Overview
Katamari Damacy REROLL is a whimsy, wonderful roll-em-up adventure. Your Father, The King-Of-All-Cosmos accidentally destroys the moon while drunk, making all the stars in the sky disappear. You, the Prince, are tasked to help him collect objects using a “Katamari”, a magical ball that objects can stick so that he can convert them into stars.
I have been hearing about this game for years, so when I saw it listed as an inspiration in Parker’s GDD, I knew I had to try it. A cult classic in Japan and overseas, the Katamari series is known for its charming visuals and unique Shibuya-kei ost. As a character designer / 3D modeller for my group, I thought this game could serve as a source of inspiration for my art as well as bring the environment of Kinetic Panic! to life. And oh boy did it.
First, you are treated with a whimsical, over-the-top title screen where your father plays guitar to the animals in the world as they chant in unison in a sea of mushrooms and primary colours. Again, very weird but I liked it. This game was made in 2004, so hopeful optimism about technology was on the rise. Combined with Japanese cultural references and kitsch, I knew this game was going to be fun and wacky.
Gameplay
After you complete the tutorial level, you are thrust into the first level, Make A Star 1. Maybe it’s because this PC port is a little bit buggy, but even after the tutorial level, the controls still aren’t very intuitive to me. Turning the camera is a bit of a hassle, and I kept accidentally running into snails, mice and other live creatures in the house and knocking into the sleeping human.
I will say however that the levels are easy to get into as the goal is clear, simply roll-em-up. Roll as many objects as you can onto the Katamari until you reach the goal or before the timer ends. I feel like simple gameplay appeals a lot to casual players who want something fun to relax to. Our game, Kinetic Panic!, also has a simple goal — to collect the beacon. I hope that players will feel a similar relaxed vibe when trying to figure out the obstacle courses in the game and secret shortcuts.
Once I got the hang of how to collect items, and what cm/mm you can start to collect bigger items, Katamari Damacy Reroll truly started for me. From nail polish to food to cards and even birds, the bigger your ball gets, the bigger the items you collect. I was very cruelly amused during the crab level when a bird landed on the porch and got absorbed into my Katamari, where it tweeted and struggled a bit before a few nails and hammers glued themselves onto the ball, at one point completely covering the bird just before a giant crab got attached to the ball. A small sacrifice for a good deed.
Characters & Music
The Characters, while exaggerated, feel like they are all believable personalities. The King-of-All-Cosmos is a very dramatic, campy character. He feels like he’s straight out of a pantomime or play, with his shocked gasps and quirky speech patterns. You, the prince, are so tiny and insignificant and used as a self-insert for the player. However, for me, the Prince doesn’t feel like a self-insert but an avatar I control to make things happen. I am simply just living through the Prince’s eyes, which I feel makes the game more fun for me. I would love the Kinetic Panic! God to be just as quirky as the King-of-all-Cosmos and have an interesting personality. For our vertical slice, we are just focusing on the first God, the Lord of Gravity. If we get around to doing the tutorial, the King will be an inspiration for the dialogue.
The character designs and art style are fantastic and immediately recognisable, even for someone who hasn’t played the series until now! Royals (+ you and your cousins), all have this oblong shape attached to your head, with various colours and decorations painted onto it. I felt like I learnt more about how to make a recognisable and fun character design just by looking at them. You can also see the Superflat design throughout this entire game, with multiple Japanese pop-culture references. This was mentioned in the GDD as a design inspiration, so it’s something that I kept an eye out for during my playthrough.
The world theme makes you feel so small yet homey. It encapsulates the vibe of the 00s shibuya-kei scene, small and comforting music, with all its little imperfections, tweaks and tinkerings. The slight glitches of the song feel so nostalgic and just right for this tiny world, akin to hot chocolate on a cold day. It feels like the game is just for you to enjoy.
Walking around the world for a little bit felt like I was playing Animal Crossing: Wild World on my DS, except no capitalism, just a space prince walking around on his home planet consisting of a Jukebox, a House and a giant bird perched on a branch. The humanistic and nature-centric aspects of the game make you appreciate the variety of creatures and oddities we have in this world, and even though you’re rolling ’em up, the planets feel like a friend, as well as an adventure waiting to be discovered.
Final Thoughts & Conclusion
I like this game, and I encourage anyone reading this to play it if you are into fun, casual and quirky games. Katamari Damacy REROLL is a faithful remaster of the 2004 cult classic with added content and captures a specific period of time and design philosophy of the 2000s which I did not live through, but still manage to feel nostalgic for. Everything in this game is pure psychedelic madness and may seem a lot at first, but it’s easy to get used to. The controls are slightly frustrating as a controller user, but I think as I keep playing, my game reflexes will kick in. Relax and enjoy this cute little world!