Katamari Damacy

"True Innovation at its Best."

Wow, what a quirky game. That's the first thing you'll notice about this game. It is unlike anything I've ever played before. Everything about Katamari Damacy is random and bizarre, but the synergy is amazing. Most people refer to Katamari Damacy as "that ball rolling game," (if they have heard of it at all) which is actually pretty accurate. This game came under the radar to be one of the most popular games that nobody knows about (if that makes sense). Hopefully this review will get you better acquainted with Katamari Damacy so you can decide if it is the right game for you (I'm going to recommend it either way, but still).

Story
While the game doesn't really need a story (I skip through most of it anyways), they put on in, and it was a nice gesture. The storyline isn't going to keep you up at night worrying about the characters (well it could, but probably not) but it is something to hold the game together so that it's not completely random. you are Prince, the son of The King of All Cosmos. One night The King was having a little too much fun and accidentally destroyed all of the celestial bodies in the sky. Naturally this caused quite an uproar back on Earth. What would all of the stargazers do (hey, stargazing is actually fun if you know the constellations)? What will happen without the stars?!?! OK, bear with me on this one. It's not the most compelling storyline in the world, but you're not playing this game for the story, and if you are...well, I'm sure your local librarian would be happy to find you a more interesting book. Anyways, once the King realizes what he has done, he sends his son Prince (you) on a mission to help him put the stars back. You are to go to Earth with a sticky ball called a Katamari and roll up enough "stuff" to replace the stars that have disappeared. Real compelling, huh? I'll admit that I skipped through most of the story stuff for this game, but it shouldn't really be a major selling point for this game. It's just there: you can pay attention or ignore it, either way it doesn't take away from the awesomeness of this game.

Gameplay
Katamari Damacy has the absolute most quirky, most off the wall, most unique gameplay that you can find. In each stage you start off with a small, sticky ball, called a Katamari, that you have to push around over a bunch of stuff to make it as big as possible. Each stage will present you with a goal, either "Make your Katamari X meters in diameter" or "Pick up X number of this object." So then you have to roll your ball around, picking up as much stuff as possible to reach the goal within the time limit. The controls are very intuitive. You use both of the joysticks to move your katamari around. If you want to go forward, you press both joysticks up. Backwards? Push both joysticks backwards. you can do that in any direction. Turning is a little harder to describe, but it is done in the same way that some remote control cars are steered. If you imagine that your Katamari is on wheels, the right joystick controls the right wheels and the left joystick controls the left wheels. If you just move the wheels forward on the right, you will steer towards the left, and vice versa. It may sound complicated, but it's really not. You definitely don't need to be intimidated by the control scheme. So, once you know your goal, you are set free to roam throughout the level however you like. Usually the levels are arranged such that the smaller items are closer to your starting point and the farther you wander, the bigger the items. So naturally you want to go to the big stuff as soon as you start, right? Well, not quite. The game is set up so that you have to gradually build your Katamari up to the monstrous sizes needed to replace the stars. Think of your Katamari as a snowball rolling on the ground. It is a process, but eventually you'll get something huge. When you start off, you can pick up very small items that you might find on a desk, or on the ground of a messy room: erasers, paper clips, coins, pens and pencils, and a multitude of other objects about that size. Once you get big enough, you can move on to bigger items such as fruit, baseballs, soccer balls, or maybe a boom box. The game has tons of everyday objects. Eventually you can get big enough to pick up small animals, people, cows, cars, and most things that you could find in or around the house. then, once your katamari gets really big, you can pick up a house itself. you can slo pick up other huge objects such as skyscrapers, rainbows, entire islands, and some really cool sea monster thing that looks like Godzilla. One of the best things about this game is that the entire process of going from a tiny Katamari that can barely pick up anything to a huge katamari that can pick up everything is nearly seamless. You won't really notice as your Katamari grows, it just sort of happens. The camera pans out as you get bigger, so your Katamari looks the same but everything gets smaller. It's really cool, because when you first start off something will seem so huge and then a few minutes later when you come back around to that area to pick up larger objects, everything seems so small and you're like "How did that happen? I didn't realize how big I was." Another nice feature of this game is multiplayer. yo can face off against your friends in an arena to see who can pick up the most stuff. You can even pick up your friend's Katamari! Actually, the multiplayer isn't that great, but it's still worth mentioning. the gameplay of Katamari Damacy truly makes is a new experience that you don't want to pass up.

Graphics
Hmm, how should I describe the graphics? In a word: bad. The graphics in Katamari Damacy aren't going to blow you away by any means. Even my sister, who doesn't play games at all, commented on how bad the graphics were in this game one time. The graphics are cartoony and boxy, there's no way around it. However, I don't think that the poor graphics take away from the game as a whole. They actually give it a unique feeling. As far as I am concerned, the graphics are good enough for who they're for. You can tell what stuff is and that's all you really need to be able to do. The graphics don't affect the gameplay too much so the bad graphics don't bother me.

Sound
Na na, na na na na na na na na Katamari Damacy! What? Well, if you start playing this game that phrase will get stuck in your head too. The soundtrack for this game is incredible. The music fits perfectly with the game. Some of the songs actually sound like they could be real songs (well, they probably all are popular in Japan for all I know), but there is just something about the music that keeps you coming back for more. A lot of the songs are really weird, but they sound like they belong and they're really quite interesting. The music goes hand in hand with everything else about this game.

Play Time/Replay Value
This is one of those games that is really easy tom complete but has tons of replay value. You could probably finish everything in a day or two, but once you unlock the unlimited time mode, the game gets 10x better at least. You are set free to roam about the levels with no time limit of any kind, so you can make your Katamari as big as you want. It is always fun to try to break your previous record of the biggest Katamari. You can make your Katamari so big that you pick up everything in the entire level (but the size of your Katamari still varies depending on how you picked up everything. It's weird, but kind of cool). This game will definitely keep you occupied for quite a while. It is pretty addicting actually. If you play it enough, you will begin to look at stuff in your room and asses the size in terms of how big your Katamari would need to be in order to pick it up. Definitely tons of replay value here.

Final Word
I was going to give this game a 9/10, but I've debated with myself for a while and I have decided that I have to give it a 10/10. Not only is this game fun like no other, but nothing like it has ever been done before. This is one of the most innovative games to come out in quite some time. I highly recommend this game to anyone with a PS2. Even if this doesn't seem like the type of game you would normally play, at least try renting it. Everyone should play this game at least once. If you think you might like it at all, you'll probably love it. Don't pass this game by just because it looks weird and has a name that you don't know how to pronounce, for it is a real gem.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/05