The release of both Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari in remastered formats over the past seven years has shown that the love for Katamari is as timeless as when the first game was released roughly 21 years ago. The formula is simple, but the silliness and infectious gameplay make for wonderful video game experiences that become difficult to put down once you start playing. You would think that Bandai Namco would continue remastering the other games in the series like Me & My Katamari or Beautiful Katamari. Instead, the publisher has decided to make a completely new game, Once Upon a Katamari, with new developer Rengame at the helm.

Like every other game in the series, the story is ridiculous. The Great King of The Cosmos and his family were cleaning the castle when the king stumbled upon a lost scroll. As expected, he got distracted and played around with the scroll before tossing it up so high in the air that it went into space, where it unfurled and swallowed up most of the galaxy. Seeking to set things right again, The Great King assigns The Prince to clean up the mess by creating new stars with the help of his katamari and various objects scattered throughout Earth's various historical periods.

For those unfamiliar with the series up to this point, the gameplay loop is very simple to understand. You push around a ball known as a katamari that has the uncanny ability to capture anything in its path that's smaller than the ball. As more objects are gathered up, objects that were once larger than the katamari are now smaller and can also be attached to the ball. Every stage sticks you in a level and tasks you with getting larger, with some kind of limit stopping you from rolling more. Your item-filled katamari is then judged by the king and sent into space to become a celestial being, and you are sent to another level to start the process anew.

Much like We Love Katamari, a number of the levels go beyond the main objective of rolling around and grabbing anything and everything in sight. There are some that combine goals, such as having to roll a katamari with the most expensive stuff possible, but you're limited to 150 items. There are others that get specific, such as having to roll up tumbleweeds or gold. Some make good use of the time travel mechanic, like rolling up philosophers of ancient Greece or yokai that belong in a demon procession in Japan. The variety helps in keeping the game lighthearted and playful, while also preventing the game from getting monotonous.

The general conceit and presence of specific objectives doesn't make the game stray too far from the established formula, but the level design make this title shine. The different locales and time periods make the game feel fresh, especially since so few of these spots have been used in past games. The Japanese-related eras may seem immediately familiar to longtime players of the series, but others, like the Jurassic setting and the American Wild West, infuse some new life into the chaotic game. Every stage you encounter always takes place in different areas of the time period, and you'll rarely see the same area used twice. The blockades are also used creatively. You'll still see gates that tell you how large you need to be before you can pass, but some are more natural, such as gusts of wind that will blow you away until you become large enough to be unaffected by them. Things like that mess with the game's status quo in a very good way.

One new gameplay element is the presence of power-ups, and there are four in total to pick up. The magnet lets you pull in any nearby object that would normally be eligible to be picked up. The rocket grants you a small amount of extra speed. The radar helps you locate special unlockable items to acquire. Finally, there's the stopwatch that stops all movement for a short time.

You would think that the presence of these power-ups would result in making the game easier, and while they do help, it isn't a complete game-changer. For example, the magnetic field for the magnet still requires you to be fairly close to an object before it can be pulled in. You can only hold one power-up at a time, and you have to use what you're holding because you can't replace your current power-up with a new one. Also, the duration for each power-up is never long, so they don't break the game balance.

Unlike with previous entries, Once Upon a Katamari does take longer to complete. You can spend roughly eight hours to finish the campaign and even longer if you choose to be a completionist. Cousins and hidden presents are scattered throughout each level, as are crowns which are used in a gacha machine to get more cosmetics for your character. Levels come with their own letter grades, and getting high letter grades is tough enough that replaying levels is inevitable. None of this feels like padding, so you never feel like the experience is being dragged down.

The game features a multiplayer mode in the form of Katamari Ball. Four players are armed with a katamari of their own and tasked with picking up as many objects as possible in a confined area and depositing the items in their own goal before time expires. Despite being a competitive mode, trying to knock away items from an opponent's katamari is almost useless because it takes a long time for the dash move to wind up, and only a small number of items get dislodged. You can attach your opponent to your own katamari, which is good for a laugh. This also tends to happen by accident, since you'll usually be big enough that you're lumbering through the level. The main tactic seems to be going for a hit-and-run method, where you get a few items, move quickly to your goal, and repeat the process instead of going for one big item dump. Even though the Katamari series is known as more of a solo experience than a multiplayer one, the mode is fun. Online connections perform well, even when only a few people are interested in the mode. The only lament is that the mode is online only; a local version would've been nice to ensure that you can have an audience at any time.

Graphically, there aren't many noticeable changes between this game and the previous two remastered titles, and that's for the best. The low-polygon items and animals and people alongside the low-resolution textures retain the game's charm, as any changes just wouldn't feel the same. The same can be said for the lack of particle effects, and don't expect any state-of-the-art lighting, either. The game uses the extra horsepower at its disposal to put tons more objects on the field while also keeping the frame rate high.

The sound has always been a highlight for the series, and Once Upon a Katamari is no exception. The effects are the same as before, which is good since there's a certain glee to be had when hearing people and animals get caught up in the katamari. The narrator also does a good job of keeping the story lighthearted, and his delivery is slightly over the top. The music is where the game really shines, as the soundtrack variety hasn't changed from before. The playlist has been updated to get songs with a more modern taste, but every track is as infectious as it is joyful. There's a bunch of new earworms that'll never leave your head. It's all excellent stuff and fits well with the rest of the songs that the series has featured thus far.

Steam Deck users will be pleased to know that just like the previous PC entries, this title fits perfectly on Valve's handheld device. The game hits the full 1280x800 resolution of the device, and 60fps is maintained throughout the adventure. The battery life hits around three-and-a-half hours on a full charge on the LCD version of the Deck. It's difficult to tell if this is due to the age of the battery, considering that the device in question is now a little over three years old. As for Linux desktop machines, the game runs without any issues, so there's no tweaking that needs to be done.

Once Upon a Katamari is another excellent title in the series. The game design is still timeless, and the act of picking up everything in your path never gets old. The additions of power-ups don't change the game dramatically, but the solid level design and varied objectives do a good job at keeping the game fresh. The time travel concept also helps in that regard. Still bathed in that joyful but lo-fi presentation, Once Upon a Katamari is a game that's benefitted from long stretches between releases and remains a great title for both veterans and newcomers alike.

Score: 8.5/10