Katamari Forever
By
A terrible event has occurred causing the stars to disappear from the night sky and the King of All Cosmos to fall into a coma. The Prince must use his finely tuned Katamari rolling skills once more to re-create the absent celestial bodies, save his royal father and restore order to the Cosmos. Thumb tacks, sushi, cats, people, skyscrapers, ocean liners and continents – nothing is safe as the Prince makes his way through the largest variety of stages in a single Katamari game ever. New graphical styles give Katamari Forever a certain “je ne sais quoi” that all new Katamari games possess. A few of the new styles include Wood, which uses warm sepia tones to give stages a wooden feel, while Comic creates thick black outlines on every object while filling them in with deep, rich colors. Make sure to try them all out and find your favorite for a totally new way to experience the world of Katamari.
Features
- Help the Prince and his cousins restore the Cosmos to rights after the disastrous creation of the RoboKing
- Use the new Prince Hop action to jump your Katamari with the SIXAXIS controller (not included)
- See the Katamari world come to life in a new way with visual effects, including wood, comic, classic and new default graphic filters
- Select any of more than 50 cousins you can equip with a variety of accessories
- Take advantage of a new gameplay system in which the Katamari will suck in nearby objects under certain conditions
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 7 x 1 x 6 inches
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A Worthy Addition
I’m certain others will be more detailed on the history, but there was a storm regarding “Beautiful Katamari”. That storm happened because it was released on the XBox 360, but not the PS3 even though up to that point, the entire Katamari franchise had only been released on Playstation systems (PS2/PSP). But thankfully the developers went forward with “Katamari Damacy Tribute”, which would in the US be known as “Katamari Forever”. So for fans of Katamari Damacy, the wait was over and we get to see the game in HD for the PS3. I’ll try to explain the game without giving too much away. So be forewarned, there might be a minor spoiler there in terms of gameplay.
First, this is NOT like the XBox 360 version. The story fits in line with any other Katamari story. Short, basic and (sometimes) confusing. The king takes a knock to the head and it’s up to you, with the help of “Roboking”, to restore his memory. Among other things. The overall gameplay remains consistent with one major change. You can now (spoiler) jump! Hard to reach places are no longer an obstacle and on some levels you will really need to do this to get higher scores and to different areas, not to mention collect gifts and cousins. Otherwise you use the PS2 sticks the same as always. The other difference is that the Prince gets a bit tired from doing dashes and stays that way for a bit longer, which is a little annoying to be honest.
The “Tribute” part of the game comes because really, there’s not a whole lot of new material here. Whether it be items or even levels, chances are if you’ve played the previous incarnations of the games you’ve already seen all of the levels available. Within the “King” are mostly levels from “We Love Katamari”, including familiar levels with Hansel and Gretel and the campfire levels. The Roboking levels are a mix, but do contain a few innovative challenges, like watering a desert with the katamari. There are several new challenges and levels available that differ even from the 360 version while adding some of what’s in the 360 version to it, like the ‘Rich’ level.
Overall, I think this was a pretty good game however I found it easier to put this one down after a little while. The graphics were beautiful and the gameplay was relatively smooth (although jumping definitely increases the ability to get stuck between things). Also, IMO, the music wasn’t quite as strong as the other versions; in some ways, the tracks felt cheaper as they’re mostly remixed versions of the great originals. Hopefully in the future you’ll be able to pull those off of the store or something. ALSO, and this is A BIG knock – there is NO online game-play. Just leaderboards. So you can’t connect with someone else playing the game for a co-op or battle like I believe you could on the 360 version. Having said all of this, if you’re new to Katamari Damacy you won’t feel like you’ve missed a ton of history. But if you’ve been there from the beginning, you might be a little under-whelmed. Overall I’d rate it a bit better than the 360 version as the controls on that one weren’t quite as good, IMO.
Katamari FOREVER! a Must play
This is a great game that my gf told me to purchase. She’s always talked about it since we first went out and I’ve played the demo, but the demo doesn’t do it justice. The second you get into the game, you learn strategies and find out all the glory that is katamari!
At last, Katamari on the PS3.
This game has been long-awaited (at least by me), since before now there was no Katamari game available for the PS3. The gameplay (and many of the levels) are the same as in previous games, but it looks fantastic and is worth the repurchase price for that alone. I also like the remixes of familiar songs, which provides just the right mix of new and old. I am not crazy about the new “hop” feature where you can get the Katamari to jump to an otherwise inaccessible place, but perhaps I have just not grown accustomed to it yet.
King of the Cosmos
I love the Katamari series and when I discovered that a new one was coming out for the PS3, I knew it was a must have. As soon as the game came out I purchased a copy and beat the game in three days. I’m not saying the game is short by any means, but any true fan knows that as soon as you start it’s like popcorn, you just can’t eat one piece or in this case level. Even though I have beat the game you still have trophies to try and collect and try to get a better high score each time. It’s a must have buy!
