The King of All Cosmos grew to stardom after replacing the stars with the Prince¡¯s katamaris. In response to his new found fame, the King is out to appease his fans with the help of the Prince and his cousins. Now they are tasked with rolling up even more clumps, each larger and different from the one before.

Visually there is not much on U.S. soil that is like the Katamari titles, and it is nice to see that the popularity of the first didn¡¯t make Namco try to make the game more ¡°masses friendly.¡± One of the more impressive visual feats comes in how many objects the developers have come up with to pick up with your katamari. You have every thing from little items like paper clips, rulers, thumbtacks, and buttons, to medium size items like glasses, shoes and flowers, to enormous objects like people, cars, and even buildings! The larger your katamari becomes, the more exciting and hilarious the game evolves. At first glance, unfamiliar gamers may think the game looks simplistic and silly¡¦well silly or not, the game utilizes some impressive technology that becomes more impressive down the line when you pick up items that seem impossible. The game has a unique presentation, and that¡¯s being kind, as the game is really down right strange. Using some crazy cut scenes, world scenarios, and insane objects to collect, the word ¡±unique¡± just doesn¡¯t seem to be enough to describe the world of Katamari.

Audio is also genius in both music and sound effects. As a matter of fact, the music is so strange, yet appealing that gamers buy the import of the soundtrack in droves to hear on the go. Let¡¯s just hope they aren¡¯t confusing their cars with katamaris. Sound effects will amuse you and onlookers, especially when you pick up animals and people. Just the sound of the screaming helpless victims is enough to get a chuckle from even the most anal humanist, as the game is all in good fictional fun.

Gameplay is simple, addictive, and so much fun that it can appeal to all ages. The control scheme has you doing certain maneuvers on the analog sticks in order to move the katamari here and there. To move forward press the two analog sticks forward, to move side to side press the analog stick to the left or right, backwards movement is obtained by pressing down on both sticks, turning requires a diagonal movement depending on which way you want to turn, lastly to brake you must move the analog sticks in opposite directions. While the controls seem simple, the difficulty of the game comes in the tasks you must complete for the King. You have to roll up your katamari to a certain size in a time limit to be successful. Co-Op play adds more value to each level as now not only can you have two people rolling for the biggest katamari, but to do well you have to communicate with each other as your turning and side movements are opposite from each other. You also must be moving the katamari the same way at the same time or you lose momentum. The 2-player battle mode is just how it sounds; compete to make YOUR katamari the largest.

Even with the new two player modes, large levels, and new environments and objects, the fun is over far too soon. Sure, you can go back and try to improve on your katamari size, but it would have been nice to see a ridiculous amount of maps in this incarnation. Even with the small map number, the game still has a ton of replay value, and the multiplayer action will add more value when you have someone with you to enjoy the experience.

Is We ¢¾ Katamari for everyone? No, but it should be as anyone who overlooks this title thinking it¡¯s too gimmicky, weird, or quirky is missing out on something special. There are very few games which are released that break up the monotony in the usual gaming genres, and the Katamari series does just that. It gives gamers that unique experience that can be taken in small or large doses. I for one can¡¯t get enough of the series, and look forward to see where Namco can take it.