This post is titled You should get this game! Katamari Damacy. by author SoulJah. Let me tell you a backstory of how I found out about this game. As you know, I have newsfeeds plugged into my Opera and by chance I had Wired's newsfeed in there. One day, I came across an article titled "The Best Games You Haven't Played" and I was instantly curious. Perusing the article, I found some games that were not that particularly interesting to try and look for but one game caught my eye.

Mind you, it's not because it gained the top number 1 position, no, it's because of the name. It's so Japanese, but it is so not. It's Katamari Damacy.

There the game sat, in the back recesses of my brain, when one day a friend decided to purchase the Slim PS2 (sexy, innit?) so we were perusing some games for him to take home. Then, looking at a weird image of a clumped up... mass... of things, and that instantly fired off my synapses and reminded me about the game I read off of that Wired article.


I purchased it in a heartbeat, and was eager to get home and start playing it.

Starting it up I was greeted by this guy, humming some music that instantly gets in your head, and I knew I was in for a treat. I'm a music game nut and when a game doesn't have a blaring rock music intro which more often than not chosen by balding video game company executives to make their game look edgy, I'm all the more thankful.

The game starts of with a larger than life King of All Cosmos telling of his, uh, adventures the night before and due to some unknown reason, lost all the stars in the galaxy, to his pint sized Prince. A larger than life, turntable-scratch-voiced King of All Cosmos. And a pint sized, 3 inch high Prince. How's that for backstory, eh?

Off I went, onwards to the first level. I already knew about the mechanics of the game from the Wired article, where you have to roll over your Katamari, or as I read in another article which pegged the literal translation at 'Clump of Souls' or just 'Clump', over objects and picking them up, hence making your Katamari bigger, and bigger, and bigger still.


And here's where the game's appeal gets me. You roll over stuff laying about a typical Japanese household. Mind you, these objects must at most, be as large as the katamari for it to be able to be picked up, so you can't pick up, say, a chair when your Katamari is 3 inches wide. As you pick up more stuff, the Katamari gets bigger, and as your clump of objects become bigger, the bigger the objects you can pick up. This increase in size can go on, and on, until, until... I won't want to spoil the end level for you, but it gets mighty, mighty big. But don't be picking up oddly shaped objects you won't expect to easily roll over though, like pencils, or long fences or street poles, your Katamari will be harder to control as these oddly shaped objects juts out your Katamari.

All the while, you will be treated to the most bizzare gaming experience you've ever seen, the best sounding music you've ever heard, the craziest sounds you'd ever hear, the best ne0-art presentation you'd ever bear witness to, and it never gets the mainstream audience it most deservingly should command.

The music is of note here, the weirdest collection of best sounding music for a video game ever. Even though all of them are singing about 'Katamari Damacy' or 'Katamari', the diversity of the music, from J-Pop to Jazzy bits, and to how irreverent it sounds will just appeal to you. Even the sound effects of you picking up school kids will get a smile out of you. It sure did for me.

I'd give it, 9 Katamaris out of 9.

Links Galore:
Gamerankings.com Gamerank
Gamespot Review
Another Review
Yet Another Review
Box Shot
Something :D
Wired Article
Official English Site
Official Japanese Site

Posted by SoulJah at 3:22:00 PM

0 Comment(s):

Post a Comment