Customer Reviews

Katamari Damacy

5 star:		(205)
4 star:		(64)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

One thing can be said for certain: you haven't played a game like this before. Everything about this game is off-the-wall, but it works. When you load the game for the first time, you will be greeted with giraffes, rainbows, bicycles, and a plethora of other things- all performing some contorted dance- just for you. Welcome to the world of Katamari Damacy, where the gameplay is original and surprisingly addictive. Your goal?- roll your sticky ball around to collect the "objects from earth". As your ball gets bigger, you can pick up bigger things. So you go on a hunt to keep growing your ball. The levels you play in are simply huge- I never felt like I had seen everything in a level- so replay level is quite high. Meanwhile, the background music is a lot of fun, good enough to put you in a good mood if the rest of the game doesn't. And the story- without ruining anything- has to be the product of mixing drugs and alcohol. The controls are quite simple, employing only the analog sticks and a couple shoulder buttons (although I never found much use for the shoulder buttons). When I heard about and found the game, I worried that it would be too simplistic to entertain me- it seems my worries were unfounded; Katamari Damacy is a great game for everyone....and cheap, too!

I really hope the success of this game convinces publishers to bring over more off-the-wall Japanese titles. This game is awesome. Gameplay is very simple: you roll around a ball (using the analog sticks in a control scheme reminiscent of Battlezone) and things stick to it. That's it. There are basically two kind of challenges: get the ball to be a certain size, or pick up as many of something as you can find. (Katamari Damacy loosely translates as "ball of stuff.")

While this may not sound like the world's most exciting way to spend your time, the flawless execution gives Katamari Damacy the simple, in-the-zone addictiveness of Tetris. The backstory is bizzare: your father, the King of All Cosmos, goes on what sounds very much like an acid trip and breaks all the stars. When he sobers up, he finds that everyone is annoyed, so he tasks you with going to Earth to collect raw material to rebuild the sky. The raw material turns out to be anything from thumbtacks to people to ships. The King's disconnected, slightly deranged speech patterns add much to the style of the game, as does the intro video, which is better seen than described. Add to that another side of the story told by following a Japanese family in very weird, stylistic interstitials and you've got a very surreal experience.

Katamari Damacy is backed by a soundtrack that would be worth $20 by itself. With replay value assured by levels that are easy to conquer but difficult to do perfectly, this game is a great addition to anyone's console library.

After first reading about this game in PSM, in a small article in the back of the magazine, and then finding discussions everywhere on the web I was intrigued. I found it in a bigbox for cheap so I bought it. It is great. It is a nice diversion from killing people, and scoring touchdowns (both of which I enjoy tremendously). The game is a trip. It is very odd, but the music rocks, the graphics are trippy and the controls are flawless. THIS IS THE BEST BARGAIN THERE IS IN PS2 GAMES.

A true sleeper hit in the video game market. This formerly little known Japanese game from Namco (makers of Pac Man) has slowly but surely become a big hit with fans here in the North American Continent.

You are the prince of the King of Cosmos and you have to fix a mess the King has made of the stars. It seems that the King accidently ruined the stars, moon and constilations that once glittered the Earth night sky, so being you are his son and he doesn't want to do it, it's up to you to fix it. So what's a little 5 cm green guy to do? Roll a huge ball that can pick up any item smaller then it as it rolls around. The more items you pick up the bigger the sphere gets. Each stage has a size you must get the ball to within a time limit so you can restore the stars of the sky.

The game is a very 'unique' and quite addicting. The early stages start off with very small sized goals like having to pick up items on the floor of a room in a house, then progresses to outside, into small towns, to whole cities and eventualy the planet. The real joy of this game is how simplistic and how many items there are in the game. Each item in this game eventualy you will be able to collect on this sphere of yours. Whether its a small button on the floor or a huge skyscraper , there is nothing in this game you won't be able to collect, as long as your sphere is the proper size to do so.

The game takes on a very Japanese anime type of feel to it. It has very addicting and catchy Japanese music, with a theme song that will get stuck in your head. It has a full inventory for you to look at all the items you collected along with the size you had to be to collect it and what the item actualy is. There are thousands of items in the game to pick up and while the challenges are few, the fun is constant. There are even some clips after you finish each star restoration as you follow a family noticing the weird stuff going on with the stars missing.

