We Love Katamari

We Love Katamari for PlayStation 2 is Namco’s 2005 action-puzzle sequel to Katamari Damacy. Known in Japan as Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy, it returns players to the tiny Prince of All Cosmos and his remarkable katamari: a magical sticky ball that gathers up objects smaller than itself. Released in North America on September 20, 2005, the PS2 game retains the series’ deliberately strange visual world, playful sense of scale, and colorful music while building a new collection of requests around the King of All Cosmos and his unexpected popularity.

Each assignment begins with a small katamari and a goal set by the King. Using the PlayStation 2 controller’s two analog sticks, the player steers the Prince and rolls the ball through homes, streets, fields, and other fantastical spaces. Small objects such as coins, pencils, food, and toys stick first; as the katamari grows, it can absorb people, vehicles, buildings, and far larger parts of the scenery. Bumping into obstacles or moving hazards can knock collected items loose, so choosing routes and avoiding dangers matters as much as simply gathering everything in sight.

The familiar Make a Star challenges ask the player to reach a target size before time expires, but We Love Katamari varies the formula with objectives designed around individual fan requests. Some stages limit which objects may be collected, while others ask the Prince to roll snow into a snowman, deliver children to a school, or help a sumo wrestler gain weight by collecting food. Success can open alternate objectives for a stage, giving the same environments a different purpose and encouraging players to revisit them with a new plan.

The game’s story makes the sequel’s premise part of its comedy. After the Prince restores the stars in Katamari Damacy, the King discovers that he has fans on Earth and sends the Prince and his cousins to grant their wishes. Between missions, the game also tells episodes from the King’s earlier life, including his relationship with the Emperor and his future Queen. The result is a self-aware tale that uses the series’ absurd royal family and its Earthly admirers to connect the many different requests.

Exploration also rewards thorough rolling. Cousins hidden in stages can be collected and then selected as playable characters, while royal presents unlock costume items for the Prince and the cousins. The PS2 release supports single-player play as well as a two-player cooperative mode in which both players share control of one katamari, requiring coordination as it gathers speed and changes direction. A separate competitive Battle mode lets two players try to out-collect one another.

We Love Katamari was developed by Namco and followed the original PlayStation 2 game by expanding its scale and mission variety without abandoning its central idea. The game arrived in Japan in July 2005 and later reached Europe, where Electronic Arts published the PS2 release. Its 2023 remaster, We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie, brought the game to later platforms, but this PlayStation 2 version remains the original home of its fan-request theme, cooperative rolling, alternate stage tasks, and eccentric sequel to Katamari Damacy.