Some video game ideas are so wonderfully daft that you wonder how anyone managed to get them approved in the first place. Then you play them, find yourself grinning like an idiot, and realise that perhaps the industry could do with a few more people willing to embrace the ridiculous. Once Upon A KATAMARI belongs firmly in that category. Returning to one of gaming’s most distinctive and cheerfully absurd franchises, it brings back the simple pleasure of rolling an increasingly enormous ball of assorted rubbish through a world that seems to have absolutely no idea what is about to happen to it.
For the uninitiated, the premise sounds like something dreamed up after a particularly strange evening. The King of All Cosmos, a magnificently self-important celestial ruler, has managed to destroy the Earth, the Moon and numerous planets after making a mess of things with a mysterious ancient scroll. Naturally, rather than taking responsibility for his cosmic catastrophe, he leaves the Prince and his extended family of cousins to sort everything out. Their solution is to roll up practically everything in existence and use the collected mass to restore the stars. It is ridiculous, wonderfully so, and entirely in keeping with a series that has always found magic in the most unlikely places.
What makes Once Upon A KATAMARI particularly welcome is its return as a brand-new, original console adventure after more than a decade without a new mainline entry. This is not a franchise that needs to reinvent itself completely to justify its existence. The original formula remains strong because it is so unusual, offering a mixture of puzzle-solving, exploration and increasingly spectacular growth that few other games can replicate. The challenge here is to preserve that eccentric spirit while finding enough new ideas to make the latest outing feel like more than a nostalgic trip back to familiar territory.
The Simple Pleasure of Making a Mess
At its heart, the Katamari formula remains beautifully straightforward. You control the Prince as he pushes a sticky ball, collecting objects small enough to adhere to its surface. At first, you gather paperclips, thimbles and other everyday clutter, carefully manoeuvring around obstacles that seem enormous compared with your tiny creation. As your katamari grows, however, the balance of power begins to shift. Objects that once blocked your path become easy pickings, and before long you are sweeping up furniture, vehicles, buildings and far more substantial parts of the environment.
That sense of progression is the secret ingredient. Few things are as immediately satisfying as returning to an area that once felt intimidating and discovering you can now roll straight through it, hoovering up objects that were once completely out of reach. The world changes in scale as your katamari expands, and that transformation gives even relatively simple stages a wonderfully tactile sense of progress. You are not just watching a number increase on a screen. You can see your ridiculous little ball becoming a rolling monstrosity, and every new layer of accumulated junk makes you feel that little bit more powerful.
The physics are equally important to the experience. Rolling is not always as effortless as it sounds, particularly when you are trying to squeeze through narrow spaces or pick up objects that are only just within reach. Momentum, positioning and the size of your katamari all influence how you navigate the environment, creating a gentle puzzle element beneath the colourful chaos. A poorly judged turn can send you crashing into something inconvenient, while a carefully planned route can leave you collecting objects at a wonderfully efficient rate.
There is a rhythm to the gameplay that becomes increasingly addictive. You begin cautiously, examining the environment and identifying what you can collect, before gradually becoming bolder as your katamari grows. Eventually, the careful manoeuvring gives way to gleeful destruction as you sweep through the scenery with the confidence of a celestial snowball that has completely lost its mind. It is funny, strangely relaxing and immensely satisfying, which is quite a combination for a game about cleaning up after a planetary disaster.
Travelling Through Time, One Object at a Time
The major new twist is the historical setting, with stages that take players through different periods. Rather than limiting the adventure to familiar modern environments, Once Upon A KATAMARI invites you to roll through the Jurassic Period, the Ice Age, historic Japan and other eras as you work towards restoring the night sky. It is an excellent fit for the franchise because the basic gameplay already revolves around changes in scale, and shifting between historical periods gives the developers fresh opportunities to experiment with the objects, creatures and environments available for collection.
The Jurassic stages are particularly appealing in concept. There is something inherently funny about imagining a tiny Prince starting with insignificant bits of debris before gradually building a katamari large enough to collect the prehistoric world around him. Dinosaurs provide an obvious source of spectacle, but the real charm comes from the contrast between the game’s absurdly cheerful presentation and the increasingly ridiculous scale of what you are rolling up. The same principle applies to the Ice Age and historical settings, where the change of scenery helps keep the adventure visually fresh.
The time-travel premise also gives the game a stronger sense of identity than a straightforward return to familiar locations might have offered. Each era can introduce different environmental arrangements and collection opportunities, encouraging players to adjust their approach rather than relying entirely on memory from previous games. It is an effective way to refresh a formula that has remained largely consistent for years. The core mechanics are familiar, but the historical framing provides a new playground for them to run wild.
