Everyone loves Katamari; if you don’t, you probably just haven’t played it yet. Yesterday marked the release of the game’s third foray onto mobile devices, “I Love Katamari,” developed specifically the iPhone and iPod touch. Available for $7.99, the game is yet another straight-to-business iteration of the popular cult franchise.
But so far, many of the gamers who have purchased the game have found a product bearing the Katamari name and gameplay, but also broken controls, serious framerate issues, and screen lag. How many? Try 68 of the currently 73 reviews on the game's app page.
Right now, the app page for I Love Katamari is flooded with reviews complaining about the controls and lag. Some complain about the game’s framerate coming to a halt as the Katamari gets bigger; others complain about the unbalanced nature of the game’s accelerometer-based controls and how often they become uncalibrated. To control the ball, rather than use joysticks (like on the PS2), players tilt the iPhone in the direction they want to go. The problem? According to many as the ball gets bigger, you have to tilt the phone so far forward that you can’t even see the screen any more. And even then it doesn’t always work, as it's just as likely to register you tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch in the opposite direction. If you're looking for a bit more credibility when it comes to the complaints, check IGN's review of the game; Levi Buchanan explicitly details many of the same issues players are complaining about in their user reviews.
Will a patch fix it? Namco hasn’t commented, but others are saying Namco’s support has promised to look into the game to patch in better, more effective tilt controls. Honestly, I have no idea if the issues are even something a simple patch will fix. Anyone familiar with iPhone development want to chime in?
In the meantime, if you’re a fan of Katamari do like one disgruntled lifetime fan suggested, and “play this game on the PS2, and wait until this version is fixed or you may end up hating the series.” As one pissed off fan puts it, "$10 bucks says this one was rushed out to be in time for Christmas."
December 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Weird. I would have thought "flicking" the katamari would have been the obvious intuitive control scheme.