Katamari Damacy (2004)

This is a pretty fun game. The music and sound is really good and really different. Everything about this game has variety... From the strange looking and sounding Japanese food to random newspapers and nick knacks through a virtual village or town. It almost feels like going sight seeing in a foreign country (and taking it with you as you leave!) I never did find that I liked the controls... I found pretty much everything about them not intuitive. I guess part of the fun is the squirrelly and tanky intertia of your ball of mass but it made the times I got stuck between things and started to drop them all the more frustrating. The game is about the right diiffculty I managed to complete most levels my first try (even though I didnt know all the controls properly or how to do certain things)

It's easy to improve a bit in each level but this is a really hard game to Master. I cannot imagine someone getting everything in a whole level, not even the last one.

And thats too bad because I really did want to do that lol

The King — a cosmic deity of unimaginable power — gets drunk/high and accidentally obliterates most of the universe. After sobering up, he admits "it felt quite good", and goes on to say some wonderfully worrying things:

"We felt the beauty of all things, and felt love for all.
Did you see? We smiled a genuine smile.
Did you see? The stars splintering in perfect beauty.
Now there's nothing but darkness."

Earth is somehow the only celestial body that wasn't destroyed, and people are understandably quite upset with the whole situation. So the King coerces his son, the Prince, into collecting stuff from Earth in order create new stars and fill the universe with light again.

...

As the player, you take control of the Prince, rolling a katamari around the world in order to collect stuff. The controls are quite unique, utilizing both joysticks to give you full control of the rolling. You swoop up junk simply by rolling over it, and watch in awe as the ball keeps growing. It really feels like you're pushing this massive, uncontrollable thing around — and while it's not always easy, it's always a joy.

Stress-free and stressful at the same time, the game is all about exploring the vibrant world, and amassing things until the clump is large enough to be sent into space and form a star. The first goal is to reach a measly diameter of 10 centimeters, by rolling up various household objects like thumbtacks and hairpins, screws and batteries, caramels and cookies. But it's not large enough.

Soon, you'll have to reach a meter in diameter, with things like bug sprays, potted plants and stuffed animals.

Then ten meters, and it's okay if you roll up a few live animals at this point.

Then hundreds of meters, and you might start to wonder: When will this end? What will remain of this world?

...

"We want to roll everything in.
Don't stop, and let the love flow,
then we all can be,
together forever ~"

...

I think that true art is best experienced while forming your own interpretations, so please don't read the spoiler below if you haven't played Katamari yet!

I just wanted to mention that the creator, Keita Takahashi, has literally said that the Katamari series is a comment on rampant consumerism, and I find that really funny.
"I wanted to make more objects. If there are few objects, I feel lonely. If there are more objects, they will make things more colourful. But when they're rolled up, they're gone. I felt empty. I feel the same way about the disposable society. I think I successfully expressed my cynical stance towards the consumption society by making Katamari — but still I felt empty when the objects were gone."

...

"Oh how this blue planet,
spins so very peacefully,
but how the sadness...
It never seems to go away."

I played Katamari Damacy when it originally came out on the PlayStation 2, and was absolutely floored by the innovation, humor, music, and sheer imagination that this weird game had to offer. I love this era of PlayStation 2 games, where games were so cheap to make, and no one knew what the next era of video games would look like, so these types of strange experiments could be made cheaply, offered for a lower price, and could find an audience that would adore it. Sure, we see this occasionally still today, especially with the indie game market—which I guess, in a way, this game sort of foretold that market?—but at the time of its release, this felt unlike anything else that was out there. Even though there have been so many imitators over the years, there are still few games quite as genuinely wacky and fun as Katamari Damacy.

I've basically played every iteration of Katamari Damacy, and the original still remains my favorite. It keeps this concept simple, and never tries to veer away from the core idea of rolling a giant ball around and growing incrementally larger with each new item. Future games would try to expand this idea, but there's nothing quite like the original.

Playing this game for the umpteenth time, I'm struck this time around by the level design. Katamari Damacy is essentially one level, but the player is seeing it from different perspectives with each new world. At first, we're seeing this world at its smallest, but by the end, the player is literally rolling up islands and entire parts of the world. The level design here is deceptively simple, but also completely staggering.

I fell in love when I played Katamari Damacy years ago, and still today, I still feel overwhelmed with joy whenever I play this lovely oddity. We need more games that embrace their weirdness the way Katamari Damacy does.

Lo terminé en PS4, versión REROLL y debo decir que es un remaster de lo mejor, corre fluido y es muy bonito gráficamente, potenciando completamente el estilo de la versión original de PS2. Agradezco que Namco liberara esta versión para los que nos quedamos con ganas de terminarlo en ese entonces pudiéramos hacerlo.

Mi única observación es que -dado que es igual al anterior- es muy corto aunque tiene varias etapas que son opcionales y le suman duración.

Katamari Damacy has been in my backlog for at least 15 years. @tylerisrandom recommended it to me in college when I didn't own a PS2 and was completely invested in PC gaming. Every time a new version came out I would get excited, think about picking up a PS2, then move on to something else.

Well, I finally got my hands on original PS2 hardware and then promptly started playing—on my PC, through Game Pass, with an Xbox controller. >.<

I type this now with thumbs sore from a control scheme I couldn't master. I tried using the Simple controls but then I lost all control. I ended up just accepting that I wasn't going to point the camera and learned to memorize the next area I could roll through and moved my Katamari based on the sense of space, even if the camera was facing in a wildly unhelpful direction.

