izigame.me

I really love the Katamari series, but I can't really recommend this one over the first one or as the introduction to the series.
Bugs
☆ Frequently freezes entirely. It doesn't crash, but will freeze for several moments. This has happened multiple times throughout many stages (for me).
☆ Objects don't load in from a distance always. Sometimes they randomly appear or fade in when re-rolling through certain areas.
☆ Not sure if it's just me, but the camera frequently gets caught behind large objects for extended periods, or gets placed at strange angles that can cause motion sickness.
Personal Gripes
☆ The music is not nearly as good as the original. It's not as fun destroying the world with a ball listening to what sounds like a sugar plum fairy entrance theme song. The original had much more fun upbeat, jazzy, unique music that made you want to be a menace. It was a huge aspect of what made Katamari so enjoyable to me, and it's not here in this title.
The songs also aren't quite as randomly placed throughout levels? One song is usually tied to levels, and once it's done playing it just re-loops the song. In the original, it would play a different track as to not give the player a headache listening to the same thing looped for up to 14 minutes.
☆ The levels are all over the place. The first Katamari had a sense of slowly growing and upping the stakes as you progressed through different stages. Here, it's much more random and features gimmicks rather than a gradual climb.
☆ The maps aren't as fun. Probably a very personal gripe, but some of them do genuinely become a headache to roll through, such as the school for example. Also, while increasing size, the game actually pauses to load and increase the map, completely halting your roll and making each level much less smooth to play through. This was never an issue in the original.
This game just seems to have a lot less care put into it than the original. The people aren't specially named, the items aren't as meticulously placed, the music is soulless and unfitting, there are bugs, everything's all over the place. I hate to constantly compare to the original, but I only played it for the first time recently (no "nostaliga" or memories to cloud judgement) and WE LOVE KATAMARI is just so subpar to KATAMARI DAMACY.
I can only recommend this game over the original if changing the playable character is the only way someone will play a game, to which this game allows you to exchange the Prince for his Cousins.
I'd say save money not buying this to play the original Katamari Damacy instead.
✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧˖°˖✧