Naturally, the success of this approach depends on how much variety each period actually offers. Different backdrops are welcome, but a new coat of paint cannot carry an entire game if the challenges beneath it feel too similar. Fortunately, the appeal of Katamari has never depended solely on elaborate mechanical innovation. Its greatest strength is the way it turns ordinary environments into increasingly absurd playgrounds, and a journey across history provides plenty of potential for that peculiar magic.
A New Magnet for Mayhem
Among the new additions, the Magnet tool is a particularly welcome idea. It attracts nearby objects, offering another way to gather items and potentially making the rolling process feel more dynamic. The traditional gameplay already rewards careful positioning, so a tool that draws objects towards your katamari adds an extra layer to the familiar routine. Used thoughtfully, it could help players collect awkwardly positioned items or maintain momentum through a crowded area.
The important thing is that such additions should support the original mechanics rather than replace them. Katamari works because its controls are easy to understand yet still require a little thought, especially when the environment becomes crowded or the katamari reaches an awkward size. A magnet that simply removes every inconvenience would risk flattening that balance. As a supplementary tool, however, it offers an appealing new option without abandoning the series’ distinctive physical comedy.
This is where Once Upon A KATAMARI appears to understand the assignment. The franchise does not need a complete mechanical overhaul, but a few well-judged additions can make returning to its familiar world feel worthwhile. New abilities provide opportunities to approach the same basic objective in different ways, while the historical stages give those mechanics fresh contexts. The result is a sequel that seems interested in expanding the experience rather than throwing away the elements that made it special.
There is, however, a limit to how much novelty a familiar formula can provide. Players who have spent countless hours with earlier Katamari games will recognise the basic rhythm almost immediately, and those hoping for a radical evolution may find the changes relatively modest. That is a fair criticism, but it is also worth remembering that consistency can be a virtue when the underlying idea remains this entertaining.
The King of All Cosmos Is Back, and So Is the Personality
A Katamari game would not be the same without its extraordinary cast of characters and its gloriously peculiar sense of humour. The King of All Cosmos remains central to the chaos, providing the sort of ridiculous royal presence that makes the series feel unlike anything else on the market. His latest catastrophe is so spectacularly unnecessary that it could almost be considered an artistic achievement. Only in this universe could destroying multiple celestial bodies become the starting point for what is essentially an enormous cosmic tidying exercise.
The Prince is once again joined by an impressive collection of cousins and relatives, with 68 characters to choose from. That is a substantial roster, especially for a game whose appeal is rooted in such a distinctive visual style. The ability to customise their colours and faces adds another layer of personality, allowing players to create their own bizarre little members of the royal family. It may not fundamentally alter the gameplay, but it encourages a sense of ownership over the adventure and gives fans another reason to experiment.
Character customisation is also a natural fit for a series that has always celebrated individuality and silliness. There is something endearing about creating a cousin who looks completely unlike the Prince, then sending them rolling through history to collect prehistoric creatures and household junk. It reinforces the idea that this is a game that wants you to have fun with its world rather than take any of it particularly seriously. In an industry where customisation systems can sometimes feel like elaborate monetisation hooks, the opportunity to play around with appearances is a refreshingly uncomplicated pleasure.
The overall tone is important because the basic gameplay could easily become repetitive without a strong personality to support it. Katamari succeeds through its combination of unusual visuals, playful presentation and an almost childlike willingness to find joy in absurdity. The characters help maintain that identity, making the latest adventure feel like a return to a very particular kind of madness rather than a generic puzzle-action game with a strange rolling mechanic.
A Soundtrack Worth Rolling Along To
Music has always been a vital part of the Katamari experience, and the promise of a fabulous new soundtrack is encouraging. The series is at its best when its music embraces the same colourful unpredictability as the gameplay, blending catchy melodies with an eclectic mix of styles. The jazz-pop direction described for this instalment sounds like a natural fit, offering lively accompaniment that can turn a simple collection run into something far more memorable.
A good Katamari soundtrack does more than fill the silence. It gives the game its rhythm, helping the player settle into the rolling process while adding an extra layer of character to every stage. When the music, movement and increasingly ridiculous scale of the katamari all come together, the experience can feel almost hypnotic. You may begin a stage intending to collect a few useful objects, only to realise that several minutes have slipped by as you gleefully sweep up half the scenery.
