I love Katamari Damacy and adore most everything about the series, but must admit some of the more recent entries ended up being disappointing in certain ways. With entries like Katamari Forever and Touch My Katamari reusing so much and titles like Katamari Damacy Rolling Live going mobile, it got a bit exhausting. Once Upon a Katamari feels like the first true return to what makes a Katamari game not only entertaining, but memorable.
The All Cosmos royal family is cleaning out the castle as Once Upon a Katamari begins, though it is really The Queen and The Prince doing all of the work. In fact, the tutorial involves The King “supervising” as The Prince rolls up junk in one of the palace’s bedrooms. As part of this process, The King of All Cosmos discovers a sealed scroll and decides to start twirling and tossing it. In his gusto, it goes through the roof and knocks out every star and planet in the sky. Even his beloved Earth is gone! What’s to be done? Send The Prince off in the SS Prince time machine to different eras in human history to roll up elements to restore the universe.
Now, one thing I want to highlight before we move on to why Once Upon a Katamari feels like such a fresh and notable game in the series is the script. The stories in the Katamari series are never amazing. The King of All Cosmos gets carried away in some way. The universe is trashed. The Prince saves the day. The concept here is imaginative, which I appreciate, and still features the same fun quips from The King about different eras, The Prince’s performance, and certain topics. He’s as charming as ever with his asides. However, a notable point is that I don’t feel he’s as cruel or critical of The Prince. Yes, he will make a few biting remarks. But he seems more considerate (for him) than in past games, which feels like a sense of character development from the past installments.
Since this is a time travel game, progress in Once Upon a Katamari feels a bit different. We’ll go to different eras, needing to complete a certain amount of stages to gain enough energy to power the SS Prince for another jump through time. When we are at a certain point in the timeline, The Prince will wander around the location to see the next stage spots.
As for the stages themselves, things progress much like in past Katamari Damacy games in Once Upon a Katamari. The King of All Cosmos will tell you the task, which can involve things like reaching a certain size within a certain amount of time or getting a certain objective completed like rolling up all items or getting a certain number of a certain type of items. Three crowns will also be hidden in each level as something of an additional optional item to collect, with that bonus being shown from the main map in place of the three star completion indicator in other kinds of games. You roll the Katamari forward and back. As usual, there are the traditional fast leaps to swap positions on either side of it for quicker turns, you can strafe around it, and there are camera options for a The Prince or Katamari-eye view. Power-ups can also be acquired for a temporary buff, such as a magnet to suck up things around you or a means to briefly pause the clock.
The only fault here has to do with one of the control schemes. The traditional one works perfectly. It’s fantastic. The simplified one, which only uses the left analog stick, feels subpar. There isn’t the same degree of control over the Katamari. It isn’t as comfortable. I tried it for the sake of being able to say that I did, and it felt less comfortable than the traditional dual analog stick option.
The stages in Once Upon a Katamari are great and feel unique for a number of reasons. All of them are historical, so we’re seeing period appropriate items and spaces. It means we see models and items that didn’t show up in past games, which is a plus. The level design also feels pretty great and like there are some deliberate “paths” constructed in some spots to help leads you to certain ramps or hint at locations where you might find crowns. There’s a good sense of progression, and I did feel like they scaled in difficulty and complexity upon heading to new eras.
I’m not as enthusiastic about KatamariBall, though I didn’t play it under ideal conditions. This involves up to four people with Katamaris rolling around a space at once competing to get the largest one. It is possible to play with CPU opponents, but I really didn’t get much out of it. Yes, it is possible. But I feel part of the fun of a Katamari game is making thoughtful choices in the moment to maximize your performance, and I didn’t find it as much fun when pitted against other people.
But on to better things. The ambiance in Once Upon a Katamari is fantastic. The soundtrack? It’s great. There’s an amazing selection of songs here. Even better is that it accomplishes that with originality and not just copying the kinds of tracks we heard in Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari. I especially adored Etsuko Yakushimaru’s “Diver,” Chelmico’s “Katamari Time,” Daoko’s “YangYang,” and Kenji Ninuma’s “Chill Prince.” All of them are so appropriate.
The character customization is also something I adored! Yes, there are cousins in Once Upon a Katamari to use as avatars instead of The Prince. However, you can also adjust different parts of each character to make a custom character. This means things like facial expressions and color schemes too. On top of that, there are additional accessories, like an extra buddy on the antenna or a mask, so you can really be your own person. It’s a fun bonus. Though some of the new cousin designs are great too, so it ends up being a lot even if you don’t want to make adjustments.
Once Upon a Katamari feels like it is as strong of an entry as a game like We Love Katamari. The time traveling element really suits the series. The character customization is a lot of fun. I’m not a KatamariBall fan and think the Simple control scheme option is far from it. But overall Once Upon a Katamari is a great installment that captures the essence of the series.
Once Upon a Katamari will come to the Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 24, 2025.
Once Upon a Katamari
Once Upon a Katamari feels like it is as strong of an entry as a game like We Love Katamari, and it captures the essence of the series.