Every Katamari Damacy clone misses what made it so great: the transition between zoom levels. "I started so small and now I've sucked up everything on the planet!" The transitions between zoom levels was so well done in the original game, and none of these clones even attempt it.

For me, it's the music. I'll have those songs in my head for days after playing.

Also, the items in the game are very artfully arranged.

This version (the part I played) just dumps everything on the floor and the music is lifeless.

The well-designed and -implemented zoom out (basically a "level up" dopamine hit) is just one crucial bit of Katamari Damacy's greatness.

The other two are:

1. The whimsically melancholic music 2. King of All Cosmos' majestic facial hair and crotch bulge

Also the wobble when you're off balance and have one object much bigger than the others off-centered.

This!

You start off small picking up crumbs and trinkets.

You get larger and pick up sports equipment.

Then you start picking up people and they run away from you.

Then cars. Then buildings. Then cargo ships.

Then mountains. Weather systems.

Planets.

And the level designs are fun and intricate. The levels you're inside eventually become the objects you roll up.

You start inside a house the size of a mouse. Then later you come and roll up that house and its whole neighborhood.

All of these clones are flat and miss the incredibly good level design.

I enjoyed watching someone else play a Katamari game that ended with rolling around the planet picking up monuments. That was fun.

Later, I bought Katamari Damacy, and it doesn't have that aspect. You can't suck up everything on the planet. You can get moderately bigger and pick up objects the size of a car instead of objects the size of a paper clip.

What you're describing just isn't a strength of the original game; it was a strength of the sequels.