Fun for hardcore and casual Katamari fans
As the title says, this is fun for both hardcore and casual fans–just in different ways. It has all of the classic addictive Katamari gameplay that everyone can enjoy. One of the problems though is that all but three of the levels are levels from existing games. If you’ve played the earlier games, this can be both good and bad: Good if you don’t mind playing levels you’ve played before with new graphics and modes (there are 4 total), and bad if you do. Fortunately, the soundtrack is very rewarding if you enjoyed the music from the other Katamari games, since it consists almost entirely of remixes. For example, there’s a version of “Sunbaked Savannah” from “We <3 Katamari” played by a high school band, a Pac-Man remix of “Katamari on the Swing”, and a mashup of “Everlasting Love” and “You Are Smart”, to great effect. The game’s theme song, another remix of “Katamari on the Swing” entitled “Katamari on the Wings”, gives a good idea of what the soundtrack to the whole game is like, since it’s essentially a lounge remix of a swing remix of a catchy theme song. Overall, the game as a whole is kind of like a “Greatest Hits” album remixed–not technically new content, but still worth a look by old and new fans alike.
Katamari Still Delivers Addictive Play and Music!
Not much needs to be said of the Katamari franchise.
From the moment you either heard the first description of what the original was about, or when that one friend blessed your presence by bringing it over for the first time, you were addicted to it like a dog is to peanut butter.
You just can’t get enough and it just sticks with you for a long time.
Not much has changed in the Katamari world you are still the Prince, and you still have to roll up a bunch of stuff.
Your father the King is back too, and as a bonus there is the introduction of RoboKing, but I will not get into that and you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
Katamari Forever is a wonderful game that fits perfectly with all the other previous games despite this one being made by a different guy.
One more thing…the music is still top notch and even when you’re done playing, you will still have a song or two stuck in your head just like what happened with all of the past incarnations of the game.
$[...] is pretty steep for a Katamari game, especially since the original was only $[...], but that’s what happens when a game gets popular over time so just suck up the price and go out and grab it at your local Target as soon as you’re done reading this!
Wonderful Addictive Fun
For anyone whose played a Katamari game, you know what you are getting. Insanity. Addictive gameplay. rolling. just get it
Same great Katamari, more levels
If you have played the other Katamari games, you’re not getting much new here. What it does do, however, is introduce new Katamari players to the mix and prevents them from having to purchase the other Katamari games to get the same effect. My wife and I enjoy playing this as much as we did when we were in College.
Some of the challenges are frustrating but very rewarding when they’re completed.
If you love all the other katamaris, you'll probably love this.
It’s irreverent, mindless, chaotic fun. Essentially a sampler of the other Katamaris in HD, with a few new tricks. If you don’t like any of the other games, don’t buy it. If you do like them, it’s a good purchase in my book. I could go on about how the original message was lost, or something along that line, but I don’t really care about that because it’s a game and it is fun.
This is Well Worth Your Time and Money
Katamari are a series of games that pretty well defy criticism. They are all insanely goofy, all look pretty terrible, all are brutally redundant…yet are, consistently, absurdly playable. And this is no exception.
The creator of the series didn’t work on the previous Beautiful Katamari (which was awesome nonetheless), opting to work on Noby Noby Boy instead, but is now back with Katamari Forever, which signals Katamari’s return to the realm of being a PS-exclusive title.
As with all other games, the King of the Cosmos has destroyed all the stars, which makes him up there with Princess Peach in the annals of people who never learn lessons, and you must fix them. Except, this time, the King is hurt and the Prince, who we learn is a masochist, decides to build a Robo-King to insult him and demand him to make stars as he wants.
The game is fan service in every sense of the word. The levels all come from earlier titles, many from the prior Beautiful Katamari game. Layout is pretty much the same, item location is basically unchanged, and this game has few appreciable differences from other titles, outside of the number of things on screen at once.
They actually have improved the visuals. It is still blocky — the game wouldn’t work at all if it was realistic-looking — but the art style does seem to have taken a small step forward. You also unlock the “Katamari Drive” mode after beating a challenge, giving you the chance to re-do a level with your character moving extremely quickly, which usually serves to ease up the difficulty, but in some levels, it makes the chore actually a bit tougher. The other new addition is a jump move which is too difficult to pull off with the Sixxaxis to make attempting it worth your time and effort. You’ll spend more time trying to do it than you’d have spent simply finding a way up to where you wanted to jump to.
Of course, the gameplay of the series is back. They have some of the same difficult challenges, such as the maddening “Keep your Katamari at a certain temperature” chores which are enough to make one rip one’s own hair out.
If you have hated all the games earlier — well, first, HOW could you hate them? I mean, seriously, they are goofy fun —- then pass on this. It won’t change your mind. But if you have any fondness for this trippy series, this game is a must-buy, though it seems harder to find than I’d have expected.