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

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.