Once Upon a Katamari: PS5 Review

Developed by Rengame
Published by Bandai Namco
Platform: PS5

Once Upon a Katamari's appeal lies in the nostalgia.

While its simple premise of using a ball to be rolled around collecting bits and enlarging itself as you go seems relatively childish in idea, the reality is the game's actually harder than it looks.

Building on the PS2 series and giving it a story of the King of All Cosmos charging the prince to rebuild after he's made a terrible mistake makes for a return of simplicity of concept, even if the execution is something entirely different.

A variety of stages through a variety of periods makes this game colourful and joyous in its visuals, as if settling back into childhood vistas isn't a bad thing. The controls of moving the Katamari take a little bit to get used to and while the tutorial is fairly comprehensive, the actual rolling of the Katamari is a little harder to get spot on. And later stages require intricacies and patience that need more than just an understanding of gravity to complete.

From feudal Japan to ancient Greece, the game covers a lot of ground and in a fluid and interesting way. It may be a little dialogue-heavy for a game that's essentially about rolling a ball, but as a slice of nostalgia, Once Upon a Katamari hits an odd spot and does it well.