Katamari Damacy REROLL

Author: Fabio "Kenobit" Bortolotti

Date: 2020-07-30 23:09:45

What did we do to deserve Keita Takahashi? A brilliant, light game designer, with the heart on the right side and a kaleidoscope in the brain. At first he was just a perfect stranger who worked in Namco, but then, in 2004, he swept the world with the luminous genius of Katamari Damacy. In an era where everyone was chasing realism at all costs, he focused on the surreal, the absurd, the inspiration. Not surprisingly, fourteen years later, Katamari Damacy is still a masterpiece.

I always look at the remakes and remasters with a certain skepticism, especially in this age of retraining at all costs, but Katamari Damacy REROLL is a perfect re-release. After all, the true style does not age, and a very light coat of paint was enough to give us back the same game that conquered us at the time of the PS2.

Katamari Damacy REROLL, in fact, is the same Katamari of 2004, but in HD. Point. What else is needed after all? The low-poly graphics of the original lends itself perfectly to this type of operation, because it focused entirely on form and synthesis. REROLL limits itself to freeing it from the limits of PlayStation 2, stretching the ladders and giving the action an unshakable fluidity. The lengthy loads of the original have streamlined, while the gameplay and music have remained delightfully intact.

The only real novelty is the addition of a new control system, much more intuitive than the original one (but also a little more banal). It's all here, really, and I couldn't be happier. Why fix something that's not broken? And above all, why make the King of Cosmos angry, insinuating that his game is not perfect?

The truth is that, net of big words, Katamari Damacy has perfectly resisted the passage of time. For those who have never played it (I envy you!), The goal of the game is to roll a "Katamari", a sticky sphere that collects objects and pieces of the world, becoming bigger and bigger and obtaining the ability to collect elements increasingly voluminous. It starts with staples and ends up sweeping monuments to skyscrapers. All this, let's specify it, with the aim of creating new celestial bodies, because the King of the Cosmos got drunk and destroyed half the firmament.

Each level is a valid but relaxing challenge, which is constantly reinvented thanks to the change of size of the Katamari. The action is accompanied by the best soundtrack of its generation, while the graphic style, in its simplicity, is a constant source of surprises and wonder. The plot overflows with fantastic characters and is told by completely sissed intermezzo scenes, between psychedelia and nonsense. It's really all right, and I'm happy that fourteen years later the magic is still perfectly intact.

At the time I had finished 100% Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari (the only two episodes curated by Takahashi: the sequels without him were only heated soups), but nevertheless the emotion is the same as the first time. I played Katamari Damacy REROLL with a constant smile, lulled by the music and tickled by its simple gameplay. It is such a rewarding experience that it is difficult to stop. Katamari Damacy is like a huge sheet of bubble wrap, the parcel bubble paper. Why is it fun to pop bubbles? Boh. Why are you doing this? Boh? Why is it so good for the soul? Boh. And it is precisely in this lack of answers that genius hides.

MODUS OPERANDI
I played Katamari Damacy REROLL on Nintendo Switch, with a publisher-supplied code. I fell in love instantly and I could not help but finish the game again, also thanks to the convenience of having it in a portable version. The adventure lasts just over an afternoon, but the replayability and the desire to unlock everything will keep you busy for at least a dozen hours.