We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie Review – Fit for a King

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie Review

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a remaster of We Love Katamari, originally released for the PS2 in 2005. That PS2 version is the sequel to Katamari Damacy, which also received a remaster in the form of Katamari Damacy Reroll, in 2018. Fans of the series have been clamoring for a remaster of We Love Katamari, because it’s the only Katamari sequel that was directed by series creator Keita Takahashi. It also improved upon the original in several ways, adding multiplayer and a variety of level goals. If you’re a fan of We Love Katamari, know that We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a fantastic remaster. If you’re new to the series, then read on.

The Katamari series truly deserves its spot in the upper echelon of wacky Japanese games released in North America. It’s up there with strange titles like the Cho Aniki series, Seaman for the Dreamcast, and Muscle March for the Wii. The tone is similar to the bizarreness most widely known from the WarioWare games. It’s a niche presentation, that may be a turn off for some, but I love it. The barrage of strange humor kept me smiling the entire time I was playing We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie.

Wonderfully Wacky

The story of the original Katamari Damacy is that the extremely flamboyant King of the Cosmos accidentally destroys a bunch of stars. Apparently a Katamari that grows large enough can become a replacement star, so he commands the Prince to “make a Katamari of ample proportions”. The story of We Love Katamari is actually kind of a non-story that reflects the reality of the game’s creation. People loved Katamari Damacy so much that they “wanted the King to do his thing” again. So Namco made We Love Katamari, and the game’s story is just that the Prince is making more Katamari for the King of the Cosmos, because people loved the video game Katamari Damacy.

The Katamari itself is a sticky ball that picks up objects. It starts small, with the Prince collecting tacks and seeds. But when its diameter gets large enough, the ball scales up, and the objects the player can collect get larger. Eventually the player will be gathering people and houses, and… other much larger things. It’s exciting to see how large the Katamari can get, and always interesting to see where this insane game will go.

Unique, Perfect Controls

The controls are strange, but work very well. Both joysticks are used to steer, and have to be facing the same direction. Turning sharply requires the player to smash the joysticks in opposite directions. There’s some strategy involved with not wanting the Katamari to get lopsided, and difficult to roll. The ball physics feel great, and it’s bizarre that a PS2 game could have captured the feeling of rolling a misshapen ball so well. The basic gameplay involves a request to make a Katamari of a certain size in a certain amount of time. But some of the levels in We Love Katamari have more interesting goals, like racing or feeding a sumo. While the gameplay is unique and fun, the 10 or so hours to beat the game will be enough for most. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie isn’t a complex game, but it is one that people will want to go back to every few years.

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is an excellent remaster. The HD graphics are sharp, and the colors are much more vibrant. The graphical style of the original translates really well to modern consoles. The controls are perfect, and feature slight improvement tweaks. The Royal Reverie section is a mixed bag. I will always welcome more content, but it’s really just 5 new challenge levels that are remixes of existing levels. They’re underwhelming, and don’t deserve billing alongside the game’s title. Other new additions include the ability to take photos, the ability to make a playlist of your favorite songs from the (very excellent and strange) soundtrack, and a hint feature for some of the sections that are tougher to figure out.

The Best Roll

We Love Katamari is a better game than Katamari Damacy. It has more level variety, and had multiplayer options before it was remastered. The core gameplay of both games is exactly the same. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a fantastic remaster of that already great game. The HD visuals and gameplay tweaks look and feel perfect. The only fault is in the bonus content. It’s always lovely to have more features, but none of them are so compelling that they extend the time you’ll spend with the game. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie won’t be for everyone, but it will also be a “must play experience” for many.

***Switch code provided by the publisher***