The visual presentation appears equally committed to maintaining the franchise’s identity. Katamari has never needed photorealistic graphics to communicate its personality, and its bold, colourful world remains well suited to the playful nature of the gameplay. The contrast between everyday objects and the cosmic scale of your growing katamari provides much of the visual comedy. Watching a tiny collection of odds and ends gradually become a rolling mass capable of swallowing far more substantial objects is the sort of spectacle that remains amusing precisely because the game never treats it as anything unusual.
KatamariBall Brings the Competition
Beyond the main adventure, Once Upon A KATAMARI introduces KatamariBall, a competitive mode for up to four players. The concept takes the series’ central mechanic and places it within a galactic sporting contest, offering an alternative to the usual progression through single-player stages. Players can compete online against cousins around the world or practise offline against computer-controlled opponents, giving the mode a degree of flexibility.
Multiplayer is a sensible addition to a game built around such an instantly understandable idea. The basic act of rolling up objects is easy to grasp, making it an accessible foundation for competitive play, even for people who have never touched the series before. Katamari’s inherent unpredictability should also make it well suited to a multiplayer setting, where the fun often comes from unexpected developments rather than perfectly controlled outcomes. A well-designed competitive mode could provide a welcome change of pace after a long session of solo exploration.
The availability of offline opponents is particularly useful. Online modes are only as appealing as the communities supporting them, and a game should ideally offer something worthwhile when friends are unavailable or online activity becomes quieter. Computer-controlled opponents provide an alternative way to practise and enjoy the mode without depending entirely on matchmaking. Whether KatamariBall becomes a lasting favourite will depend on its depth and variety, but it is a promising addition to an already distinctive package.
Familiarity Is Both a Strength and a Weakness
For all its charm, Once Upon A KATAMARI faces one significant challenge: the core gameplay remains largely unchanged from the series’ earlier days. That is not automatically a problem, but returning players may find much of the experience immediately familiar. The basic loop of collecting small objects, growing larger and moving on to increasingly substantial targets remains the central attraction. Those who loved previous entries will likely see that continuity as a welcome return to form, while anyone expecting a dramatic reinvention may be left wanting more.
There is also the question of repetition. The rolling mechanics are inherently satisfying, but even an entertaining loop can lose some of its magic if stages do not introduce enough meaningful variation. The historical settings, new Magnet tool and multiplayer mode all help broaden the experience, yet the strength of the overall package will ultimately depend on how effectively these elements sustain interest over time. A good Katamari game needs to keep finding new ways to surprise players, even when its basic rules remain reassuringly consistent.
Still, there is something to be said for a game that knows exactly what it wants to be. Not every sequel needs to reinvent its genre or bury a beloved concept beneath layers of unnecessary complexity. Sometimes, a fresh collection of stages, a few clever additions and a healthy supply of wonderfully silly ideas are enough. Once Upon A KATAMARI appears to understand that its greatest asset is the sheer pleasure of rolling, collecting and watching the world grow increasingly ridiculous around you.
Final Verdict
Once Upon A KATAMARI sounds like a joyful return for one of gaming’s most eccentric franchises. The time-travel premise offers an entertaining excuse to explore new environments, while the Magnet tool adds a fresh twist to the familiar rolling mechanics. The large roster of customisable cousins adds personality, the promised soundtrack should help set the right mood, and KatamariBall gives players a competitive alternative to the main adventure.
Its greatest achievement is that it appears to understand the series’ enduring appeal. There is a special kind of satisfaction in starting with a tiny ball of rubbish and gradually turning it into something capable of swallowing the world, and few games deliver that feeling with quite the same charm. The core mechanics may be familiar, but they remain wonderfully effective when paired with inventive stages, playful presentation and a soundtrack that encourages you to keep rolling.
The lack of a major mechanical overhaul may disappoint those looking for a bold new direction, and the long-term appeal will depend on how much variety the stages and additional modes provide. Even so, there is no need to fix a formula that still has this much personality. For returning fans, this looks like a welcome reunion with a wonderfully strange friend. For newcomers, it could be an ideal introduction to a franchise that has spent years proving that video games do not always need to make sense to be brilliant.
Sometimes, the best solution to a cosmic catastrophe is not a heroic speech, a legendary sword or an epic battle against an ancient evil. Sometimes, you just need a sticky ball, a very questionable king and the willingness to roll up absolutely everything in sight. On that front, Once Upon A KATAMARI looks ready to deliver a thoroughly entertaining adventure.
