After an extended drought, Katamari Damacy has lastly returned to roll round planet Earth as soon as extra. On April 3, Apple Arcade subscribers will get an all-new sport in Katamari Damacy Rolling Live. The iOS unique isn’t any type of trendy reimagining of a sequence that ran its course; it’s a really acquainted sequel that picks up precisely the place earlier entries left off. It’s a deal with for long-time followers who’ve simply been craving extra ranges, wacky humor, and glorious tunes. Though as a lot enjoyable as I’ve been having with it, Rolling Live can also be a superb reminder of why franchises like this have a tendency to go quiet finally: It’s simple to lose momentum when the unique concepts decelerate.
In Katamari Damacy Rolling Live, the King of the Cosmos decides to grow to be a stay streamer. Why? I don’t know, the man simply does issues like this typically. He duties The Prince with as soon as once more rolling up stars for his stay streams, serving to him develop an viewers of followers. I wouldn’t blame anybody who finds the idea a little bit cringe-inducing (particularly because the King of the Cosmos drops dated slang like “YOLO”), nevertheless it’s sort of a genius premise. Katamari video games are all about exponential progress. You begin with a tiny ball after which make it greater and greater by rolling up objects. It’s an ideal metaphor for content material creation, a career that’s equally about rising an exponentially bigger following. Rolling Live will get essentially the most out of its mild satire by filling the correct aspect of the display screen with insatiable commenters — not in contrast to 2024’s The Crush House — demanding to see greater stars.
While the setup is new, the gameplay right here is comparatively unchanged from earlier entries. In every degree, The Prince is tasked with finishing up a distinct “collab” for somebody with a selected request. The earliest ranges are primary sufficient, simply asking me to have my Katamari attain a sure measurement by rolling up objects round a gamer’s bed room. Other requests stress the significance of quick kind video in at present’s media panorama and process me with hitting a sure measurement as shortly as potential.
Bandai Namco
While these first few missions are a superb reminder of the fundamentals, Rolling Live takes just a few missions to essentially hit its stride. One standout mission drops me right into a small live performance enviornment and duties me with selecting up as many glowsticks as potential in a couple of minutes, turning my Katamari right into a psycadelic disco ball. Another asks me to wash grime off a rest room’s surfaces. When my ball will get too soiled, I want to clean it off in some close by water or choose up cleaning soap to scrub myself. Those ranges are constantly the standouts right here, reimagining what a Katamari degree seems like in a manner that feels higher suited to cellular units and quick play periods.
It’s as I play the extra conventional ranges, the place I’m hitting sure star sizes inside an eight minute timeframe, that I begin to perceive why it’s seemingly been so lengthy since we’ve gotten a Katamari Damacy sport. When the sequence debuted in 2004, its power was its originality. There was completely nothing prefer it on the time, which made it such a delight to find. It’s not that the magic disappeared with every new entry, nevertheless it definitely misplaced a little bit of its luster every time because it struggled to iterate. Rolling Live doesn’t precisely resolve that downside; it might as effectively be a direct sequel to the PS2 unique, proper all the way down to its faithfully blocky artwork route.
But what it does have on its aspect is time. It’s simply been so lengthy since we’ve gotten a brand new entry on this sequence that it feels refreshing to revisit the system fairly than compulsory. Maybe its for the perfect that franchises like this take a decade off between video games as its creators experiment with new concepts (have a look at Katamari creator Keita Takahashi’s upcoming To a T, for proof of that).
It’s not an ideal comeback, thoughts you. Its largest wrestle comes from cracking contact controls for a cellular display screen. The Katamari video games have all the time been about wrestling with awkward controls to an extent and there’s a pleasure in mastering that difficult model of play. Still, I’ve struggled to totally crack the contact controls right here even with 4 totally different schemes. The one I’ve discovered essentially the most luck with has me utilizing two “thumbsticks” like I’d on a controller, however I’ve discovered it powerful to juggle that with unwieldy digital camera management. Other management schemes like “Swipe” and “Drive” simply haven’t clicked for me, and the one stick possibility feels equally powerful to grasp. Worst of all, my proper thumb simply totally covers the chat whereas I’m taking part in, which means that I’m lacking all of Rolling Live‘s best jokes when I play like that. You’ll need to use a controller for this, belief me.
Bandai Namco
More profitable is Rolling Live‘s unlockables and multi-layered progression system. I’m inspired to strive missions once more to goal for larger objectives that may improve my viewers and assist me unlock extra missions. The extra I “stream,” the extra I acquire viewers members who will remark if I choose up sure gadgets (a King Tut-like character goes wild each time I roll up some gold). When they’ve commented sufficient instances, they’ll give me sweet that may be spent on beauty gadgets. It’s a pleasant loop that will get rather a lot out of mileage a handful of ranges with out turning the sport into an obsessive stay service grind. It’s nonetheless Katamari, and that’s its highest quality.
While it’s a disgrace that the sequence’ first entry in almost a decade is locked to single subscription platform, I’m at the least glad to see Apple keen to present Katamari a house. At this level, it appears like Arcade is changing into a go-to residence for traditional, oddball franchises that simply now not match into the AAA panorama. I’ve liked watching sequence like Puyo Puyo and ChuChu Rocket get a second wind on Apple Arcade because it began. It’s a platform for gaming’s best misfits, and Katamari Damacy Rolling Live is the king of them.
Katamari Damacy Rolling Live launches on April 3 for iOS units through Apple Arcade.
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