"Rolling Up Your Heart"

‘Me and My Katamari' the third installation in the highly addictive Katamari Damacy series, whether or not you've played the other games, you'll definitely fall in love with this one :) As a fan of the series, I had high hopes for this installment, and I wasn't to be disappointed. Me and My Katamari lives up to all of my expectations except for a few, but I'll get into that later. I'll be breaking this review down into sub-categories for your reading pleasure :)

Gameplay: 10/10 – Fantasmic
The simplicity, the colors, everything, it's all great and it's all put together really nicely. You won't have any trouble adjusting from the gameplay of the other games to that of MAMK. It's simple, think of it as rolling a snowball in snow to make the biggest snowman possible. Now, replace the snow with people, cars, houses and the like and you've got a game

Difficulty 8/10 – Challenging
It's hard, but not to the point of throwing the PSP out of the window. I will say that it's harder than the first 2 Katamari games. It's a nice change for it to be a tad more challenging, but with no Difficulty modes you'll either get stuck early, or breeze through it all. It all depends on the player

Controls 7/10 – Adaptive
Being it a PSP game the developers over at Namco have to translate a two analog stick game, into a two face pads game. It controls just about the same but will take a bit of getting used to. The learning curve would be put at around 30 minutes, or around 2 levels or so of gameplay. Overall, they did they're best and they succeeded.

Graphics 9/10 – Exceptional
When you first turn on the game you'll question if it was truly made for the PSP or the PS2. The graphics, as always, are astounding. Namco didn't let us down in that department. Except for the occasional slow down there is absolutely nothing wrong with the graphics.

Sound Veterans 7/10 – Repetitive
Newcomers 10/10 – Fresh!
The reason I've put two ratings for sound is because if you're new to the Katamari Damacy series then you'll love the soundtrack. With it's pop feel and catchy lyrics and tunes you're in for a treat. However, if you've been playing the series since the first Katamari game you'll recognize every single song. Not that that's a bad thing, the songs are great. But it'd be nice to have some fresh tunes

Replayability 10/10 When does it end?
As with every Katamari game, there's plenty to do and plenty to see before actually finishing the game 100%. You have the presents scattered about each level. These are things that are, obviously, hidden about that you can find during normal rolling gameplay and at the end of the stage you receive a gift to add to your character, be it a crown, a shirt, or something completely quirky and weird. These aren't the easiest things to find, so you'll be playing each level for a while looking for them. Along with that, there's a ‘Cousin' spread about on each level. Same like with the presents, the cousins are just something you collect while rolling. If you finish the level with them on your Katamari then you receive them. All they are is another character to roll with. These little guys aren't as hard to find as the presents, but will still make for replaying a level again and again. Of course, the addictive gameplay will keep you crawling back for more. Trying to beat old records, collect every item. Whatever it is, you'll be playing this game for a long, long time.

Gripes:
The one thing that really bothered me about the game was that they took some of the simplicity out. Now you're judged on multiple things, and then scored overall. This can get kind of annoying, as you might have a great time, but a mediocre size so your overall rating would be in the low 60's. Also, now they wan you to pick up certain items for certain missions, which means you're scored on that as well, so that's one more thing to worry about. It's a nice change, but I can see it becoming tedious in the later stages.

Buy or Rent:
If you've played the Katamari series before it's a must have. If you're a newcomer to the series then I would either rent it, or read up on the series itself before buying it. Reading this review is a good idea too. Now, let's say you've played past Katamari games but don't have a PSP. This has been a common question around several websites. To buy a PSP for the sole purpose of playing Me and My Katamari. I'd say yes. You should pick up a PSP for MAMK. Not only is it a great game, but since the new, cheaper, PSP bundle is coming out it's not such a dent in the old wallet and you'll find yourself playing other PSP Exclusive games too. Heck, you might use it for your music needs too. So yes, I'd suggest getting it and MAMK together

Overall 9/10 – Astounding
When it's all put together and working nicely you have yourself a great game. No matter what, reading a review won't replace actually trying the game for yourself. So I guess that's what you'll have to do. What're you waiting for?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06