Who says that there are no new game concepts and companies are just playing it safe with known franchises? With Katamari Damacy, Namco has delivered a unique experience that is both simple and approachable to the novice player, while at the same time it has also given veteran players something new and fun under the sun.



There is truly not a lot to talk about with Katamari Damacy. It is an exceedingly simple game with play mechanics that are learned in about five minutes. Its depth is found in its strategy and level design.

In Katamari Damacy the player is a young and tiny prince, son of the King of the Cosmos. It seems one night your dad went on a bit of a tear (probably drug induced) and destroyed all the stars just for the fun of it. Now the inhabitants of the cosmos are a little pissed at him. He assigns you the task of collecting enough mass with a Katamari, a sticky ball, to replace all the stars. Yes, it does sound a bit like a fever dream.

The Katamari is controlled with the two analog sticks, similar to using the lateral controls of a bulldozer. Pushing both sticks in the same direction moves the Katamari in that direction: straight, backward, left, right or any diagonal. One stick up and one down spins the Katamari in place. Button interaction is minimal. Pushing the L3 and R3 buttons at the same time will make the prince hop to the other side of the Katamari for a quick reversal of direction. The L1 button lets the prince look around and the R1 performs a high jump that lets him take a survey of the area.

The Katamari will pick up anything smaller than itself. As it grows in size, from picking up the smaller things on a level, it will start to pick up the larger stuff in the level. That of course makes it grow all the faster and pick up even larger items. If the player tries to roll over something too large or strikes a solid object, like a wall, material will be knocked off the Katamari. At first the player is quite small and starts his task on a tabletop picking up stuff like pushpins and coins, he then graduates to the floor, the yard, and ultimately progresses to being a destroyer of worlds as he rolls up everything in the landscape.

Sounds easy, right? Did I tell you about the size and time limits? No? That is why it sounds easy. In each level the prince must make a ball of a certain size within a strict time limit. If he is successful, he is praise by his mighty dad and whisked home on the royal rainbow. (I wonder if that is anything like taking a ride on the horse with no name.) If he fails, the king chastises the prince and the level must be played again. Familiarity with the levels, knowing what to roll up in which order and skill with the controls go a long way toward success.

In addition to the single-player game, there is a two-player mode that has players competing to create the largest ball of stuff in a three-minute time limit. Players may crash, rollup and otherwise make himself a nuisance in this mode.



While the story may be from a fever dream, the graphics are straight out of a ’60s acid trip. The colors are bright and vivid. The art style is something between a Monty Python short and The Beetles’ Yellow Submarine. They in no way tax the graphical power of the PS2, but they are appropriate for this quirky game.

Audio is inspired. Sound effects are somewhat minimalist in nature. It has a musical soundtrack that has a nasty habit of sticking in your head. The music is decidedly Japanese, since Namco almost did not bring the game to US shores, but it accompanies the game magnificently.

Not since Mister Mosquito have we seen anything quite as bizarre as Katamari Damacy. While it will surely not appeal to everyone, it is a unique play experience that should be given a look by serious gamers interested in seeing a new play mechanic and casual gamers who would like an approachable, pick-up-and-play game.



I almost forgot one of the best aspects of this game – it only costs $20. That’s a brand new game with a unique play mechanic and a lot of fun for very little green. What are you waiting for? Go get it!



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