Katamari Damacy (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

At heart this is a simple game. Roll up all kinds of stuff on a sticky ball which will then be compacted to make a star. It sounds simple but is endlessly entertaining due to the catchy music and variety of things you can encounter.

I originally saw a demo version of this game being played at a convention and liked it so much that I bought a Playstation 2 in order to play it. My retired 65 year old mother loves this game just as much. The controls are very simple and easy to master for young and old alike. No fancy button combos required, which makes it ideal for people who have never played video games before, or only played strategy or puzzle type games.

The game play is sufficiently deep to keep more serious gamers interested as well. There's special presents hidden in all the levels. There's also a feature called "collections" where it shows you how many of each item you've collected and from where. Filling out the whole collection to get all the items will take multiple plays through the game. You can beat the levels without getting the presents or finishing a collection, but serious gamers will want to try for full completion.

The levels can be beaten in various ways. If you just barely complete the objective, it will just unlock the next level. If you achieve spectacular success the end-level animation will be different and in many cases may unlock a bonus 'hidden' level.

You can roll up all kinds of strange thing during the course of the game. This ranges from normal household items like pens and telephones to more exotic things like people in rabbit suits, sumo wrestlers, and the Loch Ness Monster. Animals and people will try to run away from you so you have to chase them down.

One of the great features in the game is you can't die. At worst you'll fail to complete a level. It's also a fun game to watch being played, so can be a good game to introduce a non-gamer to video games.

The music is insanely catchy. You will end up humming the theme music. It is relentlessly happy. If you had a bad day at work, half an hour of Katamari Damarcy will make things better.

The one down side is that the two player mode gets repetative very quickly and the split screen is a bit confusing. If you have several folks who'd like to play, it's easier to just switch off who's playing single player mode and let the others watch. Most levels are under ten minutes and are entertaining to watch, so even kids shouldn't get too restless if they have to share.

Now this is one game that vow itself to originality and madness.
Its the first of the serie, the one that started it all. Now what can i say... get it!
its 100 percent pure originality and fun. Don't break your head with puzzles, Don't stress out...just roll. roll everything!
This is the kind of game you sit and relax, and simply enjoy a good time. Its going to make you quirk for more, but alas, its kinda short. Unless you go for the 100% item collection list, you will end it quite fast, wanting more...and more!
And the music is crazy. What the hell is wrong with Japanese people hahaha
its enjoyable as hell, and you can bet the title song will stay in your heart forever.

GAMEPLAY
simple, really. you roll with both joysticks, anything, everything. Objects, living things, whatever, the levels are filled. The goals varies, like get a 3 meter ball in 3 minutes, or collect as much crabs as possible. (and more that i will keep secret for your enjoyment)
you cant really fail unless you dont end with a good result with your ball. But you will go for a couple of tried to get bigger, to get a better score, or to unlock some items. Let's say that the main point is to get the best score, more than finishing a level.You can be sure you will try out the levels a couple of times.

MULTIPLAYER
its a versus mode, and the only goal is to get a bigger ball than the other one in a time limit. Its crazy, but it lacks some options and refinement. I still had fun with it anyway, but it gets old fast.

CLOSE
This is the game that you will keep in your library, redo it now and then. put it in your ps2 to roll a ball or 2... just for the fun of it.
If you plan to get one katamari game, I suggest to get the second one on ps2, We love Katamari. It's much better, got waaay more levels, unlockables and hours of play. (and game modes too)
Still, i am sure you will carve for this game if you do so, cause at the end, you always want to roll more katamari balls!

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why this game caught my fancy. The graphics are fun, giving you a whole new appreciation of everyday items, like paperclips, sticks of gum, and even crazy things like teakettles and earth moving equipment. Who would ever have thought the same game would have all these items?

The premise is crazy - the stars have been "put out" from the night sky (in the Japanese version, the King of All Cosmos got drunk and went on a bender, but in the politically correct US version (:rolleyes:), he just has a bad night. He gives his son, the tiny Prince, the job of repopulating the sky, from the smallest speck of a star to the moon, with bonus levels of the various constellations.

There are cut scenes of a Japanese family who's father is an astronaut that are very funny and silly, because nobody seems to notice the craziness going on around them other than the son (who's very quiet).

You start small, rolling up objects on the "katamari" (basically meaning blob) like tacks and paperclips and sticks of gum, working your way up to bigger and bigger objects to make a katamari big enough to satisfy the King's requirement for that particular star. The King is very demanding, and woe betide you if your star isn't big enough ... what a mean guy! Eventually the objects you roll up get bigger and bigger and you go from the table to the house to the lawn and eventually into town in search of bigger objects for your katamari until you're rolling up elephants, octopi, and carnivals.

It's funny and surreal, and the bonus constellation rounds are based on picking up objects that relate to the particular one you're working on (for example ... you're judged by how many crabs you roll into your crab nebula ... and they're all over! ... maidens for Virgo ... it's all so funny!). The biggest challenge is the moon, and good luck to you in the time you're allowed to roll up that much stuff!

The things you can explore in the game are fun, too ... like an inventory of the objects you've picked up and the places you've been rolling stuff up. It really makes you aware of what a consumer oriented society we live in in some ways.

The music is catchy, and the game is easy to learn, though a challenge to master ... but isn't anything worth mastering fun?

I highly recommend it, even as a party game ... even the person who claims they're the most inept at video games will have fun trying to make a star.

So why are you still reading this? Go find a copy and play!

If you found this helpful ... give me a vote! Thank you!

This is a simple, excpetionally fun and addicting game. Who would have thought that wandering around as a wee-little prince rolling around a ball would be so much fun? And you dont just roll around picking up everything in all levels, in certian ones you have a theme, like pick up the most crabs for Cancer, etc.

I had first played this game on New Years Eve, 2006, over at my sister's friends house. He's in his 20s or possibly early 30s by the way, so that shows that the love for Katamari can go a long way! I believe I had actually played We Love Katamari but it's the same concept overall.
I spent a year trying to run down a copy of either game (totally oblivious to the fact it's rare, way to go me) and when New Years Eve, 2007 rolled around, I could not go... rolling around! This was highly upsetting and finally it clicked, EBay! You can find anything on EBay right? Well, I got it, and now I'm a happy camper rolling around as the prince (I think my boyfriend's a little jealous of my love affair but he's just going to have to deal)

I would recommend this game to anyone, young and old, so for petes sake go out and try it!

This game has a simple premise: roll up stuff into a ball (called a katamari). Usually the objective is to get a certain size within a time limit, but sometimes it's to collect as many of one type of thing as possible or the biggest of one type of thing possible.

It's a rather addictive game. As you play, the ball you're rolling gets bigger and you can pick up bigger and bigger things. So that cat which was pushing you around gets picked up later. Feels good to get a little revenge sometimes. Much of the game's appeal is that it scales quite a bit, from tiny to gi-normous.

If you enjoy wreaking havoc, this is your game. Terrorize the citizens, collect things! Collect the citizens! Pick up buildings!

The graphics are kinda boxy, but very colorful. The best animation is generally reserved for the katamari. The sound effects are amusing, though a bit repetitive. The music is simply outstanding. Play control is pretty good, however sometimes it can be a little frustrating. There's a fair number of features to keep you coming back, like the records for each level, the multiplayer option, and the statistics and hidden items.