Katamari Forever

In the beginning, there was Katamari Damacy, in which you rolled up everyday objects with an ever-growing ball. It was a huge hit. Those responsible for making it said, "Well, shit, let's do that again." And they did. They made We ♥ Katamari, a game with virtually identical gameplay to the first game. This "sequel" even featured all kinds of cheeky commentary in its narration, breaking the fourth wall and asking the player where all the enjoyment of rolling shit into balls came from. Third, they made Beautiful Katamari, an Xbox 360 exclusive that I have only briefly played; I don't know what loose excuse for a plot that game cobbled together, but I do know that the gameplay once again remained unchanged. Roll. Rinse. Repeat. But here, at long last, in the fourth game of the franchise, they've finally gotten innovative enough to change the gameplay. That's right, folks. This isn't your older brother's Katamari. Nay, for in this installment of Katamari, you are given the capability... to jump.

Okay, so my point is that nothing ever changes in the Katamari franchise. But really, nothing has to. There's that old saying that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and this silly little franchise, in which you just roll shit into gigantic balls that consume people, and then cars, and then buildings, and then continents... well, it ain't broke. It might be growing a bit stale. I beat the series' first two games in one sitting each, and this one took me a few sittings to get through. Was it boredom? Just a lengthier game? Tough to say. But one thing I do have to say is that in spite of finally adding a new element to the gameplay, this was the least original installment of Katamari yet; of the 32 levels in the game, 29 have been borrowed from previous games in the franchise. Wow! If the joke in the second game was, "hey, you'll all play the exact same game again," then the joke this time is, "no, literally, you've played these exact levels before." Whatever. The vast majority of the levels were still fun as hell, and although three or four had me cursing and furrowing my brow at the TV a good deal, I can't say I regret revisiting the world of Katamari yet again. Marissa owns the aforementioned third game in the series, so there's a good chance I'll get around to playing it someday. But not yet. Not yet.