'Tap My Katamari' Officially Announced For Mobile Devices

Gameplay from the original "Katamari Damacy." Official PlayStation website

After releasing “I Love Katamari” and “Katamari Amore?” on the App Store, Bandai Namco has announced the latest mobile game based on the popular series “Tap My Katamari.” The game will be available “soon” with no official release date given as of this writing, so it’s likely that the game will be coming out in 2016.

Rather than being a proper game in the “Katamari” series, Touch Arcade has confirmed that “Tap My Katamari” will be part of the clicker genre. For those wondering, a proper “Katamari” game has players using a ball to roll up everything in sight, including cows, people, houses and more. As the ball gets bigger, players can roll up bigger objects, which adds to the addictiveness and fun.

While “Tap My Katamari” will be keeping the ball-rolling theme, it seems like players won’t have full control of the ball this time. Instead, players will be tapping the screen constantly to have the ball move and collect various items and bystanders.

The prince returns and is once again forced to roll things up, despite the King of the Cosmos being the one responsible. He won’t be alone though, as the mobile game lets players recruit 35 of his cousins to help roll things over, so he won’t have to do it alone.

Pocket Gamer has also confirmed that the mobile game will be playable offline. This is good news for certain mobile gamers, as a number of mobile games require constant online support, making it difficult to play games when there isn’t internet.

Before it gets a worldwide release, “Tap My Katamari” will be soft-launched on the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand first. This could be considered an odd choice, though it’s likely that the series is more popular in these countries than it is anywhere else.

Fans will have to wait until Bandai Namco make an official statement on the game’s release date to anticipate the mobile game. It is likely for a 2016 release, though it’s not yet known if it will be a paid app, or if the game will be free-to-play like so many other mobile games.