Katamari Damacy

Keep Rolling! Rolling! Rolling!

The Game
This is probably one of the most annoyingly addictive games I’ve ever played in a long time! The King of the Cosmos has accidentally wiped out all the stars and constellations in the sky, and it’s up to you, the young Prince of the Cosmos, to go to Earth and gather up together anything you can to build new stars and constellations.
The problem is, the King didn’t forsee that your only about 2 inches tall on Earth! So you have to gather up the materials by rolling a “katamari”, which starts out as a small piece of an asteroid or something, and roll it over anything in your path which will stick to it and increase its size till you reach to goal set by the King at the beginning of the level. Plus, there’s a hilarious side story involving this family as they go around. Sounds silly, but the game is incredibly addictive!

Gameplay
You use both analog sticks to control moving the katamari around the area. The game world is in complete 3D and you have complete freedom to go wherever you want, providing your katamari is big enough to get past certain obstacles like fences, walls or even up steps and ramps. You start out small, picking up things like coins, fruit, scraps and any other junk you come upon, and as the katamari gets bigger, you can roll over and stick bigger things to it, including animals, people, and motor vehicles! And watching and hearing the reactions of people when they get stuck to your katamari can be really funny as they scream for help!
The only thing that limits the size of how big your katamari can possibly get is the time limit of each level, which challenges you to make bigger Katamaris in shorter time frames as the levels progress.
Some levels will also challenge you to pick up specific items to re-create the star constellations. For example, to create Pieces, you have to roll up a Katamari of fresh fish, and for Cancer, you have to roll up crabs. This little side quests add some challenge to the game as you need to avoid rolling up things that don’t fit the constellation, because too many of the wrong items will cause you to lose the level.

Graphics and Sound
The look of the game is pretty simple. Everything looks and moves a bit stiff and square, but that’s intentional! It looks kinda a like a cheap cartoon, as things just float across the screen rather then actually walk, but it doesn’t really bother or hinders the game in anyway as it actually adds to the comedic effect. EVRYTHING in the game world is fair game to pick up and add to your katamari, providing it’s big enough.
The sound is another part of the game that will stick in your head. From the opening a cappella tune to the bubbly in game music. Ok, ESPECIALLY the opening a cappella theme! That’s the one that will stick in your head the most.
And the voices of people and animals screaming when you pick them up in the katamari is also funny to very fun and makes you want to pick up more of them like some great terror from beyond!.

Miscellaneous
Aside from the main story mode, there’s a two player mode where you can race to see who can get the biggest katamari first. Other than that, there really isn’t much else to add other than this game is addictive enough that you WILL want to play it again after completing the main game cause it’s so darn fun. I really hope they come out with a sequel.

Overall
Like I said at the beginning, this game has a silly concept, but once you start playing, it can get annoyingly addictive! Plus, the concept is an original idea since I don’t think any other game has done this before. I HIGHLY recommend this if your interested to try something new and VERY different from other games on the market.

Game Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 8
Gameplay – 8
Lifespan – 9
Overall – 9