Katamari Damacy Review (no fat)

Game Description

The story of Katamari Damacy starts when The King of All Cosmos went on a rampage and destroyed all of the stars in the sky. After the rampage is over, the King feels remorse and demands that his son, the Prince, make up for his mistake (not very fair is it!) So the Prince, who wears a green dress with purple tights, has to go to Earth and pick up everything on Earth and turn it into stars.

To help him accomplish this, the King of All Cosmos gives him a Katamari (a weird looking sticky ball) that will stick to anything that it touches. Out of all the people on Earth, only one small is in touch with the cosmos and is aware of what has happened. While the Prince picks up the pieces, the little girl tells us when the stars have been fixed. Roll around the world picking up gum wrappers, dogs, people and buildings to build a new star system.

Katamari Damacy Gameplay

As the Prince (who has no name), it is your responsibility to roll the Katamari around the Earth and pick up everything that you can. Your Katamari usually starts at a small size, maybe no bigger than a tack, but as you pick things up, it starts to get bigger and bigger. Everything in Katamari Damacy is given both a certain weight and size, and if your Katamari is not big enough, you will not be able to pick up certain items. If something is to big to pick up the first time you encounter it, simply roll around and pick up smaller pieces until you think the Katamari s big enough to roll up the piece you missed.

Rolling is pretty simple. You make the Prince run in a certain direction, and you manipulate the controls to make turns or reverse. You can also hit a controller button and have the Prince flip over the Katamari for a quick turn around. The Prince is given a time limit and a size that they need to reach by the end of that time. The size asked of the Prince is a minimum, and if you reach that size and still have time left…keep rolling!

Katamari Damacy Visuals

When you see the first scenes of the game, you are probably going to wonder if something was slipped into your drink. If you are expecting top of the line CGI effects, you will be disappointed. It is a simple game and the visuals are just as basic. The cut scenes are filled with neon colors and drawing block style people who move like cardboard cut out figures. The cut scenes are supposed to help the “plot” but sometimes leave you wondering as to what is actually going on.

The best graphics are during the Katamari rolling. Each thumbtack, piece of paper, cow, person and building are fully 3D and drawn to an in-game scale. If your Katamari is small, all of the people seem huge, but if your Katamari is as big as a building, people and animals look like ants. This is one of the most interesting features of Katamari. Everything is done to scale based on how big your Katamari is. The whole screen shifts when you go up a big enough size.

Katamari Damacy Sound

If the gameplay wasn’t addicting enough, the background music will make you come back for this game again and again. The music is of a techno variety populated with Japanese expressions. The beat is simple, but fun and very catchy. Each level that you play has its own song attached to it.

Another worthy sound feature, is the sound effects that are found throughout the game. As you are roaming around Earth, you encounter everything from wooden shoes to small children to wild bears. When you roll up anything, be it a shoe or a bear, it will make a related noise. Shoes clump, bears growl, cats meow and people flail their arms and scream. It is a lot of fun to run around a basketball court and pick up all of the screaming fans.

Katamari Damacy – Summing Up

Katamari Damacy is an easy, simple game with one goal: Roll everything up! This is one of the most original games to come to the PS2, and it has surprised many people with how fun it is to play. There is a story to the game but it is of little consequence. As the Prince, your job is to roll up everything that you can. So easy, but so very fun.

Everything combined is what makes it so enjoyable no matter how many times you’ve played it. You can roll at a leisurely place to groove to the music or speed around picking up people and laughing like a maniac. You can play it from beginning to end or just pick it up and roll your favorite levels. This isn’t a game that you throw away once you’re done and that automatically makes it special. Katamari Damacy is a fun, out of this world game for anyone of any age or gaming experience. It’s easy to learn and once you start, its hard to put it down.

Katamari Damacy

The game retails for $19.99.