The game was provided to us by Bandai Namco for review. Thank you!
It's time to get back to rolling and help the King of the Cosmos make the wishes of his fans come true! We Love Katamari REROLL is the remaster for the second game in the Katamari series. Just like the previous game, Katamari Damacy REROLL, you will roll around a ball and gather up items to create the biggest ball possible. Start off small and roll up little objects as you gradually get bigger to roll up entire buildings. After you're done, the ball you roll will become a nice star in the sky and you can move along to your next mission, rolling more balls in a variety of different locations.
We Love Katamari REROLL is a remaster of the 2005 release of the same name (minus the REROLL) which is sporting some redesigned graphics and revamped UI. On top of that, there are additional features like the Royal Reverie, which sees you clear through 5 new challenges as the young King himself, and a selfie mode so you can take some quick photos of you and your cousins. It also has some nice little QoL features like being able to change visuals to resemble the newer style (Gorgeous) or the classic one (Usual)!
I will admit, I am slightly biased for this series due to nostalgia and me playing it back in 2005 on PS2, but it still feels just as awesome as before! The gameplay is simple, rolling up objects to create a big ball, or a specific amount of items depending on the mission, but it can become strategic as you choose what to roll up as you get bigger and bigger. We Love Katamari REROLL feels more unique as well with different locations, like being underwater, that makes each level a different challenge on top of rolling. I am a big fan of this game and I am happy to say it runs really well on the Steam Deck!
The first thing I noticed when booting up the game was actually the resolution. The game starts at 1280x720, so the black bars are there, but after checking the settings, I realized the game DOES support 1280x800 and gets rid of those bars. So I would recommend changing them due to it being supported, but it isn't necessary to really play and enjoy the game.
Without any other changes, We Love Katamari REROLL runs at 60 FPS with an average battery drain of 9W - 12W. There are some spots it can go up to 13, but this is quite rare. Being in the actual levels will drain around 10W - 12W, while running around in the overworld will stick to 9W. While there are other settings you can change, like shadows and anti-aliasing, I elected to keep everything on the default highest since it runs extremely well while looking fantastic.
With the resolution changes, the game does support the 16:10 resolutions, but also has full controller support and cloud saves.
We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie is a wonderful remaster that brings back the lovable charm of Katamari for another round of rolling. The variety of levels, new QoL features, and the Royal Reverie content has made this a wonderful way to go back into the addicting gameplay loop the series features. On top of that, playing the game on the Steam Deck not only looks amazing, but is a breeze to run. This is most definitely an amazing game to play, experience, and run on the device!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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We Love Katamari REROLL is a great remaster to a wonderfully entry into the series and it runs incredibly well on the Steam Deck!
