We Love Katamari (PlayStation 2)

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The whole tone of We Love Katamari is that of fan service, and as such, the way in which you get your missions in the game is to wander about Earth, talking to the various fans who want their own katamaris rolled up for purely abstract reasons. As you play through the game, you'll be able to collect not only presents, but also different cousins of the Prince, who can be accessed and played as via this hub world. The cousins you unlock will simply wander about the area, and all you need do is walk up to one, press a button, and you'll become that cousin. Unsurprisingly, the different cousins all look like bizarre variations of the Prince, but fundamentally, they all play the same. These cousins come into play mostly for the game's multiplayer modes.

Katamari Damacy featured a versus play mode that was serviceable, but not exactly anything to write home about. We Love Katamari includes a marginally better versus mode, as well as cooperative play for two players. The versus mode is essentially the same kind of split-screen action found in the first game, but with three levels available to you, as well as a different objective: find the most of a specific item and roll it all into your katamari. It's not a bad mode, and the addition of a target-lock feature makes it a bit easier to locate your opponent (who you can then hopefully slam into) on the map. However, the lack of variety hurts the mode's replayability.

As for the co-op, pretty much every stage in the game can be played cooperatively. The cooperative mechanics effectively restrict the equivalent of one of the analog sticks to one controller, meaning you both need to move both sticks in the same direction in order to move the katamari. It's pretty confusing at first, but if you and your partner can communicate effectively, it can eventually become quite a bit of fun to roll that crazy clump around together, making for a pretty good party game. It's unfortunate that in this mode, Namco apparently removed the onscreen display that showed the direction in which each player's sticks were moving. This feature is present in the Japanese version of the game, but was apparently axed for the North American release.

We Love Katamari retains the same contrastingly square graphical style of the first game. Most objects, people, and really, pretty much everything, have a decidedly angular look to them. And despite the fact that the look of the game hasn't really changed much, it's still impressive, simply because of how bizarre it all is. Stages are almost the same as they were before, with seemingly arbitrary strings of nonsensical objects laid in particularly painstaking patterns all across the world. Again, you don't know why long rows of harps are sitting in the middle of the street, or why a matador and a boxer are guarding a school playground. But you don't need to know, because within the context of the game's oddball universe, it all makes some preposterous measure of sense. We Love Katamari also maintains a better frame rate than its predecessor, and it features a better camera that frequently creates a hole through objects that otherwise might block your field of view. Unfortunately, the camera isn't all that consistent about this, so there are random intervals where you'll still get walls and similarly blunt objects blocking your vision.

One of the most memorable aspects of Katamari Damacy was its utterly avant-garde soundtrack, featuring tracks that ran the gamut between swing, techno, J-pop, and just about anything else you could imagine. We Love Katamari contains yet another completely off-the-wall soundtrack that has the same key themes as the first game. The main theme song pops up in multiple forms and genres throughout the game, with the best of the bunch coming in the form of a lounge singer that vaguely resembles a Japanese Tom Jones. But apart from that, there's more electro, J-rock, and other kooky songs to enjoy throughout the game. It has to be said that We Love Katamari's soundtrack is decidedly less focused on catchiness than its predecessor's was, and instead it moves in the experimental direction, which makes for an occasionally more cacophonous experience. But noise experiments aside, the whole thing is easy to listen to, even when it's trying its best not to be overly catchy. The rest of the sound design runs pretty similarly to that of the first game. There's no dialogue, save for the record-scratching sound effects that comprise the King of All Cosmos' voice and the indecipherably goofy cries of the fans. The in-game sound effects might as well be the same ones as those that were in the first game. It's all excellent stuff, though.

In the end, We Love Katamari is basically just a big, happy love letter to the fans that contributed to the first game's success. Namco clearly had no intention of mucking up a winning formula, and as such, it has created a sequel that delivers more of the same fetchingly enjoyable gameplay and whimsical humor that made Katamari Damacy so much fun. Undeniably, We Love Katamari lacks the consummate originality of the first game, but for most, the lack of originality won't be a hindrance. And anybody who played and enjoyed Katamari Damacy will feel right at home with the sequel.

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We Love Katamari (PlayStation 2): $14.99 - $19.99

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