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> Results: We Love Katamari
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Last year, Namco treated gamers to one of the most creative and fun games of this current console generation. Katamari Damacy won the hearts of players everywhere with its quirky premise and addicting yet simple gameplay. Now they're set to do it again with We Love Katamari.
In the first game, the misguided yet lovable King of All Cosmos clumsily destroyed all the stars in the sky, and it was up to the good-natured, pint-sized prince to go down to Earth with a Katamari, a sticky ball. Rolling around the Katamari, the prince would roll over things and they would stick to the ball until it became big enough for the King to make a new star out of it. In the aptly named sequel, the King of All Cosmos has many fans who loved Katamari Damacy, and they are making fan requests. So the lazy King recruits the tiny prince and his many wacky cousins to take the fans requests to return to Earth with a Katamari and roll more stuff up! The game plays and looks pretty much like the first one. Start rolling up smaller items until your Katamari can roll up bigger things. Watch out and don't let people or animals bump your Katamari and shake items off that you've rolled up. Roll up your Katamari big enough and you might be able to roll up the people and animals that caused you so much grief when you were smaller. You start out rolling up bits of trash and knickknacks in someone's house, but soon you are able to roll up bigger things like furniture, animals, people, buildings, even clouds and islands! Some fans just want you to roll up as big a Katamari as you can in a certain time limit, just like the first game. But some fans have different challenges for you to try. Roll up as many flowers as you can in a fantasy garden setting or collect fireflies on your Katamari at night time. Build a camp fire by rolling around a burning Katamari, keeping the fire fueled by items you roll up. Keep a constant stream of items to roll up into your flaming Katamari so it won't go out, and watch out for water! Or you can leisurely roll up a snow covered Katamari until you make it big enough to build a snowman. In one of the wackier levels, you roll around a skinny sumo wrestler instead of a Katamari. Roll this sumo wannabe into food so he can eat it and get fatter. When he's fat enough, you can fight the rival sumo somewhere in the level. This and other crazy challenges await you when you take requests from Katamari fans.  New to We Love Katamari is an extended two-player mode. You can roll around different areas with a buddy to see who can roll up the most stuff, or you can play co-operatively, with two people controlling one Katamari. One controls the left side of the ball and the other controls the right. It takes a lot of communication with your partner to do well! The graphics are just like the first game. Boxy yet charming, the visuals look as if they leaped out of that Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" 80's music video. The music is unique, varied, and eclectic just like the original game, but some people may not like the more mellow tunes as much. If you played the first game, you can jump right into this one since play control is exactly the same. Use both analog sticks to maneuver the Katamari like tank treads. Press both up and your Katamari moves forward. Press the left stick down and the right stick up and you'll turn to the left quickly, etc. It's very intuitive to move the Katamari around like this. It's a bit short, but you can replay stages for higher scores and new challenges. While the sequel doesn't offer a whole lot that's new and creative, it's still one of the most fun games you will play this year. 
While some parents may find it disturbing that you are rolling up people and animals and turning them into stars, nobody really dies since everyone is right back where you found them if you do the level again. Plus the game is presented in such a lighthearted, cheerful way that the game doesn't seem dark and morbid at all. Kids will enjoy the intuitive controls, wacky humor, and non-stressful gameplay, and so will adults! We Love Katamari is great silly fun that your whole family will enjoy.
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