doesn’t have two analog sticks so instead, you use the D-Pad or nub and face buttons to imitate dual stick controls, and L and R or the shoulder buttons for tight turns. I feel the controls are a little cumbersome but they do work. I can tell you that even though I was playing the game via emulation and remapped the controls for a Series X controller to utilize its two sticks, I still ended up using the face buttons in the end. I would swap between the left stick and D-Pad but always used the face buttons to imitate the right stick, with the shoulder buttons to help with tight turns. I just couldn’t get the actual right stick on the controller to feel right if that makes sense. I got it mapped properly but it just felt off when using it. In my experience, anyway. Ultimately, it took me some time to get used to the controls but once I did, I was doing pretty good.
Prince Island is like the hub area and you can rename it to whatever you want. From here, you can save and load your game, access multiplayer which I didn’t get to try, access presents, view the different islands you’ve created, and interact with animals to travel to the different stages. They will request that you create an island and once you accept, you’ll be launched to a stage to start rolling stuff up. You can also travel to Beanstalk Island and Volcano Island. Beanstalk Island is where all the cousins you find will be located. They are additional playable characters and you can customize any character with accessories unlocked by finding presents in the stages. Volcano Island contains animals that offer different requests than those on Prince Island. The goals for each of these stages are slightly different than the norm. You’ll have to roll up as many sweets as possible within the time limit, roll up stuff and make it to a rocket within the time limit, and one of the stages has you rolling up specific items dictated by the King.
One thing I like about Me & My Katamari is its simplicity, even when compared to the previous games. All the main stages require you to grow the Katamari to a certain size. That’s always the goal. It’s very simple and, yes, that means the game does lack a certain variety the previous entries had. You won’t have to roll up only specific items or avoid touching certain things for example. You just roll things up in an effort to grow the Katamari as big as possible within the time limit. This also means the gameplay becomes repetitive. It also doesn’t help that many stages have you rolling around the same looking environments. So not only are you doing the same thing in every stage but most stages look and feel the same with little to differentiate them. Volcano Island is the only thing that offers objective variety but there’s only five of these stages.
In typical Katamari fashion, the environments are designed to reflect real locations but with bizarre portrayals of life. Objects are just littered about everywhere and you’ll see people and creatures doing odd and humorous things. As mentioned earlier, many stages seem to be set in the same locations with little differences. The weather might be different or certain textures look different, the time of day will change, but it’s the same environment, same layout. That said, I feel the game could have used more environmental variety. One difference between this game and the the previous ones is how progression through a stage works. Many stages here are broken up into multiple I’ll call them areas. In the previous games, each stage was it’s own world and the bigger the Katamari got, the more of the stage or world you could explore. In Me & My Katamari, each stage is still set in a single world but once the Katamari grows to a certain size, the game will load up a new area which grants you access to more of the world and bigger things to roll up like buildings, land masses, giant monsters, etc. Each area also comes with its own size requirement and time limit.
Me & My Katamari definitely looks and sounds like a Katamari game. The presentation is colorful and pleasing on the eyes and the unique art style of the series is maintained here. I did notice pop-in but other than that, I have no major issues with the visual presentation. The audio work, specifically the music, is fantastic. Even though it features many tunes from the previous games, the soundtrack is still phenomenal. Even the few original compositions are excellent with Katamari on the Funk being one of my favorites. On the technical side, the game ran fine and I encountered no major issues but I do want to mention again that I played this using the PPSSPP emulator.
I had a good time with Me & My Katamari. Even though it gets repetitive, I enjoy its simplicity. The controls took me some time to get used to and the lack of variety is disappointing but, overall, it retains what makes the previous games so much fun and it can be played on-the-go. I was also somewhat surprised at its length. It’s not a super long game or anything but it does have quite a few stages. My friend kept telling me it’s a short game but he admitted he hasn’t played it in a while but I guess that’s why I went into it expecting it to be shorter than it is. Me & My Katamari is not my favorite game in the series but I think it’s a solid entry and fine for the portable hardware its designed for. Up to this point, I would say We Love Katamari is still the best and I am looking forward to playing the future titles.
I do recommend Me & My Katamari. It’s fun, addictive, easy to jump into, and can be played on-the-go. I think the previous games are better and I don’t think this would be the best starting point. I would say check this out if you’re already a fan of the series and crave Katamari when you’re out and about. Basically, everything it does has been done better but the portability gives it an edge. So if you enjoy Katamari and want to be able to bring it with you wherever you go, definitely check out Me & My Katamari.