Namco says: We Love Katamari

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 April, 2005

Is the name of the US version of Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy. Due out Stateside later this year.

Namco has announced that the PS2 sequel to Katamari Damacy will be released in the US "later this year", whenever the hell that is. And it will be called "We Love Katamari", rather appropriately - a reference to the story, which sees the now-popular King Of All Cosmos fulfilling fan requests for more katamari (the rolling stars, y'know).

Although we're going to call it "We Love Katamari But Not Enough To Release It In Europe Despite The Fact Everybody Over There Is Crying Out For It" or something like that. This once.

Never heard of Katamari Damacy? Righto. You control a little man pushing a ball. The ball picks up things like staples, pins, rubber, rulers, pencils and other worldly objects as it moves around, and they change not only the size of the ball but also the shape as they mount up, with wonderful physics feedback, gloriously manic musical accompaniment and pick-up-able items running all the way from drawing pins to stadiums and hot air balloons.

We Love Katamari features new locations, loads of new things to roll up - "from underwater creatures to mountains and even the Eiffel Tower" - and a two-player co-operative mode will allow players to co-operate in groups of two. Presumably... And to "devise new strategies and communicate their rolling intentions in a new level of katamari madness". Battle Mode, the competitive two-player option, also returns with three size scopes this time around.

So it's out in the US later this year, which is great news, but in the meantime it's out in Japan on 7th July, and you can be sure we'll be importing it as soon as we can. In the meantime, check out the screenshot gallery, complete with some proper-sized ones released by Namco USA. Hooray!

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (14) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • lost_soul #1 7 years ago

    Can't wait for this!

  • Kiigan #2 7 years ago

    Namco. Just release it. PAL conversion isn't that hard.

  • Wobbler #3 7 years ago

    um, any chance of a European release, Namco? Even the first one? Please?

    Don't make me chip my PS2, Namco!

  • Kon #4 7 years ago

    Same here. Rather than releasing weak souce games like R:racing and DBD, why not release a game that most every european gamer on the web has been wanting to have on his collection? The success of the US release of the first one plus the very warm reception by the critics should be more than enough reason for the game (either one will do) to be released in PAL territories.

    For God's sake, there barely must be any text to be translated. How hard can it be to convert and release?

  • tengu #5 7 years ago

    "We love Katamari... but we HATE Europe!"

  • Teeth #6 7 years ago

    It would be nice to see this in Europe. I say "nice to see this in Europe"; what I mean is "really awesome to see this in Europe and the mind boggles as to why we haven't got a release date"

    You know what? I blame the hardware manufacturers and their region locking. It's a ridiculous idea at the best of times, and even moreso for the UK; PAL conversions of games are (English-speaking content-wise) usually identical to their US counterparts, with no new voiceovers or (God forbid) correct UK English spelling. It's a rotten shame, and something that needs to be addressed, hopefully with the next generation.
    Edited by Teeth at 26/04/05 @ 15:09

  • silver-jon #7 7 years ago

    Oh come on Namco. Grow up !!! Europe represents a vast potential market. Stop foisting your unimaginative homogenous shelf-fillers on us and put a few developers onto converting "We love Katamari" into PAL.

  • PinkSpider #8 7 years ago

    Surely if people can port niche games like Metal Slug, Disgaea etc then a big company like Namco can get its finger out of its ass and bring this over here.

    And if they dont im gonna mod my console and download every single one of their bloody games.

    Also Squaresoft bummed us up during the PSX era but I wouldnt download a pirate version of a Final Fantasy Series (other than tactics).

    Sigh.

    /goes to a corner to cry a little.

  • Teeth #9 7 years ago

    The charts aren't important, denouncers: katamari damacy isn't going to top any chart - doesn't mean it won't make money. Doesn't mean it isn't worth releasing.

  • Bezzy #10 7 years ago

    When moving to SCEE, you have to cater for more than just Britain.

    I agree it's not a big deal to get a european version, but don't forget that there ARE other issues at hand doing it.

    They're simply not insurmountable issues for the likes of namco. Please let me love katamari in europe. Like a honeymoon in paris! Roll the eiffel tower!

  • Tweakmonkey #11 7 years ago

    It has to be said:

    Namco hate us.

  • volb #12 7 years ago

    Damn, do we have to rebuild the Eiffel tower after every single doomsday movie or video game? We were just getting rid of the Onimusha 3 time folding machines, too.

    /whines, whines, mumbles...

  • Blerk #13 7 years ago

    Damn - I go away for an afternoon and miss a prime 'slag off Namco' opportunity!

    /kicks self

  • asphaltcowboy #14 7 years ago

    Katamari DS!