''Katamari Forever'', known in Japan as is a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

in the '' Katamari'' series. The game was released for the

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console in Japan on July 23, 2009, and in September for North America, Europe, and Australia.

Story and gameplay

''Katamari Forever'' contains 34 stages, with all but three of the stages being taken from previous titles in the series. Half of the stages take place within the mind of the King of All Cosmos, who gets knocked in the head and suffers from

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...

. The levels are black-and-white in appearance, and the objective is to roll up junk to bring

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

back to the stages, restoring the King's memory. The other half of the stages take place in the present, where RoboKing, a robotic version of the King of All Cosmos created by the Prince and his cousins, goes on a rampage and destroys all the stars in the sky, which, unlike the King, he feels extremely remorseful for. The objective of the new levels involves creating stars by rolling up junk as in previous '' Katamari'' games. New additions to the gameplay include: the "Prince Hop", which allows the Prince to hop into the air by flicking the controller up or pressing a shoulder button; and the "King Shock", which sucks nearby objects onto the katamari like a magnet. ''Katamari Forever'' lacks the

online multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode as in '' Beautiful Katamari'', but does include local multiplayer and online leaderboards. The game utilizes a full

high-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines ( ...

format. In addition to graphics in the original style of '' Katamari Damacy'', the game allows the players to select graphic filters such as

cel-shaded Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a Color gradient, shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often us ...

, colored pencil, or wood grain graphics.

Music

The music for the game includes a number of

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ed tracks from previous iterations of the series, using a combination of "electric" and "organic" sounds according to the sound director Yuu Miyake. Miyake employed the help of artists and remixers to help the soundtrack. The

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

was released in Japan on August 19, 2009. It includes a total of 36 tracks spanning two discs.

Reception

''Katamari Forever'' was met with positive to average reception upon release.

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gave it a score of 77.80%, while

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gave it 74 out of 100. The game received a score of 33 out of 40 by Japanese gaming publication ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

''. It was the 6th best-selling game in Japan during the week of its release, selling 28,000 units. In America, ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' awarded the game 7 out of 10, noting that the game still suffered from many of the issues that plagued past entries in the series. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' also gave it 7 out of 10, commending its gameplay, but thought that the title did not bring anything new to the series. ''PixlBit'' awarded the game 4 of 5 stars, recommending the game to both fans of the series and newcomers alike.

Notes

References

External links

Official website

* {{Authority control 2009 video games Bandai Namco games Genki (company) games Katamari Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 3-only games Puzzle video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Yuu Miyake Video games with cel-shaded animation