Katamari Forever Review for PS3

     Oh, Katamari... When you first rolled up into our lives, you ended up rolling into our hearts too. Aren't puns fun? Katamari's back!  It's also the same it's ever been, meaning that everything that's been good or bad about the series up to this point is still good and bad. Of course, for those of you who haven't played the Katamari series yet, it's a game where you roll a ball called a katamari and you try to pick up miscellaneous objects that range from thumbtacks, dice, fruit, pencils to cars, buildings, continents, suns and other crazy things. Honestly, there's no substitute for explanation after you see the game in motion. People have referred to it as a puzzle game and it is in a sense. You need to find a good path of items within any given level so that you can make your katamari as large as possible as quickly and effeciently as you can since you are to make the katamari a specific size in a set amount of time.
     In Katamari Forever (which will be referred to as KF for the rest of the review), the King of All Cosmos is in a coma and Prince makes a Robo-King to take his place for the time-being. Unfortunately, the new king destroys all the stars due to a malfunction. Given the coma and the destroyed stars, your goal throughout the game is to restore the King's memories to wake him up and to make large katamari's to replace the stars. The game plays out like a greatest hits using We Love Katamari levels for the King's memories sections and Beautiful Katamari levels for the Robo-King's sections. Robo-King's levels are more the straight-forward roll-your-katamari-this-big-in-x-amount-of-time gameplay we've been used to. The King's are more goal-oriented like, "Roll up hot objects" or "Roll up a bright katamari to help a student do some late-night studying".
     The whole game, I felt, was paced extremely well. It never sticks you to too many King or Robo-King levels at once so the gameplay never feels especially old. It also has a good length rounding out at 31 levels, 17 for each king. The new features of the game also help to freshen it up a bit. You can now jump by pressing R2 or L2 (you can also use the sixaxis to jump but it's not very reliable at all). Throughout the levels, you'll find Royal Hearts which act as magnets either sucking up objects around you as you roll for a short amount of time or vacuuming everything in a wide area into your katamari instantaneously. It also has some off-line multiplayer but nothing too great. The music in the game consists of remixes of popular songs from previous games in the series. The songs don't really come off as great at first, but over time, they really stick to you. Overall, I felt the game was very well put together with some great humor and well-thought-out presentation.

Is It Fun?

     Yeah, tons of fun. I personally haven't played Katamari since Beautiful Katamari and I was really turned off by that game. All the levels felt bland and the game didn't really feel put together. This game feels very cohesive with lots to do. In fact some of my favorite levels in this game happened to come from Beautiful Katamari; It must have been the presentation. It's just hard to hate much about the game. It does still have some camera issues and the occasional control problem but nothing that truly sours the experience. There are also new modes, Eternal and Drive, that unlock after you beat the game and meet certain quotas for each level and both of them are great. Drive gives you a super fast katamari to go around with and it's a BLAST! It really made me want to replay every level it was so fun. Eternal mode lets you run around the level for infinite amounts of time which really serves to answer the question, how big can you REALLY make a katamari? There are also minigames from past games' credits and there's also a new punishment minigame and those are fun every now and then. Finally, you could spend days collecting every cousin, present, and object in the game. KF is definitely BIG on fun.

Do I Get My Money's Worth?

     I'd say that it's worth the cash. It was released as a budget priced title at $50. I still think it's a little on the high side but if you can get it for $40, GET IT. Otherwise, it has a good replay value and decent length. If you're a newcomer to the series, it's a must buy. If you haven't played Katamari in a while and you remember it being really fun, not only will it validate your nostalgia, you'll feel that you got your money's worth. If you never liked Katamari, this game probably won't change your mind. In the end, KF is a great game at a great value and is worth the price any day.