I MOVE IN I MOVE OUT
HANDS UP OR HANDS DOWN
BACK UP BACK UP
TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE GONNA DO NOW
KEEP ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN (ugh)

(This review was originally written for my Retrorendum blog, so it is a bit dated in some areas but the review still stands true)

Title: Katamari Damacy
System: PS2
Info: Namco, 2004

Story: This is a weird game. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it’s just quirky and odd. The first thing you’ll most likely notice when you pop this disc in is the hilariously random intro, which includes giant mushrooms, dancing pandas, and an insane amount of rainbows. To be honest, it looks like a drug hallucination. After the intro you begin the story, which entails the King of the Cosmos getting drunk and accidentally destroying all of the stars in the sky (Don’t ask me how that works). After he breaks out of his drunken state, he sends you, the Prince, on your mission: Roll up objects on a ball called a katamari to sufficient size in order to replace the stars. After each level, a short movie plays telling a side story about two kids, their mom who refuses to believe the stars are gone, and their dad who is an astronaut, preparing to board a rocket. These have some funny animation and story, but the voice acting is god- awful.

Visuals/ Music: The graphics in this game are surprisingly good for an early PS2 title, and they would probably look even better if I was using the optimal video connectors and wasn’t on my low-res boob tube. The cartoony art style has really aged well, and although this game is long overdue for an HD remaster on PS4, you still feel the bouncy, lighthearted feel of the game through the smooth, simple textures and quirky world. The music in this game is also great, not really one of the best, but it fits the atmosphere well, so it works. Every song you hear is catchy and upbeat, and puts you in a good mood as you play. One song, called Que Sera Sera, surprised me at first because it used actual english lyrics. After my initial shock, I listened to the song a few times and found that it tells a funky story about a man and his true love, and how he wants to lump her up into his katamari to become a star… I didn’t say it had profound lyrics, but I actually appreciate how they managed to turn a game about pushing a ball of random crap into a romance story.

Gameplay: The game play starts off with a simple tutorial teaching you how to use the simple yet complex control scheme in an efficient way. To move, you push both DualShock 2 joysticks in the same direction, and in opposite directions to turn around. There are also techniques you can use like jumping over your Katamari to point-turn 180 degrees, but after the tutorial I never found myself using them in normal gameplay. Your objective in every level is to roll up any objects smaller than you to grow your volume until you reach the goal size, and by any objects, I really do mean any. There’s only one map in the whole game as far as I can tell, but it doesn’t seem to get repetitive because you play in different parts of it depending on your size, such as one room, a whole house, a city, a continent, or the whole planet. Every object you see can be picked up eventually. Crumbs, toys, furniture, people, cars, houses, skyscrapers, clouds, tornadoes, islands, and everything in between. Everything you grab makes you slightly bigger, and by the end of the level you feel unstoppable.

Verdict: This game is quirky, and funky, and I can guarantee it is unlike anything else you have ever experienced. It quickly became one of my personal favorites in the expansive and classic PS2 library, and I’m not alone because this game has a serious cult following. Pick up Katamari Damacy if you enjoy unique gameplay and unusual comedy, or just want something different to try. I give this game an 9/10, an awesome classic for PS2.

(Reviewed on April 12th, 2017)

capital-A Art Game that I have infinite love for. sly meditation on consumer culture and all the STUFF that just manages to accumulate in your life without you really noticing, plus a warped large-father-small-son dynamic that is really more like a boss-worker relationship; no matter how well you do, how quickly you meet the goal, the King's not impressed. The music is also quite literally some of the best i've ever heard, opened my ears to the possibility that pop music can be freakish, experimental, and FUN.