Katamari Damacy

We here at Gamepro.com recently had a chance to sit down with Katamari Damacy,

We here at Gamepro.com recently had a chance to sit down with Katamari Damacy, Namco?s latest ode to all things stange and Japanese, and feel very comfortable saying that this is easily the single weirdest game to be released in the United States in a very long, long time. That being said, we loved it! Every crazy, acid-tripping, seizure-inducing moment of it! But what exactly is Katamari Damacy? Well, to be honest were still not really sure, but it is a lot of fun.

We?ll begin with the story. One particularly careless day, the King of the Cosmos and his pals (who speak in a language comprised entirely of DJ-like record scratches) accidentally knock all the stars out of the night sky, and it falls upon you as the tiny, green, hammerhead prince to rebuild the constellations by collecting random bits of trash, food and assorted items and assembling them into replacement stars. The King uses the Royal Rainbow that shoots out of his mouth to transport you to different parts of Earth in order collect random objects, which you happily do by rolling over stuff with your giant spikey ball which grows in size as you continue to roll it. Basically, the more you roll over, the bigger your soon-to-be star gets until time runs out. Make sense? Of course not, but that doesn?t even matter once you start playing.

Easily one of the most surprising publishing choices in recent memory, Katamari Damacy is destined for cult-classic status in the weird niche of artsy Japanese-loving gamers. As a game that defies all current genre classifications, it is difficult to categorize the gameplay beyond some bastardized mixture of action-platforming and adventure-item hunting ? like an unholy marriage of Billy Hatcher and Mr. Misquito (though even this freighting analogy fails to capture the game?s ?unique? flavor).

You control your giant spikey ball (or Katamari) using both Dual Analogue sticks simultaneously to steer your monstrosity and speed up and slow down your movement. Coordinating your stick movements to successfully navigate the levels does take some getting used to, but these minor growing pains are merely the result learning an entirely new and innovative control scheme, not poor game design. One you master your Katamari skills rolling around becomes an effortless and intuitive process that makes Katamari Damacy easy to play.

Each stage begins with your bare Katamari ball and a predetermined size goal for you to reach before time expires and the King returns to claim you with his tongue rainbow (say 25cm or so in early stages). At first you can only roll over and collect objects smaller than your Katamari ball (like crackers, thumbtacks, spare change, etc.).

As you progress through the areas and continue to amass more and more random clutter you will soon be able to add larger objects like candy bars, bottles, garden trowel, and even living creatures like crabs and stray cats. However, ramming into objects larger than your Katamari or bumping into large creatures will knock some items off your ball and cause your Katamari to lose size, so a degree of careful strategy is needed when attempting to navigate treacherous areas in search of easy pickings.

Each item you collect also affects how easily your Katamari rolls. Collecting pencils or silverware, for example, will make your Katamari lopsided and will substantially slow down your movement, where as small uniformly shaped objects (like coins, candy and fruits) will help keep your Katamri rolling smoothly. Of course, as your size increases, so does your ability to consume previously unattainable objects, so items that may be too big or awkwardly shaped at the beginning of a stage might become crucial size-boosters by the level?s end.

In addition to the addictive single player mode, Katamari Damacy also features competitive mutliplayer modes where you and a friend race against the clock to create the largest Katamari ball. The horizontal splitscreen view of the mutliplayer games can be a bit limiting at times, but the sheer variety of objects to collect and the weird satisfaction gleaned from beating your buddies in collecting the most discarded crap overshadows such gripes.

With teleporting rainbow tongues, anthropomorphic giant Pandas and cows, a scary sing-song lullaby soundtrack, and a giant ball that collects everything from ant trails to fire extinguishers, Katamari Damacy will be this year?s quintessential Japanese pop-culture insanity game by combining equal parts unbridled creativity and unchecked mental instability and rolling the whole cutesy thing into one big artistic ball of randomness. Look for Katamari Damacy this fall wherever video games and psychotropic, mind-altering drugs are sold.

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