Katamari Damacy was a triumph of innovation. Thanks to its $20 price tag and unique gameplay, it managed to capture a large fan base despite being a niche title. Those fans were rewarded with We Love Katamari, a slightly more expensive but much more robust edition of the series, and just so happened to receive solid reviews, including one from yours truly. It should come as no surprise that Namco would roll out one last iteration for the handhelds, and it comes in the form of Me and My Katamari for the PSP.

As with the previous games in the series, The Prince sets out to clean up the mess that his father, the King of All Cosmos, has created. This time the King has created a tsunami, wiping out an archipelago. Now it’s time for the Prince to roll up some junk with his katamari so that the King can use the majestic “Royal Puff” to create islands for the wildlife.

Controlling the Katamari is actually fairly easy, despite the lack of the PS2’s dual analog sticks. Using your D-Pad and the face buttons in a tank-like way, you push your katamari around, rolling up stuff, which in turn allows the katamari to get bigger, and allows you to roll up bigger stuff.

Through a pleasantly presented “island” system, you’ll find different animals on “Prince Island”. Each one will prompt the King -- who has become less witty this time around -- to send you on a mission to roll up a significantly-sized katamari with a new twist: to form your katamari with a particular type of item. The animals issue requests such as a “beautiful” or “heavy” katamari, and it’s your task to roll up those items as you create the island.

At the end of each level, the King will use his immense calculation skills to give you a score out of 100, based on the amount of the required item you picked up and the size your katamari, with bigger being better, of course. This scoring system is great early on when it is obvious that you have limited time and won’t be able to roll everything up. Unfortunately, it seems less important in the larger levels where you can roll up massive sized balls of junk.

In addition to the standard levels, you’ll occasionally get sent over to Volcano Island to do some bizarre random task for an animal, such as rolling up as many expensive things as you can, or particular items in a relay type of format.

The lack of variety in the levels is possibly the most disappointing thing about Me and My Katamari, where it appears Namco has taken a step back to Katamari Damacy, after spoiling us with its sequel. There’s a limited number of levels, and you’ll be sent through them multiple times, usually with minor variations in items, seasons or time of day. The feeling of the world expanding around you has also been taken away, probably due to technical limitations. Instead of a fifteen minute run, your game is broken into a few five-minute runs, after which the next “stage” of the level is loaded. You’ll never find yourself rolling up the house that you originally started in, which was one of the more satisfying aspects of the console versions.

As in the previous versions, there are plenty of items, as well as “Royal Presents”, which are hidden throughout levels, and can be donned by the Prince or his many cousins. The cousins, which are playable characters, are strewn about each level just waiting to be rolled up, and there are even more of them this time. In fact, my new favorite cousin, Ban-Ban appears to be a walking donut. Nice.  

The game takes care to catalogue every item that you’ve rolled up, for those who are obsessed with rolling up everything. In addition, a leaderboard is available with a variety of statistics for every level that you’ve played. When you’ve completed all of the stages, you’ll even get a little treat from the King himself, and it’s excellent. 

The graphics and sound are top-notch, and represent what you would expect from a Katamari game. The same polygon graphics are there, with the strange characters and sounds they make when you roll them up. The engine runs pretty fast for the most part, with a little bit of pop-up and slow-down in some sections, but nothing too frustrating. The game translates very well to the PSP widescreen.

The music is pretty much a compilation of some of the best tunes from the PS2 versions, plus a handful of originals thrown in for good measure. If you liked the music from the originals, you’ll be fine with this one. Because Disco Prince is an option, I’m good to go.

Me and My Katamari also includes a multiplayer mode, which allows for up to four people to play using the PSP’s Ad-Hoc mode. They can visit your island and you can engage in battles, which can involve rolling up expensive items. It’s a nice little addition, but as with its console counterparts, multiplayer feels thrown in here.

Overall:  7.5/10

If you’re a Katamari-obsessive, you’ll enjoy a solid handheld experience, and it’s a faithful iteration of the series which just so happens to fit in your pocket. You may be disappointed at the game’s lackluster depth, especially since console editions provide a lot more variety at a lower price. That being said, if you don’t own a PS2 and you’ve never experienced the Katamari Damacy series, then this will be one of the more enjoyable purchases that you’ll ever make for your PSP.