The sequel introduced a couple of non-time-limited challenges, including: make the biggest katamari with just 50 objects, and make a katamari that’s exactly 50cm.
I think the time limits worked fine for adding challenge to the game — IIRC the first game had an eternal level whereas the 2nd game’s longest level was 18min, but that was long enough to swallow most of the earth if you were good enough. I loved the novelty levels where the goal was something different than “biggest katamari” — e.g. roll the most expensive or calorie-dense katamaris, which really let you appreciate the detail and variety of objects that were in the world
Indeed, the sequel was really a huge step up from the original Katamari Damacy in many ways to me, as who have played all available console games in the series. (Nowadays I play in Steam.) Most expensive katamaries are particularly fun because you have much less visual cues than other games, but once you've immersed yourself into the world, you will see likely places to roam around.
> IIRC the first game had an eternal level whereas the 2nd game’s longest level was 18min.
For the record, a recent remastered version for PC does have eternal levels.
You may be thinking of the sequel, We Love Katamari, where after completing the individual levels, you would roll up the planets and stars you created in order to roll up the Sun.
I think the time limits worked fine for adding challenge to the game — IIRC the first game had an eternal level whereas the 2nd game’s longest level was 18min, but that was long enough to swallow most of the earth if you were good enough. I loved the novelty levels where the goal was something different than “biggest katamari” — e.g. roll the most expensive or calorie-dense katamaris, which really let you appreciate the detail and variety of objects that were in the world