Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: Puzzle game?
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Release Date: September 21, 2004 (North American release)
ESRB Rating: E
Katamari Damacy is the title of an extremely strange, quirky game made exclusively for the
PlayStation 2. It was released in
Japan around March 2004, and from what I understand, sales of it actually increased from the release date onward (usually the reverse is true). Apparently the response was great enough that Namco decided to give the game a limited release in
North America.
Let me start off by saying that this is, without a doubt, the most fun I've had with a game in years. That's not an exaggeration. Plenty of games I've enjoyed, but Katamari Damacy just seems to click on a
visceral level that I can't recall feeling in a very long time.
The game begins with the King of The
Cosmos accidentally destroying all the
stars in the sky. Obviously this cannot stand. He orders you (his one-inch-tall son) to go to
Earth and roll around katamaris (some weird
rubber balls with adhesives) to amass enough objects to create new stars. Apparently the King failed high school
astronomy. I mean the first star you make is ten centimeters in
diameter. Not exactly scientifically accurate. But anywho...
So the object of each level is to roll the ball around, picking up enough objects to make the ball a certain diameter within the time limit. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well it is, in theory. But this isn't some austere environment you're working in here. This is Earth. You've got
mice and toy cars and
spiders and people and all manner of things running around. You've got
pencils and street signs and
toothbrushes and other objects that seriously hamper your katamari's ability to roll once they stick to it. You've got to keep from knocking into walls and things bigger than your katamari or it'll lose objects and you'll lose time. Somebody compared it to the old arcade hit
Marble Madness, and it does bear a vague resemblance to it; but the frustration of traps and pits isn't there, and you have a lot more control over your katamari than you had over the
marble. Not to mention the sheer wackiness factor in
Katamari Damacy.
The game's graphics are done in an odd, blocky style. At first they seem like they were done for the original
PlayStation or the
Nintendo 64, but as the game progresses and you see more complex objects, it's pretty obvious that the look is purely intentional, and once you get used to it it doesn't at all detract from the game.
I only have a few complaints, and they're pretty minor. The first is the camera, but I seem to have trouble with the camera on pretty much every non-first-person
3D game, so I won't dwell on that. Second is that it could really use some
voice acting for the
king. That squeaking when he talks is kinda annoying. My third issue is a purely personal one - the
soundtrack to the game seems to be a bunch of
J-Pop which, at least to me, ranged from bearable to downright irritating. Mind you, this is completely a personal preference, but I didn't care for it at all. On the other hand, if they'd tried to give it an
American soundtrack, it'd probably be all crappy alternarock and
emo, so maybe it's for the best. At any rate, there's an option to turn the music off, so I'm not going to be too loud in my complaints.
Bottom line: This game is pure fun. Unfortunately, Namco doesn't seem to have published (or at least distributed) a hell of a lot of
NTSC copies, or perhaps stores are simply reluctant to carry much of such a quirky title. While almost every store I called had the game, most only had two or three copies (and often one of those was reserved by an
employee). The
Best Buy I bought mine at received a whopping five copies. If you don't get it soon, it may well be that you won't get it at all (outside of
eBay for a ludicrous amount of money, anyhow).
As a quick aside,
GameSpot reported in June that Namco is planning a
sequel to be released by the end of this year. Even if that's correct, of course, it may only be the Japanese release. Hopefully sales in the
United States and
Canada will be good enough to merit a North American version of the sequel. (The story is here: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/katamaridamashii/news_6099768.html)
Update, 03/24/05: Namco is also now working on a Katamari Damacy title for the
Nintendo DS.