Katamari Forever (PS3)

Ahhh Katamari... how I love you.

Once again the utterly bonkers roll-and-collect game is upon us and despite being more of the same is still fantastic fun.
The flailing legs and terrified screams of passers-by as they get rolled into a massive Katamari never fails to amuse but this time it's in glorious HD.

For the uninitiated: You are the Prince (of all cosmos) and you roll a Katamari (a kind of sticky ball) around levels collecting all the objects left lying around. As you collect more objects the Katamri scales-up and you can roll up bigger and bigger things evenually rolling up skyscrapers, ocean liners, trains and other huge objects. There is usually a time limit and a size-needed but some levels impose more stringent targets. My favourite level (Ring-Out) involves rolling a Sumo wrestler and picking up food until he is big enough to bounce the other wrestler out of the ring.

You've got your mad-as-a-box-of-frogs storyline (as usual) concerning the King being hit on the head by an asteroid. A Robot-King replacement is built who promptly eats all the stars then has an attack of conscience and wishes us to replace them all. Meanwhile the King recovers and has lost his memory so we must roll some highly defined Katamari to help it's return. Last but not least are the intermission-style TV cutscenes that absolutely defy all attempts at any rational description.
The menu pages are in the style of a pop-up book and work beautifully within the context of the game allowing you to switch levels, change character, view your collection of rolled objects or even visually customise your character with presents you find on each level.

"Katamari Forever" is almost a collection of greatest hits mixed with some new ideas. The older levels are black and white but colour-in as you collect more with your sticky ball of doom. Two new features are a jump button which proves extremely useful and the broken-hearts that when collected cause all nearby objects to be sucked into your Katamari for a limited time. Other than that it's business as usual.

This is a tremendously inventive and visually amusing game which is unlike anything you've played before (unless you're a Katamari veteran of course) and proves to be highly addictive when you surrender yourself to its undoubted charms.

Anyway...I could rattle on about all the things I love about Katamari games but I have a Katamari race to win and this time when I pass the starting line I'm determined to catch that Tarzan as he swings temptingly from right to left.

Ok, this is one of the strangest games you will ever play. You roll around making things stick to your ball. The more you roll, the bigger your ball gets and the larger the range of things there are to roll up.
The graphics are great; cartoony and HD.
The soundtrack is so catchy. You'll be singing the main theme for days after, at least.
The gameplay is addictive. You've got to beat your score on every one of the many levels! Of course, the trophies encourage you to do this even more. The controls are a bit fiddly, but you get used to them.
The game will last for ages, but some of the levels will are quite frustrating. Once you get the hang of everything, it's amazingly fun to play.
It's different from the prequels for the following reasons: HD, hearts that absorb all available items in your area and the ability to jump (either with R2 or by shaking the controller a bit). There are also trophies. Whether this is enough to buy what is a very similar game to the prequels is your decision to make.

Overall, I'll give this a 4/5 because of the slight difficulty curve, but that's only if you're going for the high scores as soon as you start. This game is a must buy, in my opinion.

Nah-n-nah-na-na-nah-nah-nah, Katamari Damacy!

Having never before played (or indeed, heard of!) any of the Katamari series previous to stumbling across this little gem, i was completely astounded as to why i hadn't. Quite simply, this game is awesome.

The idea is simple. You play 'The Prince' (or one of his cousins), who's job it is to go around collecting items by rolling a sticky ball (known as a Katamari) round each level at the request of his majesty the King or the Robo-King. The larger your Katamari becomes, the larger the objects you can pick up.. You will often have some sort of mission to complete, be it picking up certain types or a certain number of objects, reaching a target size within a set time-limit or simply making your Katamari as big as possible.. If you fail, you are punished, and then you try again.. and that's basically it.

The game looks cute, sounds fantastic and plays like a dream.. It has satisfying, simple to learn yet hard to master controls meaning that when you delicately curve your Katamari round a corner, following a line of items and hit every single one, you feel like a million bucks - even with the King's put-downs!! (seriously, you have to perfect a level to even get a compliment out of that guy!! ;^)

Warning, you may find yourself singing the soundtrack to yourself in the most inopportune places - i've been caught at work on at least two occasions already!!

Also it's the scale of the game, there are several levels where you start out at a size where you can fit through mouseholes, but end the level the size of a planet, picking up entire cities, mountain ranges or even continents!! Simply brilliant.

I have never played anything quite as addictive as Katamari Forever, and i'm not sure i ever will again. I have already lost a lot of sleep - and it doesn't look like i'm going to be getting any for the foreseeable future!

So, yes... All-out Japanese madness. It makes no sense, and in my opinion, the game KNOWS it makes no sense, which i think is why i love it, pardon the pun, but you just have to 'roll' with it!