Katamari Forever

Playing Katamari Forever is like taking part in a bizarre waking dream set in the brain of a Japanese salary man at the close of a five-day bender. Honestly after about fifteen minutes of the game I tried to turn my brain off; flip the switch that tries to make sense of the "story" or why I'm rolling stuff into an ever-expanding ball of stuff -- fish, candy, diamond rings, donuts, cows, people, trees. It doesn't seem to matter what you're rolling into a ball and I was never quite sure of why I

was doing it -- I'm pretty sure it has something to do with creating the universe or repairing the cosmos or some giant giant robot with a noggin like Mr. Canoe Head lambasting you for a job poorly done -- but after successfully hitting the switch to deactivate my brain, Katamari Forever was just damn fun rather than confusing.

 

The very brief tutorial

should be enough for gamers with experience to get a handle on the twin-stick controls but I found casual (or even non-gamers) that are intrigued by the simple gameplay had to spend a great deal of time learning the controls.

 

Jerking the control up to make your Katamari jump sounds okay on paper but more than a few times the controller was suddenly hitting the ceiling thanks to some over-excitement. (Kids have have all the subtlety of an elephant trying to return a busted salad shooter.) A press of a shoulder button to jump makes more sense to me -- and if you read the manual, you'll find out that you can! -- as would a button press for a speed boost. Once players have the basics though, it should be smooth shaving after that because all you're doing in rolling stuff into a spheroid and navigating some really bizarre environments sometimes with a time limit, a specific goal, or aiming for the best time.

 

        
 

Besides the single-player mode there's also a off-line multiplayer component, which is just as outlandish as the single-player, there's just more competition involved. If you're connected to PSN, the scores from the single-player are uploaded to a leader board. If you want to be blown away and disheartened, check some of your own scores against the obvious masters of Katamari-rolling. How do some of these scores even exist?

 

Big, bright, colorful, and a tidal wave quirkiness rolled into a ball, Katamari Forever can be a lot of fun if you just let yourself enjoy it.