Going by the two previous Katamari games, it would seem that funky, spotty teenagers are not the only creatures in the universe who have issues with their parents. The Great King Of All Cosmos has been dumping his problems in his son’s lap for a while now – first getting the Prince to bail him out after a night of drunken revelry nearly destroyed all the stars in the sky, and then enrolling the little guy to help out all his fans on earth in We Y Katamari. Unfortunately for our diminutive hero, the King Of All Cosmos is up to his old tricks again in Me & My Katamari. Really, you’d expect a king to be better behaved.

After the events of the PS2 games, the King Of All Cosmos decides that it’s time that he and the family take a well-deserved holiday, whisking his wife and son off to a tropical paradise for a fortnight of sun, sea and sand. Of course, this wouldn’t be a Katamari game without something going hideously wrong. Actully it wouldn’t be much of a game at all if they had just spent a blissful two weeks frolicking in the tropics. So, low and behold, it’s the reckless King who manages to spoil the party: in a rather over-exuberant dive into the sparkling blue ocean, the King creates an enormous tsunami, flooding a nearby island and leaving its animal inhabitants homeless. What the developers failed to realise was that no man alone could cause a tsunami. It actually would require a very significant seismic event. We just thought you should know. Anyhow, a turtle washes up next to the royal family and relates his plight, moving the King to aid the stranded animals by – you guessed it – enlisting the help of his faithful son.

Naturally the Prince sets about doing his father’s bidding the best way he knows – by rolling a sticky ball around and picking up the junk us humans leave laying about the place. As in the PS2 games, the katamari is controlled tankfashion, although without the benefits of two analogue sticks on the PSP, this time you use the D-Pad and the face buttons. This control method – whilst staying true to that in the PS2 games – is in fact Me & My Katamari’s most glaring shortcoming, and will no doubt cause some problems for Katamari veterans and newcomers alike. However, after a couple of levels you start getting used to the controls, picking up ducks and shopping trolleys like a pro, meaning that maneuvering the katamari isn’t as difficult as it initially feels.

As well as making the controls as close to the PS2 versions as possible, Namco has done very little to change the proven Katamari game mechanic, and on the whole, Me & My Katamari feels a lot closer to the first PS2 game, with little variety in objectives from mission to mission. There are a handful of alternative goals that are presented as an aside to the Prince’s main adventure, but these can’t help make Me & My… feel like anything other than a step in the reverse direction for the series, especially considering the advancements made in We Love Katamari.

To be fair though, these gripes can’t detract from the overall experience of Me & My..., because it does manage to capture the most important element of any Katamari game – the uniquely Japanese quirkiness. Every little thing in the game, from the small items that litter the floor of the house you start in, to the hilarious reactions of people caught up in your katamari’s reign of terror, is crafted beautifully, all combining to create a game that could plaster a smile across the face of even the most miserable gamers. And that is the ultimate goal of every game released, from Pong to Resident Evil 4 – to give you an experience that you enjoy, which Me & My... does with aplomb. It was never going to surpass its PS2 cousins, and in comparison is probably the weakest in the series, but that really isn’t the point of the whole thing – it’s just a wonderfully silly game built on a premise that if you tried to explain to someone, they wouldn’t understand. In fact, the whole idea of it might so infuriate them that you’d be forced to pretend it was all a big stupid joke. It’s the most ridiculous fun that only a videogame could provide, and something that no other PSP game can match. Whether you’re a fan looking for more of the same, or are just curious as to what all the fuss is about, make sure you give Me & My Katamari a try – we can’t guarantee your brain will survive its joyous madness, but at least you’ll have a ball.

Jude Salmon