Me & My Katamari for PSP Reviews by Gamers

Me & My Katamari is Namco's attempt at bringing the highly unique Katamari Damacy series to the PSP. While the game has all the charm of its console counterparts it fails to bring the ease-of-use and fun.

At its core, Me & My Katamari is more Katamari rolling goodness. The King of All Cosmos is back and has tasked you with rolling up all sorts of stuff around various environments on Earth. Collect enough stuff in the given time limit and you pass with a ticket out on the Royal Rainbow; fail and you must face the King's wrath. All of the atmosphere and oddball humor you loved in the console versions is found here and the King is as good as ever. The only real issue is that the music is mostly a compilation of songs from the previous two games. While they are good songs it would've been nice to get a new set of tracks for the PSP version.

What really hurts Me & My Katamari is the controls. Namco attempted to keep the spirit of dual analog controls on the PSP but failed miserably. The face buttons are attempting to emulate the right analog stick on the PS2's controller. It might sound okay at first but the controls are extremely awkward. Holding triangle and pushing forward on the analog nub to move forward or holding X and pulling back to move backwards is anything but intuitive, and don't even think about turning. What Namco failed to realize is that it's not the dual analog controls that made the Katamari series so fun, it's that the controls were simple and intuitive. Instead of forcing an inappropriate control scheme on the PSP they should've come up with new controls that felt just as natural.

If you can get past the controls, Me & My Katamari has even more Katamari goodness to offer up. Visually it looks great on the PSP, perhaps even a bit better than the PS2 version. Unfortunately the game's charm isn't enough to make up for poor controls. Stick with the PS2 versions, they're what Katamari should be all about.

When the Japanese developer of this game was asked why the controls were so confusing and hard he said that they were made that way to give the player the feel that they were pushing an object. I found this to be true for me and so did my friends.

I started playing and I became frustrated with the controls becuase it was so hard to get ahold of. As I played, however, I came to notice that it felt as if I was pushing and manipulating the ball with my fingers. It helped with the feel of the game but no just push forward, left and right to move the ball. It makes this simplistic game more complex and adds a unique touch to its style.

Stop complaining about the game and learn to play it the way its ment to be played. Honestly, if you liked the console Katamari then you will love one you can keep in your pocket!