Save for the sore thumbs, I loved this weird game. The soundtrack is killer, the gameplay is pure 3D puzzle fun that feels like the early 2000s, and the story is so silly I was looking forward to each weird reaction to my rolled up ball of items.

If you're willing to learn weird controls and enjoy a 3D puzzler, don't wait 15 years, just pick up Katamari Damacy Reroll for whatever you game on.

Picture this: you're a college kid lying in bed up until 6 AM. Homework is on your mind and you have work from 12-10. Your homework is due by tomorrow night and your job as a food delivery person is a good opportunity to make damn good money like $200+ since tomorrow is on the weekend. You feel like you're fucked can't help but stay up and keep talking down upon yourself up until you buy Katamari Damacy on your Switch just because it was on sale and get some good rest for what is 3 hours. The next day, playing this game. Almost all of the stress you had last night melts away. You manage to get your work done under a meager amount of time after work while feeling more relaxed.

I got Katamari Damacy at that perfect time where I was feeling down. The story starts with the King of Cosmos fucking up the stars and moon just because it's fun for the (possibly) drunken bastard. Representing the higher ups, the King of Cosmos wants you, the Prince, to undo the misdeeds that he has done. You didn't cause the mess. NOT YOU. He did all that shit, yet cleaning up the mess is what you were ordered to do. This easily made me connect with the Prince a lot more than I expected. This theme also lies in service to the gameplay of Katamari Damacy. Every level, you start off small. You're vulnerable to many moving objects where they're just an obstacle screwing you over. Many bigger moving objects will whack you away from what you want to roll over, making you feel weak. But what you can do is roll up small objects and make your ball big enough so you can get back at those guys and say, "Hey, fuckers. Remember me? I'm back, but now I'm stronger. NOW DIE! AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! WHO'S BIGGER NOW, BITCHES?!"

The presentation is as unconventional as how Katamary Damacy plays. The control schemes feel weird, different, and tanky, but like Resident Evil, they work in context of the game. The controls are as absurd as the humor of the game. You see crabs on a golf flag pole, you see giant octopi on top of islands, you roll on a rainbow, tornados, volcanos. The absurdity is what pushes the gameplay's strength to such a degree. The game has such well paced progression that you really see how far you have become. It may look like you're doing the same thing in the same places, but when you end up in those same levels with a much larger goal and time limit. You have more time to grow and when you do, you see a new portion of the area with bigger things to roll upon. It gives you that sense that the world is a lot bigger than you have expected while also showing you your progression through pure gameplay and levels instead of stats.

Also the soundtrack bops. Such joyous tracks that I can't help but smile at. Adding this soundtrack to my playlist for sure. Here are some of my favorite tracks.

Katamari Damacy is the ultimate power fantasy to get you back up. It's a game like no other in terms of gameplay, music, and presentation meshing altogether to make something truly unique. It doesn't really belong to a genre. It's something that everybody should play at least once.

FINAL RATING: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This was my first Katamari game and I had a blast playing it. Sadly, it was over just when I was having the most fun. Maybe that's for the best, because the game mechanics never change and it would probably got boring if we stretched for a few more hours.

Anyway, the weird japanese humor and amazing music made this game something special. It's not a must play, but you'll remember it fondly if you spend a little time with it.

You can read my full review in spanish here.

♪ Naaaa na na na na na na na Katamari Damacy-y-y-y ♫

And that song wold never, NEVER leave your head.

I think this was the...third time I tried Katamari. I gave up the past two times because the controls were irking me, but I decided to stick it out this time and I'm glad I did!

I have wanted to play katamari since I was a kid, but never got the chance to until the switch port. I'm shocked by how short it is! I do love going back to the different areas to see if I can find all the presents and make my katamari bigger, but I think I would have loved maybe another planet or two.

The controls are frustrating, but I appreciated that the switch version allowed for three different modes for the controls. I personally stuck with the simple ones because I was getting so frustrated with the pre-set ones. I had fun, but definitely had some frustration.

Especially with the Taurus constellation. I TOUCHED A SIGN WITH A COW ON IT HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT COUNT AS A COW.

Katamari Damacy offers me something that I struggle to get with a lot of my games nowadays... a completely unique experience. Katamari is weird, fun, and crazy from beginning to end, and I can honestly say there isn't another game in the world quite like it.

The game isn't terribly long, perhaps around 10 hours when played with minimum effort, but those 10 hours are filled with fun. The soundtrack is unique and high energy, and the game is memorable and will continue to be for years to come. Katamari may not be your new favorite game, but it feels comfortable and like home.

I played this game back when it came out, and I remember really enjoying it. I tried some of the sequels on other platforms, but never felt the same spark. This may have adversely affected my memory of the game... when I saw it go on sale for a ridiculously low price on PSN, my reason for buying it was to re-live the goofiness that I remembered.

Having just beat the game anew, all the quirkiness was there (and in spades)... the cut scenes still make no sense, and the "find one of something" missions still irritate me. But I rediscovered the joyous feeling of gradually, and through the actions you take, changing your perspective enormously from ground-level to practically supernatural. It's hard to describe how strangely moving that experience can be, and it's enormously gratifying to play. I'm glad to have re-discovered that aspect of it.