We got to spend a brief amount of time with Once Upon a Katamari, enough to play through 3 challenges, a glimpse of the multiplayer mode Katamari Ball, and even check out the all-new customization feature.

Even for a short time, it’s easy to say that Once Upon a Katamari is still the experience fans expect, but with all-new levels and modes to boot.

Once Upon a Katamari Hands-on Preview

Once Upon a Katamari is the newest installment in the Katamari franchise, following the last entry in 2015, a full decade ago, and excluding the remasters in between. This latest game sees the King of All Cosmos up to his usual antics as he accidentally destroys the earth and stars, and now the Prince must roll their Katamari across time to rebuild the night sky.

From the trailers alone, you already know what to expect. It is Katamari, after all, and the trademark rolling action is back, accompanied by some new features in this latest entry. Newcomers may find controlling the ball a bit challenging because both sticks are used to control the ball, much like how you would row a boat, with a combination of pushing and pulling the left and right sticks, moving you forward, backward, and even turning you from side to side.

During our preview, we tried out three levels of varying objectives. While previous Katamari titles mostly focused on creating the largest ball, Once Upon a Katamari once again offers players additional objectives to aim for.

Once Upon a Katamari takes place in various eras as its backdrop, and in the Japanese Edo Era, for example, I played through a level called “As Fast As Possible 4” with the primary objective being to roll up a ball in the least amount of time. The faster the better, while taking longer will lower your overall ranking and score.

Another level, called “Philosopher Hunt,” took us to ancient Greece, where we had to collect several philosophers in addition to growing the ball. As with all Katamari games, you cannot collect larger items unless you grow to a certain size first. The last level, “Rev Your Fryers Up,” was quite challenging, combining platforming challenges such as narrow walkways and moving platforms with a hot-pot-themed level.

Rolling through the level in Once Upon a Katamari will see the player gain power-ups along the way, like a rocket that can boost straightaway speed for faster collecting, but is not ideally used in tight and winding spaces. Another power-up was a magnet, which worked exactly as expected, automatically pulling in objects for a limited amount of time.

Of course, we also had to try out KatamariBall, which is basically a multiplayer mode that brings together players in a frantic race to roll the biggest ball. While online multiplayer was not part of what we tried, offline against CPUs was the next best thing, and it was actually pretty fun. It’s a totally different feel from the usual missions, but going up against three other players who are also trying to gather as much as they can get is an experience.

Once Upon a Katamari has a generous amount of new tracks to collect items in. The game has focused on multiple collaborations with several artists, featuring catchy yet eclectic tracks to bop your head to. And they also match the era/stage as well, which is pretty neat.

One of the bigger updates in Once Upon a Katamari is its customization suite for the prince and the cousins. From the face to the body and even the numerous color combinations per part, there are a lot of options, and cousins, to customize, which gives players the ability to personalize their experience to be different (at least cosmetically) from others.

Once Upon a Katamari is the latest installment after a long time, and while it does not revolutionize or make drastic changes to the formula, it really doesn’t need to. The formula of rolling and picking up things along the way is as therapeutic as it’s ever been, with some twists here and there. For some, that’s definitely enough.

Once Upon a Katamari is set to launch on October 24, 2025, for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC.