The Katamari Damacy franchise is back with its first brand-new entry on consoles in 14 years. Once Upon A Katamari, announced Thursday during the latest Nintendo Direct, will send the Prince of Cosmos back to Earth for a new roll-’em-up action adventure with a time-travel twist.
Once Upon A Katamari is the first original entry in the franchise since 2011’s Touch My Katamari. Between that game and today, there have been remakes, re-releases, and spinoffs — many of them for mobile devices, like this year’s Katamari Damacy Rolling Live for Apple Arcade. But Once Upon A Katamari is a legit return to form for the series originally created by Keita Takahashi.
In Once Upon A Katamari, the King of All Cosmos has accidentally destroyed Earth (as he’s wont to do). His oft-put-upon son is thus tasked with rolling their Katamari through history, visiting the Jurassic Period, the Ice Age, historic Japan, and other eras to hoover up objects with the titular sticky ball. You know, to restore Earth.
But that’s not all. Once Upon A Katamari will also introduce the sport of KatamariBall, which publisher Bandai Namco describes as a “new four-player competitive mode where players attempt to roll the katamari as big as possible and exchange it for points within a limited time.” KatamariBall will support online multiplayer and offline play against CPU opponents.
While originally announced for Nintendo Switch, Once Upon A Katamari is also coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. It’s out Oct. 24. And if you’ve been playing those remakes and re-releases over the years, you get a perk: Katamari Damacy Reroll and We Love Katamari Reroll+ Royal Reverie players who have save data from those games can unlock a playable Young King when Once Upon A Katamari launches.
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