3 Up and 3 Down: The Things We Love (and Hated) About Katamari Damacy Reroll
If you’ve ever played Katamari Damacy before, then you know exactly how much of a treat that game is. While the game’s concept is elegantly simple, the execution is challenging yet incredibly fun and satisfying. And now PC gamers and Nintendo Switch gamers can experience a brilliantly updated version of Katamari Damacy with Katamari Damacy Reroll. While it retains all the original content from the original PlayStation 2 release, the visuals have received an update so they appear vibrant and crisp on the new hardware – while still retaining the wacky aesthetic it was known for. Katamari Damacy Reroll earned some well-deserved high praise in our recent review. However, we figured we’d take another look at Katamari Damacy Reroll and call out the 3 things we loved and the 3 things we disliked about it.
Let’s start with the three things we loved about Katamari Damacy.
1) The Music
“Nah-naah, nah nah nah, nah naah naah naah nah, Katamari Damacy…” If you’ve played any Katamari Damacy game, you’ll have the iconic Katamari Nah-Nah theme song forever engraved in your brain. It’s catchy as heck. Katamari Damacy Reroll retains the entire soundtrack from the original release, and it’s almost worth the price of admission alone. It’s really difficult to pigeon-hole the soundtrack to any genre specifically, since it features everything from pop to jazz to swing – but it all just fits so nicely. It’s clear the original composers were given a wide berth to play in musically, and they took full advantage of it – and the soundtrack will forever be one of the best in gaming as a result.
2) The Wackiness
Katamari Damacy is just wacky. The cast of characters, the plot, the visuals, the gameplay – everything is just so bizarre and yet so refreshing. So many games these days try to colour within the lines, trying to conform to a sense of realism or appeal to nostalgia, it’s rare that a game comes along that just bucks the trend and does its own thing. Since Katamari Damacy Reroll is an updated version of the original and does little more than provide improved textures and resolutions, it’s hard to give too much credit for originality and yet replaying it after all these years it still felt so unique.
3) So Satisfying
As the Prince, you roll your Katamari over objects to grow its mass. At first, you’ll only be able to absorb smaller objects – while bouncing off larger objects – but eventually, you’ll grow your mass to a point where you’ll be able to absorb larger and larger objects. One of the coolest parts about the levels in this game is that even when you complete the level’s objective, i.e.: reaching a specific size, you can continue playing until time expires – and it’s at this point where you’re just rolling around causing pure havoc, absorbing everything in your path, and it’s so damn satisfying!
Check out page 2 for the three things we disliked about Katamari Damacy Reroll