Katamari Damacy has always been a completely off the wall series with a truly insane but likable nature to it, and the vita edition keeps true to that. It has the series’ awesome music, sense of humour and still makes rolling around a ball quite fun, but ultimately the vita version just isn't as solid an entry as the other versions. It has all the ingredients to make an awesome katamari game but it just doesn't fully succeed.
It is still can still be a fun game however. The classic katamari formula of rolling up everything you see while some catchy music plays is still here. The objects you roll retain all the funny sound effects and more. Upon completing a level, you will get stats and ratings on how big you were able to make the katamari and how well you did regarding the objective (e.g. how many sport items you picked up). You are then awarded candies (the game’s currency) which you can use to buy unlockables. It is also possible to collect objects called “Fan Damacys” which you can use for various things. There are even a ton of unlockables to uncover for replaying levels & finding secrets and these reel you in to play again. However, while unlockables offer incentive to play again, the actual levels don’t exactly shout “come back and play”. The levels featured can be fun but they aren’t the most enjoyable that the series has seen, far from it actually.They are fun for the first few plays but they lack the memorability and excitement of the past levels. They’re not without some variety though. While most levels will simply have you rolling to a certain size against a time limit, occasionally the objective may be different such as finding the biggest bear or cow object or rolling up items with the least calories. The atypical levels are nice, it’s just too bad there are so few of them. Alongside that, there are just too few levels in the game. It’s not long before you finish the game and the lack of many levels makes replaying the already uninspired levels a bit more tedious. There are downloadable extra levels that are termed “free” in the store, but the is somewhat of a ruse. These levels can only be played with Fan Damacys, which aren't exactly common. Either you can replay levels over and over until a Fan Damacy appears or you can shell out real money to buy a few. So basically to play these levels, you either spend hours racking up FDs or you use your money to play these “free” levels.
Despite the levels being a bit dull, thankfully there are some new mechanics that utilize the Vita’s touchscreen and makes the gameplay more enjoyable. You can use the touch screen to stretch the katamari vertically (flat), stretch it horizontally (thin), jump, speed rush and perform some other tricks. Only the first two are the most useful, as the others aren’t exactly easy or comfortable to pull off. It can actually be quite fun to stretch out the katamari and gobble everything in your path or just thin the katamari to get into hard to reach places. These additions don’t feel forced and make the game more fun to play. Being a katamari game, the music selection is top-notch...to an extent. I found that only the songs with vocals were great while the instrumental pieces were rather forgettable and bland. Unfortunately (for me at the very least), they are in greater number than the vocal pieces. On the bright side, the vocal pieces make the game a more enjoyable experience. “Hello World” & ”2011’s Sky and Music” are soothing to play along to, ”Alien” is more upbeat and catchy and ”Shabadoobie” is wacky as it is fun. Unfortunately, the number of great songs are too few in comparison with the bland ones and songs can’t be chosen to for whichever level you play.
Along with usually dull music and tiresome levels, there is some annoying pop-in issues in the game. I have not seen this in any other katamari game and it is certainly unacceptable for a game of this series. The objective is to roll up all the items you see but when these items just disappear (or suddenly appear), it sours the experience. It doesn't happen frequently enough to ruin the whole experience but it really should have been ironed out. Katamari for the vita can offer some fun times, however brief that may be. It can be enjoyable but the fun doesn't last too long, nor does it leave much of a mark on the series.