Once Upon A Katamari (Switch) Review

Katamari is a series that feels both like playing an interactive meme and experiencing a fever dream. Perhaps Katamari could be best described as a Fever Meme? Nonetheless, after a number of years of remasters and mobile/handheld releases, Once Upon a Katamari feels truly like the next natural instalment of the Katamari series.

In keeping with the title of the game, Once Upon a Katamari is framed much like a fairy tale. The King of All Cosmos, well-known for destroying the entire universe in a drunken state, has now come across a strange scroll in the middle of cleaning the family castle. As is the case with The King, he carelessly tosses the scroll in the air, subsequently destroying Earth, its moon, and all of the stars. With the universe in ruin, The King forces his son, The Prince, to roll up everything throughout history so as to restore the universe.

Katamari has always been known for its complete absurdity and nonsense, and Once Upon delivers this in spades. The King speaking gibberish half the time, asking The Prince’s cousins what they were doing on Earth, and telling them he has no idea what they’re talking about. It’s bonkers stuff that fits in with the rest of the game, and keeps me smiling throughout the whole game.

Separating Once Upon from the rest of the Katamari game is the ever-changing period settings. There are a variety of hub areas, all designed to represent different eras of history, including the Jurassic period, the Edo period, the American Frontier period and many more. Each stage within the hub areas asks you to complete a specific task related to the time period you’re in which is a nice touch. Rolling around a level cleaning up tumbleweeds for the cowboys, and collecting ancient antiques of high resell value fit within their own respective time periods, keeping the levels fresh and giving them a sense of visual distinction.

Gameplay-wise, the game follows the usual pattern of guiding a Katamari (a sticky, rollable ball) through a level, collecting random items that are small enough to attach to your Katamari. As your Katamari grows, you can then roll up larger items, repeating the process until you can roll enormous objects in the level. There is a new control scheme available for those not familiar with Katamari’s two-stick system. You can now guide the Katamari with one stick that does all the turning, rolling and strafing. I stuck with the two-stick system, since that’s what I was used to, but it’s cool to know there’s an accessible way to play for newcomers.

Everything looks great on the Switch as well, the simplistic artstyle of the Katamari series keeps things looking bold and colourful enough to stand out, even in handheld mode. The camera can present an issue every now and then when you’re close to walls, which is only really mildly frustrating. Everything seems to run well despite it being an original Switch game. I suffered some mild dips in framerates when things were extremely hectic, though this was only rare.

Katamari games are well-known for it’s eccentric, ridiculous humour. It is also known for having a seemingly banger soundtrack in every title. For no reason whatsoever, Once Upon a Katamari contains a soundtrack that punches you in the face from the get go. Containing a variety of styles including and not limited to Jazz, Chiptunes, Pop and Synth. The songs are as eclectic as the rest of the game, with no song sounding even remotely similar to others. The music really brings the whole game together, and is a hell of a lot of fun to vibe to while rolling up horses and dinosaurs.

Other than the time travelling theme, Once Upon a Katamari offers some new gameplay elements to set it apart from the rest of the series. The biggest of the new additions is the inclusion of a new multiplayer battle mode called “Katamari Ball”. The mode pits four players to roll up the biggest ball possible in a set time limit. The bigger your ball, the harder it is to move, and in order to score points you must regularly take your ball to a spaceship to reset your ball. It’s pure chaos, and adding in the ability to roll up other players if you’re larger than them is a lot of fun as well.

There are also items that can be collected in order to boost your Katamari’s rolling powers in a level. Some examples of this include magnets that draw in nearby items, and rockets that speed up your Katamari. The items can be picked up and then activated whenever you want, but only last a limited time. It’s well-worth taking the time to work out when the collected item is going to be at its most helpful.

Replayability is a big factor in this game as well. Every stage hosts a number of hidden items that are required to be collected to achieve 100%. From rolling up The Prince’s cousins to play as later, to finding The King of All Cosmos’ crown, and a number of accessories that The Prince and his cousins can all wear. There’s always a reason to go back to a level to try and master it.

For what it’s worth, Once Upon a Katamari feels most similar in tone to Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. It doesn’t try to reinvent the formula, but it never needed to. The unadulterated joy of rolling a ball and collecting random stuff in a level never gets old. Being able to play it in both TV and handheld modes is a bonus, and the soundtrack slaps. Once Upon a Katamari is a perfect blend of humour, whimsy, silliness, and most importantly, fun.

Rating: 4/5