Despite the numerous attempts made over the years on different platforms, the Katamari Damacy series has never managed to repeat the success of the progenitor for PlayStation 2, still today an absolute masterpiece of madness and insanity: this is also and above all true in the mobile field, where the franchise has always struggled a little while being able to count on a gameplay that theoretically goes well with the methods of use and the control system of modern smartphones. At Namco Bandai, however, they did not give up, and after the imperfect I Love Katamari and Katamari Amore and the questionable Tap My Katamari, the prince of the cosmos returns to the fore with Amazing Katamari Damacy, which tries to combine the classic mechanics of " rolling "of the series with a formula close to that of the endless runners.
The bungling king of the cosmos
Amazing Katamari Damacy starts off on the right foot, offering a simple and absurd narrative pretext as per the best tradition: while he is busy painting rainbows in the sky, the king of the cosmos ends up overturning a bucket full of dark matter, generating a series of black holes that they soon suck up the entire universe.
It will therefore be again the prince's task to roll his katamari sphere to accumulate as many objects as possible and thus reconstruct the various celestial bodies. For anyone who has played the very first chapters of the series, all this will have a pleasantly nostalgic flavor, a feeling that the technical sector of the title only increases: from a graphic point of view, in fact, Amazing Katamari Damacy faithfully reproduces the minimalist and naive style of the main episodes, while the musical accompaniment rests entirely on the unforgettable title track of the original PlayStation 2. Things change instead in terms of gameplay, because if it is true that the focus is always to collect everything that comes within range (provided that has dimensions smaller than those of the sphere), the context in which this activity is carried out is radically different: therefore forget the open environments and the objectives of magnitude to be achieved within a time limit that characterized the levels in the main chapters of the series, and dates welcome to an endless runner setting based on a linear path to be followed for as long as possible. Framed from behind, the prince moves forward automatically, while it is up to the player to move him to the side and make him jump, all while trying to increase the diameter of the katamari by incorporating the objects encountered along the way and avoid each other. obstacles: of these, only the black holes cause the immediate game over, while colliding with elements larger than those of the sphere leads the king of the cosmos to become impatient, making it more difficult to continue the race.
It must be said that the control system does not do its best to facilitate the player, proving to be significantly less responsive and precise than what would be necessary. Nonetheless, Amazing Katamari Damacy also works quite well, making it enjoyable in a completely different way than the original gameplay: undoubtedly you feel the lack of open scenarios that guaranteed greater variety and depth to the game action, but as a mobile pastime it behaves in an absolutely dignified manner. However, it is difficult to ask the Namco Bandai product to be something more, since it ends up showing its side to all the typical limitations of the adopted genre. The basic repetitiveness and the substantial lack of a sense of progression that is not represented by the search for the best score are the two most critical aspects, but there are other slightly rough corners that could make some users turn up their noses: we refer in particular to the massive presence of advertisements, but also to in-app purchases which - although not too invasive - affect the pleasantness of the experience and are also characterized by really salty prices compared to the average.
Comment
Tested version Android (1.2.1.1263) Digital Delivery App Store, Google Play Price Free Resources4Gaming.com7.3
Readers (1)
7.6
Your voteAmazing Katamari Damacy can be defined as a half-successful experiment: if on the one hand the endless runner formula goes quite well with the collection activities of the prince of the cosmos, on the other it is inevitable to miss the greater variety and freedom guaranteed by the original game system. Consequently, also thanks to some flaws (above all a control system that is not entirely convincing) and the historical limits of the genre, the Namco Bandai product can be safely recommended to fans of the series, as long as they take it as a pastime and nothing. more.
PRO
- It fits well with the endless runner genre
- Graphics and sound inspired by the original game
- The demented humor is always there
- It quickly becomes repetitive
- Control system not flawless
- There are no great incentives to continue
