Respect the katamari! Bandai Namco has rolled up Katamari Forever for the Sony PlayStation 3 in which the King Of All Cosmos once again calls upon his son the Prince to gather objects in order to replace the stars in the sky. It's more of the same with its recycled levels from Katamari games past, but it's still plenty of fun. Any excuse to go rolling with Prince and company is fine with me. My full review of the game is now available over at Kombo.
The classic Katamari formula remains intact in Katamari Forver as players must roll around the planet to gather up objects centered around certain themes or general sizes. The quirky soundtrack from previous Katamari games makes a reappearance in remixed form, while the visuals sport high definition clarity for the first time in Katamari history as well as some interesting visual filters that turn the Prince's world into that of, say, wood grain or a comic book. The katamari controls identically to past games in the franchise with the addition of a new move: the Prince Hop in which the clump of objects can leap variable distances with either a shake of the Dual-Shock 3 controller or a tap of the R2 button. Heart-shaped power-ups act as object magnets when rolled up, causing nearby objects smaller than the katamari to be automatically sucked in and collected. The unlockable Classic Katamari mode omits the Hop and power-ups to restore the traditional Katamari gameplay, while the returning Eternal mode eliminates the ever-present ticking clock. The energetic Katamari Drive mode gives the Prince a turbo boost, allowing him to roll up objects quickly. All in all, there's plenty of ways to roll and lots of levels to explore.
Katamari Forever is a mashup of levels from previous releases in the series, We ♥ Katamari for the PlayStation 2 and Beautiful Katamari for the Microsoft Xbox 360. If you've already explored those games to your heart's content, then you may be disappointed by the familiar material that makes up the Forever experience. However, I had no problem with this because those are the only two Katamari titles that I missed. I now consider myself fully up to date on the rolling experience. Next time around I'd like to see plenty of new material.
