As the title to its sequel suggests, everybody loves Katamari Damacy. In fact, that’s the very basis for We <3 Katamari, as Katamari Damacy’s fans the world over eagerly clamor for more Katamari action, and the delightfully flamboyant King of All Cosmos is only too happy to comply. We <3 Katamari works as a fantastic, fanservice-heavy sequel, offering more of everything that made the original so great: More levels, more characters, more of that wonderfully kooky soundtrack, and of course, more King of All Cosmos. Still, as solid as the game is, it clearly highlights how little this series benefits from incremental updates. We <3 Katamari doesn’t feel as fresh or exciting as that quirky Japanese game that turned into a surprise smash hit in late 2004. It doesn’t bring anything truly new to the table. Fans of the original need not fear, however: This is a great, objectively better video game; it’s just missing some of the original's heart.

As the tiny Prince, you’ll travel across the land completing Katamari-related tasks for the series’ most vocal fans. The King of All Cosmos, though eager to take credit for all of the prince’s hard work, is often reluctant to send the pintsized hero on these expeditions, but is always easily persuaded by those who appeal to his vanity. Like in Katamari Damacy, you’ll spend most of your time in We <3 Katamari rolling up objects, animals, and people with your super sticky Katamari in order to meet some sort of size requirement within a limited amount of time. While the gameplay itself differs very little from the original, despite Namco’s attempts to mask this fact by replacing conventional size requirements with objectives that have you rolling up specific items – origami swans, candy, or flowers, for example – the game’s levels themselves are thankfully more varied. The same “realistic” city settings of the original make a comeback, but We <3 Katamari also features whimsical fantasy landscapes like those seen in the game’s cutscenes, including a witch’s gingerbread house, an underwater stage, and a racetrack that pays homage to the series’ unlikely roots.

As you roll up more objects, your Katamari grows larger, allowing you to roll up bigger and bigger items. You’ll begin by rolling up pushpins and stale crackers, eventually growing large enough to add people, vehicles, and even buildings to your ever-growing Katamari. As you increase in size, the gameworld scales to allow for environments that match your Katamari’s width. You might begin a level in a child’s bedroom, for example, dwarfed by stuffed animals and the family pet, but end by rolling down populated city streets, rolling up anything unlucky enough to get caught in your path. Annoying load times accompany these shifts in scale, though they are hidden beneath the King of All Cosmos’ entertaining dialogue. Unfortunately, the King doesn’t only speak during load screens. He often babbles on when you roll up a item of particular interest such a present from a Katamari fan or one of the Prince’s royal cousins, which let you accessorize your playable character or swap out the Prince with one of his oddball relatives should you tire of staring at his green backside, respectively. The King’s dialogue is always quirky and funny, but also always gets in the way of the game itself, blocking a sizeable chunk of your field of the vision. The King either needs to learn to shutup, as unlikely as that seems, or find himself a competent voice actor.

The game is never challenging; you’ll be hard-pressed to fail any of the game’s lax level objectives. Instead, playing We <3 Katamari is a rather relaxing experience, thanks largely to the pleasant soundtrack and the more precise controls, which now feature an ability to scale flat surfaces. The classic Katamari theme (“na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na”) returns, along with a cover version that’s chirped, oinked, and mooed by a talented bunch of barnyard animals. Other standouts include a J-Pop love song with a charming Engrish chorus and a soothing, schizophrenic electric piece, though truthfully there isn’t a single bad song in the group. After completing the game, you’ll unlock the option to play any song from the game’s soundtrack at will, a feature you’ll find yourself taking full advantage of. You’re also able to rewatch any of the game’s silly, melodramatic cutscenes that tell the story of the King of All Cosmos’ own childhood spent with an overbearing father.

The game’s visuals haven’t changed at all in the year between original and sequel. The same simple, blocky models accompanied by flat, colorful textures make the sheer horror of Katamari’s reality seem absurd and endearing instead, and paint a universe where dancing panda bears, an overabundance of rainbows, and giant, Ultraman-inspired superheroes almost makes sense. New, more interesting landscapes aside, it’s impossible to distinguish between the two games visually. The highly stylized graphics still look great, even if the Playstation 2 could obviously do better.

Also like the original, We <3 Katamari is incredibly short and can be completed in a long afternoon. There’s little reason to keep playing after the credits roll. Besting your high scores isn’t much of an incentive, even if you get to enjoy the game’s soundtrack while you do so. The game also includes the same throwaway competitive multiplayer mode as the original, offering little in terms of fun or replay value aside from the initial curiosity. We <3 Katamari does introduce a new cooperative mode, however, the game’s only genuinely new feature, where both players wrestle for control of the same Katamari, with each player effective responsible for one of the PS2’s two analog sticks. This co-op mode is just as frustrating to play as it sounds. It’s painfully dull and cumbersome and frankly, development time would have been better spent adding an extra single player level or two.

Nobody buys a Katamari game for its multiplayer, of course, and We <3 Katamari’s single player experience is brisk and entertaining, even if it sticks closely to the original’s framework. For those looking for their next Katamari fix, We <3 Katamari will absolutely satisfy, but anybody expecting a game as innovative or clever as Katamari Damacy will come away entertained but disappointed. It’s no wonder series designer Keita Takahashi abandoned the franchise after this title; if there was ever a series in which the sheer unexpected newness of its characters, setting, and gameplay were just as important as the quality of each individual entry, it’s the Katamari series. Still, We <3 Katamari is unquestionably the best entry in the series, with more variety than any other entry. It just would’ve been nice for Namco to wait until they had some genuinely interesting new reasons to revisit the series rather than pushing a sequel out the door so quickly.