We Love Katamari

We Love Katamari from 2005 is a direct sequel that cleverly and self-deprecatingly reacts to the unexpected cult success of the first game. In the opening story, the King of All Cosmos is flooded with fan letters demanding more katamari tasks, turning the game into a playful meta-celebration of its own popularity. Namco, or rather the development team led by Keita Takahashi, expanded the formula with much more varied and imaginative levels with specific goals, such as building the largest possible snowman, a katamari shaped like a constellation, or a ball big enough to scare a cow. Some levels even drop the time limit and let the player roll at leisure, while others only allow collecting objects of a certain kind.

A full two-player co-op mode controlling a single katamari together was newly added, turning the game into a beloved party pastime, and the soundtrack, again exceptionally catchy and genre-spanning, ranks among the best-rated game albums of its generation. Cute, absurd humor, gratitude toward fans, and the same immediate joy of a swelling ball as in the first game made We Love Katamari an expansion that takes the best of the original and adds even more heart to it.

Flashback interludes into the King of All Cosmos's childhood between levels also lend the otherwise carefree game an unexpectedly melancholic undertone. Critics praised the sequel for not betraying its predecessor's charm, and the game is still considered one of the series' high points alongside the original Katamari Damacy. Technically it looks modest, but the simple shapes and flat colors served a clear purpose: they let the console keep hundreds of collectible objects on screen at once, which matters more to the feel of play than detailed textures. Namco released We Love Katamari quickly after the first game to capitalize on the unexpected wave of Western popularity, and thanks in part to that the series became a lasting reference point for indie and experimental games striving for pure, uncomplicated joy of play.