I can't recomend this game enough. You may get through the game in a few sessions but the replayability and fun is so high it just won't matter. It also has a mulitplayer mode where you can battle with a friend. There are hidden presents you can find in every stage and so much more. It's such a simple yet complex game and most of all.. its fun! You won't be sorry adding this game to your collections. Anyone will enjoy this and the price is most defintely right.

Something that's tugged at the back of my mind for years now is the question of what, exactly, happened to the ingenuity, simplicity and sense of wonder that was traditionally associated with video games throughout the seventies, eighties and early nineties. There's no question, today's games are a much more detailed, beautiful, realistic and life-altering bunch than the titles that filled the SNES, NES and 2600. As a NES owner, you'd never get an experience quite like what Metal Gear Solid or Grand Theft Auto can give you today. You're afforded much more freedom on an Xbox than you were on a Sega Master System, everything's in crystal-clear high definition and the soundtracks routinely eat up several CDs all on their own. You take it for granted that Mario can fly, because that's just the way it's (almost) always been. To introduce a similarly outlandish game in this day and age where anything new is scrutinized by the overcritical eye of parents, teachers, internal boards, the media, the government, the FCC and, perhaps harshest of all, the critics is almost unthinkable.

That's why I'm amazed a game like Katamari Damacy made it to our shores virtually untouched. This game's a throwback to the absent-minded titles of gaming's infancy, when everything didn't need to make sense under the restrictions of the Earth's gravitational pull, didn't need to abide by the dynamic lighting of the sun as it floats across the sky, and didn't send you on missions that would give a real life government operative nightmares. Things just happen in Katamari, and you accept them as fact because that's just they way they are.

Basically, Katamari Damacy is a telling of the life of a dung beetle on a cosmic scale. You control "The Prince," heir to an apparently galactic kingdom, as he rolls tiny, sticky balls called Katamaris around the Earth's floors, streets and continents. When you roll over something, the item sticks and the size of the Katamari snowballs. The size of your ball is directly proportionate to the size of the items you can pick up. If you're piloting a tiny trash heap, you're just gonna bounce off if you try to roll up a tree or a fencepost. Your Katamari usually starts small, barely large enough to roll up an acorn or thumbtack, (not to mention easily tossed aside by the numerous mice that roam the city streets) and slowly increases in size to the point where it's picking up cats, then large dogs, then children, adults, motorcycles, cars, wrestling rings, houses, office buildings, etc. The real star of this show is the incredible scale of the game, how nothing is off limits so long as your Katamari is big enough.

And that's really all there is to the game. You get a time limit and a certain size that your Katamari ball must reach within that timeframe, you're dropped out onto the floor somewhere, and you just start rollin'. It's incredibly simple, yet indescribably inspirational. While it may sound lacking in depth and replay value, I dare you to spend an hour with this disc and then casually put it away. It's physically impossible. I've never been one to immediately replay a game after finishing it, but I did just that in Katamari. The only thing that'll keep you playing is the never-ending challenge to top your existing high scores... well, that and your need to constantly explore this bizarre, psuedo-Eastern world... and it's been quite a while since I felt this motivated by nothing more than a number saved onto a memory card somewhere.

Alongside its outlandishly original gameplay and story, Damacy is equally original with its simple, understated control scheme. The only buttons you'll need to use in this game are the PS2 controller's dual analog sticks and the "X" button. It plays like a weird mixture of Pac-Man and the old Midway tank-based arcade game, Vindicators. Pushing both sticks forward moves you forward. Pulling both sticks back moves you back. Pushing both sticks left strafes you left, two rights strafe you right, pushing the left stick forward and the right stick back turns the whole thing (camera and all) right, and vice versa performs the exact opposite function. The only time your fingers should leave the analog sticks is when you're reading some dialog (unfortunately, there's no prominent voice acting in Katamari) and you need to hit the "X" button to move things along.

