like katamari damacy and noby noby boy before it, wattam is foremost a vehicle for interaction.

well before super mario bros. existed, its makers learned the inherent fun of seeing your avatar react to the press of a button. they have since spent entire decades making games about how nothing could be more fun than pressing those buttons. keita takahashi has always pulled this trick: just as you don't jump in a mario game to avoid an obstacle — you do it simply because it is fun — every action in wattam is performed for the joy of doing something because you can.

if its priors sit at opposing ends of the playground vs. videogame spectrum (they don’t, btw), wattam fits closer to the middle. there is “game stuff” in here, sure, but it feels largely incidental. it is, broadly, a toy box wherein the smallest actions serve as their own reward. maybe you just wanna hold hands with your buddies or whatever. maybe you wanna eat the mayor. maybe you just want to poke and prod at some little dude to see what happens. who cares. do what you like. have fun. but by the time you are done, the totality of these actions will have filled the toy box beyond bursting point, and therein lies it’s greatest trick.

in most cases, the player will not feel as though they are consciously solving a puzzle or figuring out their next step. to engage with wattam in this way is to be a boring person with a boring attitude. but so long as one has maintained a brain unrotted by videogames and a heart not entirely sapped of whimsy, they will be constantly propelled through the force of their own curiosity.