PSP

Me & My Katamari

Bored of taking people, buildings, pets, trees, and Jumboman action figures and making them into stars in the sky, the King of All Cosmos has moved into a new trade; island creating. Dozens of animals in the world are without homes, and naturally they look to the King and his bite-sized son the Prince for shelter. So once again, the Prince is set out with his trusty Katamari with one goal in mind – creating as big a Katamari as possible by rolling up everything in sight. Unlike the PS2 versions, there's no 'sub-stories' between stages, so everything is focused on island creating – and there are quite a few stages to do so. The Prince even has his own island, which you can name yourself, and this is where the action takes place.

The limited playing time is the biggest miss that the makers have done. For the rest they've done an excellent job to port the crazy and funny experiences from Katamari Damacy to the PSP, both on artistic as well as technical side. Those looking for a fun, original, but not all too large game, will find what they're looking for with this title.

Thankfully, great writing and an interesting location twist keep the gimmick fresh, and the solid technical execution makes this just as playable as the original.

The King of All Cosmos, that epic personification of eccentric, intergalactic royalty, brings his uniquely articulate brand of white-hot crazy to the PSP with Me and My Katamari. As a portable interpolation of Katamari Damacy, Me and My pretty much makes good, even in spite of a few technical compromises. The biggest hindrance to Me and My Katamari is its modest number of levels, even when considering the game's relatively short play time.

Deep down, Me & My Katamari may be the same old Katamari Damacy you've played on the PS2, but now you can play it anywhere.

Despite the problems, Katamari hasn't lost any of its charm, and none of its minor problems prevent its most noticeable feature from shining through - constant fun.

In the upper echelon of really bizarre deities, The King of All Cosmos is one creepy dude. A codpiece-wearing star-freak from the tail-end of the Universe, the ruler of all-things sticky truly loves to send his princely son on a variety of grand adventures. Of course, these quests always require the young noble to roll things up into a continuously-growing sphere of junk, but if you've played either of the two PlayStation 2 Katamari games before, then this shouldn't come as a surprise. Besides, using the smallish prince to collect bigger and bigger "balls 'o stuff" is what the series has always been about.

We are head over heels in love with Us and Our Katamari. We are still head over heels in love with Katamari Damacy (KD from here on in) and We Love Katamari (WLK) on the PS2, despite the fact that we have played them to death. Which is why we are head over heels in love with its PSP incarnation, and series swansong, despite the fact that it is not without its problems.

In terms of replay, the game has a collection system, which catalogs everything that you roll into a Katamari throughout the game. You can also collect various cousins who you can play as (just like in We Love Katamari), new tracks for the game, and even a special 2D Katamari minigame. Still, the game’s awkward control set will probably turn most people off from replaying this game so much.

I can't express how sad I am to hear that the minds behind Katamari have gone their separate ways. Sure Me and My Katamari isn't the best or most unique game in the series, but for what it is it's decent enough. The gameplay is addicting and entertaining, the graphics create a great atmosphere, and the music is fantastic. Unfortunately the control makes your hands cramp up after a while, the levels get repetitive, the camera is bothersome, and the soundtrack has been pulled from past games. This is a fine game if you're looking for something fun for the road or as an introduction to what Katamari is all about, but it will leave some fans disappointed.

Me & My Katamari is a great handheld Katamari fix for fans of the series, but newcomers might want to check out the PS2 versions instead. Katamari PSP features ad hoc multiplayer, but the console versions offer it in a more traditional split-screen form. Also, the difficult controls and smaller scope make it hard for me to recommend it, being $40, over the $30 We Love Katamari or even the budget-priced original. Still, and I've said it a few times now: fans will find and appreciate more stuff to do and the same great concept they've loved all along.

Katamari Damacy was a good thing. Last year's sequel, We Love Katamari, was also a good thing. But the new portable installation, Me & My Katamari, well...maybe it's a little too much of a good thing.

Contrary to the PS2 home console Katamari series, Me and My Katamari features an entirely new control scheme. Since the PSP doesn't have dual analog sticks, Me and My Katamari's control scheme is based on the single analog stick and the digital face buttons. It takes a few levels to get used to; however this altered control scheme isn't really that counterintuitive as many have reported. You use the analog stick to indicate which direction you want to face, and the face buttons to indicate which direction you want to move. Additionally, you use a combination of the analog stick and face buttons to turn.

Katamari Damacy on the PlayStation 2 was one of the most original, beautifully elegant games I've ever played. It proved that sometimes, the simple pleasures in life are the most satisfying. Rolling a katamari, the game's titular sticky ball, and picking up a wacky collection of objects is a wonderful example of how minimalist game design can enrapture an audience with far more style than most multi-million dollar productions. Me and My Katamari rolls onto the PSP with the familiar ball-rolling gameplay, the toe-tapping soundtrack, and a new eco-friendly premise. Nowadays, the King of All Cosmos, his son the Prince, and the wee lad's nearly infinite clan of cousins are granting wishes to Earth's animal kingdom, one creature at a time.

Don't worry about taking out the trash—leave it to the god of garbage.

Die bunten Farben sind verblasst, mein Körper hat seine Normalform zurück – ich bin entzaubert. Es ist unverständlich, wieso Namco ausgerechnet eine seiner Aufsehen erregendsten Serien so lieblos auf UMD klatscht. Dabei standen die Zeichen eigentlich gut: Die Steuerung geht flüssig von der Hand, die Kulisse ist genau so abgedreht wie auf PS2 und das stete Größerwerden ist ein Arbeitszeitkiller. Aber nur in den ersten Minuten, denn so sehr ich einfache aber motivierende Ideen liebe, so wichtig ist es gerade bei diesen, den Spieltrieb unaufhörlich mit frischen Ideen auf Temperatur zu halten. Me & My Katamari lässt den heißen Hitkandidaten aber gnadenlos abkühlen. Wenn ich ständig den immer gleichen Level wiederhole, höre ich nicht einmal die Flamme knistern. Für kurze Zeit – eine verdammt kurze Zeit – ist die PSP-Umsetzung klasse. Danach langweilt sie selbst Fans.

Me & My Katamari is a decent attempt at bringing the crazy Katamari Damacy experience to the PSP. However the awkward control scheme, the frequency of the loading screens and the frame rate dips all dampen the enthusiasm for the game.

The game is a Katamari game, no doubt. You can still get quite a bit of fun out of it, and essentially it’s just like the console ones. The problem is that a lot of the fun is sucked out of it when you lose the original control scheme, and then just shoehorn one that doesn’t work that well onto it and then give the player a small handful of levels with no innovations at all. It’s a decent product that feels a little bit soulless. You may enjoy it, but you likely won’t love it like the first two.

Yes, the King really does utter these words at the end of each and every level. At first it seemed like he was being sarcastic, but then Me and My Katamari really did get boring. The lack of variety in the levels was a major factor. But even more so was the constant loading and unnatural, abrupt transitions. The joy of Katamari isn't just in the rolling gameplay -- it's about the feeling of power when you start out tiny and end up ginormous. Me and My Katamari lacks this entirely, and as such pales in comparison to its console brethren.