Roll up, roll up, and come enjoy a game that will have you rolling around for hours with a silly grin on your face. Having never played a Katamari game, I was unaware of what I had enrolled for. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie is a remake of the original, We Love Katamari. First released as a sequel to Katamari Damacy in Australia on the PlayStation 2 in 2006, I’m delighted the developer, Monkeycraft, and publisher, Bandai Namco, have given me the chance to roll with it.

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie’s story immediately rolls on from the events of Katamari Damacy. The King, your father, destroyed all the stars except Earth. The King has rolled you, the Prince, out to Earth with the task of speaking with his fans. The fans will give you tasks so their dreams can be fulfilled. Once you agree to help, you roll up in front of The King and present the request.

Once the King agrees, you are then rolled out to the stage with the Katamari Ball to complete the requested task. When you’re finished, the Katamari Ball is then presented to the King and he uses it to repopulate the cosmos with new stars. Though it was quite a bizarre story, I found it quite interesting, especially given that the more fans’ dreams you fulfill, the more moving storyboards you get, expanding the history of the King.

Controlling the Prince is exceptionally easy in both the Select Plaza and the Katamari Ball stages. The Select Plaza is a two-dimensional field that allows you to roll around in any direction with the left stick and interact with the A button. It is here you can access the humans that give you tasks, collectables, and alike. I found this approach to a mission/options selection quite novel compared to the typical press start for options approach, but the option to just press start is available if that’s how you roll.

The Katamari stages are presented in a three-dimensional format. The goals vary depending on the task, but ultimately, you roll the Katamari, collecting larger and larger items until the stage parameters are complete.

Controlling the Prince in these stages is done with the twin sticks on your controller, and a short tutorial helps by explaining how to roll the Katamari Ball around. This took me some time to roll with it, but with a little practice, I was rolling all over the place like a champion. I found that the tight camera angle when starting was very restrictive. Once you’ve rolled around enough and gotten larger the camera rolls back to a more acceptable angle. Personally, I would have preferred the camera to be further back from the get-go.

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie also comes with local multiplayer. It is a split screen of the Katamari stages. Together you will verse each other rolling your Katamari Ball attempting to collect more of a specified items than your rival. So, if you want to roll with a friend and share the joy you can.

The graphics are presented in two different ways depending on if you’re in the Select Plaza or the Katamari stages. The Select Plaza is presented like a child’s storybook. The flat 2D presentation is delightful to look at with its bold colouring.

Where the Katamari stages are in 3D, this has allowed a more detailed and realistic approach to the environments. This has not stopped the cartoonish manner in how it has been displayed though. Both graphical choices are approached light-heartedly and really emphasize the bizarre narrative. You certainly will not be rolling your eyes at this.

The sounds, though familiar, are just as bizarre and roll seamlessly with the action. With the background music playing, it compliments both its visuals and audio perfectly in its off-the-wall theme. It will easily have you rocking and rolling with joy.

With 35 achievements rolling out with the game and nothing being difficult at all, achievement hunters will be pleased to hear you can get all of them in approximately as little as 12 hours. If you’re looking for a game to roll the recliner back and chill out, then roll out the red carpet for We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie. It will not disappoint.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove