Once Upon a Katamari

I'll be honest: I didn't need a review to tell me I was going to enjoy this. What I needed to know was whether it deserved the wait. The series went dark after Touch My Katamari in 2011, and fourteen years is a long time to hold a rolling ball in trust. The short answer is that Once Upon a Katamari delivers exactly the experience it promises, no more, no less, and depending on your relationship with this franchise that will either sound like a relief or a slight disappointment. The core loop is pure, untouched Katamari: roll the sticky ball, absorb smaller objects, grow large enough to gobble the bigger ones, hit the size target before time expires. RENGAME hasn't tampered with that engine, which is the right call. What they've added are four in-stage power-ups called Freebies, and these quietly elevate the feel of each run. The magnet vacuums up nearby items in a satisfying burst, the stopwatch freezes the clock and any roaming objects mid-flee, rockets bolt you across the arena, and a sonar device tracks hidden collectibles like crowns and cousins. None of these are game-changers on their own, but together they give the moment-to-moment rolling a welcome layer of decision-making. The time-hopping premise sends the Prince and his S.S. Prince ship through the Jurassic period, the Ice Age, historic Japan, and other eras, which means stages are visually distinct in ways previous entries rarely managed. Rolling up a mammoth because you finally grew large enough to fit it under your katamari, in a prehistoric snowscape, surrounded by a jingle that sounds like a caffeinated jazz band, is still one of the genuinely singular pleasures in games. Two control schemes are available. The classic dual-stick setup, where each stick drives a side of the katamari like a tank, remains the most intuitive option even if it alienates newcomers; the new single-stick simple mode lowers the entry barrier and is worth trying with family or friends new to the series. KatamariBall, the competitive 4-player mode, tasks players with rolling up as much as possible and depositing their haul under a UFO before time runs out. It works fine online, though the dash mechanic for stealing from opponents is too slow to feel threatening, and the absence of a true local multiplayer option is a real missed opportunity for a couch-party crowd. The customization suite covering the Prince's 68-plus cousins is generous and the King Tokens economy for unlocking faces and emotes is reasonable. The campaign itself runs roughly eight hours to completion, longer if you chase letter grades, hunt presents, or dig out every hidden crown to unlock new stages. The one point of friction worth flagging: some of the series' most iconic songs are gated behind a paid DLC soundtrack bundle. The new original score is genuinely good, full of earworms that fit the series' strange warmth, but veteran fans may feel the sting of familiar tracks sitting behind a paywall. The PC version performs well: 1080p at 60fps is achievable even on modest hardware, and Steam Deck owners get a clean experience at native resolution. Visually, the low-polygon look has been preserved with refined assets and better lighting, which is exactly right. Asking Katamari to go photorealistic would be like asking it to stop being absurd. Once Upon a Katamari is not trying to reinvent anything, and the community reception, sitting at Very Positive on Steam with reviewers calling it the best the series has felt since the PS2 era, suggests that was the correct instinct. If you have never touched a Katamari game, this is a generous starting point with tutorials, adjustable controls, and enough spectacle to hook you fast. If you're a returning fan, you know what you're getting, and it's been delivered with care.

Alex · Scout Team

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