Amazing Katamari Damacy (iOS, Android)

Katamari Damacy is one of the weirdest game series you’ll ever play.  You roll around a sticky ball that can roll up anything, including animals, people, and buildings, and try to make it as big as you can in a time limit.  I love this series, and the first game was even my Game of the Year back in 2004.  Recently, Bandai Namco, the makers of the game, have dabbled in some mobile Katamari entries, including an endless clicker I reviewed a while back.  And now they’re tackling continuous runners as well with Amazing Katamari Damacy.  It’s a free-to-play downloadable title for iOS and Android devices, but reviewed on iPad here.

In the game you roll the katamari through a corridor trying to roll up smaller things and avoid bigger things.  They really got the spirit of the game right with this, as when you get bigger you can start to roll up things you couldn’t before.  Move your finger on the touch screen left and right to move in those directions, and swipe up to jump over obstacles.  And that’s all you do!

There are a few things that can stop you.  If you run into too many obstacles, the King of All Cosmos will get mad and follow you and you can even see his looming shadow!  But if you can avoid any obstacles during this time, he’ll stop getting mad and go away.  But keep hitting obstacles and he’ll stop your game.  The other thing that can instantly stop your game are these little black holes that you must avoid or jump over.  I hate those things!  At the end of your run you can earn coins.

Power-ups come in the form of cousins.  Collect them during your run to temporarily turn into a ball to collect coins faster, gain a shield, and more.  Use coins to cause the duration of cousin power-ups to last longer.  You can also send off rockets to collect coins, rubies, and star fragments later, but I didn’t really understand how that and star fragments work.  They don’t make it very clear in the game.  Sometimes less is more.  But you can use rubies as continues and to buy other things.  As a free-to-play game, you can also buy rubies and coins with real money in the store.  There are daily challenges to obtain as well.

Like I said, I really like how they captured the spirit of the game into a continuous runner.  Turned out better than the endless clicker did, I think.  Even the graphics are better than in other Katamari games.  I do wish that they played more than one song as you roll.  The main Katamari theme from the first game is cool, but there are so many other great songs in the series they could’ve used as well.  While the game turned out better than I thought it would, it still didn’t hold my interest for very long.  For a while, Namco was beating a dead horse by releasing too many Katamari games, but I think we’re ready for another main one.  How about one on the Switch, Namco?

Kid Factor:

Nothing too violent or objectionable here, although later on you can roll up people and animals.  Parental supervision is still recommended for the in-game ads and purchases.

One Response to “Amazing Katamari Damacy (iOS, Android)”

  1. I really want to play the mainline Katamari games, but this looks fun too.

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