Visually, this is far from the most stunning game on the PS2 today. Honestly, I don't think there's a single object in the game that couldn't be faithfully reproduced on the Sega Dreamcast a thousand times over. Now that I think about it, the original Shenmue puts the graphics of Katamari to shame. But if you still think the visuals are the point, you obviously haven't been paying attention. However, one thing I'm relatively sure the old Dreamcast couldn't do is scale every one of those millions of objects, both moving and still, from full-screen to ant-size with no slowdown in sight. It's not right up in your face and obvious, like the majestic beauty of Gran Turismo 3 or Final Fantasy X, but this is a great display of the PS2's sheer polygon-crunching power.

This is seriously one of the greatest games of 2004. If you haven't already played it and were waiting on some sort of official endorsement to do so, consider this your call to action. It's discount-priced right out of the gates at twenty bucks, (which makes perfect sense, because no matter how good this game is, I don't think I could've justified fifty dollars on it) and will reward you and your friends with hours upon hours of entertainment, even after you've completed all of the single-player quests.

This is one that I will be showing to my students on how to make a great addictive game from a simple concept. The premise, quickly, is you are the prince of the cosmos and your slightly abusive father (the king) has sent you to fix the mess he made from his all night bender. His mess? He destroyed all the stars in the sky. How do you fix it? Take a katamari (a sticky ball) and roll it around earth, gathering items to make the ball grow in size.

Sounds simple, and it is at first, but the levels become more challenging, and with hiddens, unlocks, and just off the wall humor and graphics, the game never fails to deliver.

I dont recommend too many games too often, but this one is worth finding!

Nowadays, I just get SO tired of games being about beating people up, driving fast, and any sports thing you can think of, that this game was a HUGE breath of fresh air!

The premise is nice and simple....your father, the "King Of All Cosmos" got on a bender and knocked all the stars, constellations, and even the MOON out of the Earth's sky, so now he has a hangover, realized what a buffoon he was, and tells you - the Prince of All Cosmos (strange title since you're only a few centimetres tall), to make it right. How? With your trusty Katamari, that's how!

The Katamari, for lack of a better analogy, is a ball that's has more stickum on it than a factory of superglue, and will pick up anything its size or smaller, in essence, making it bigger which makes it possible to get bigger and bigger things. You'll find yourself going from thumbtacks and eyedrop bottles to skyscrapers, amusement parks, up to islands and CLOUDS!

Do not dismiss this game because it looks different, because you will be sorry you missed it once it's no longer available (retailers love to do this). Small warning though...once you play this, you'll be singing or humming the theme for days on end, causing your colleagues to give you some strange looks - like your head became a multi-colored pillow...just like the King of All Cosmos! For $20, you just can't afford NOT to get this!

Never before have I posted a review on Amazon.com, but this title moved me to the point where I felt compelled to spread the word about what I consider thus far to be the game of 2004. I have played video games for over 20 years now, and would have to say this has quickly ascended to one of the top 10 games I have ever played, regardless of platform. The concept is simple, yet challenging: you control a "Katamari" with the 2 joysticks on the PS2 pad, and navigate it to various elevated platforms, as well as claustrophobic areas, often obscured by low clearance awnings, all along the way, compiling diverse objects. The object of the game is to amass these objects to the target diameter of each individual level within a prescribed amount of time. I was able to play through the first 4 levels last night, the last of which took me 7 attempts to conquer. The game's object and controls are easy to pick up, as well as the simple objective, but the game quickly becomes challenging. This is the essence, in my view, of what makes video gaming great. The objects available for capture at the onset of the level are small in scale, ranging from jacks, screws, and paperweights, and, when the diameter of the katamari expands, the objects begin to increase in size, to eventually calculators, trading cards, and, where I left off last night, small animals, such as rats and cats. The beauty of the game is the larger objects are not collectable at first when your Katamari is too small in diameter, they merely rebound off of the larger objects, as your Katamari increases, you will bounce off of the larger objects, and they will begin to sway. You know you are then close to being able to collect these objects as well. All the while, a clock in the background ticks down to the target time, as you begin to scurry the Katamari frantically through areas that you can access as the diameter of the Katamari enlarges. You also run the risk of shattering the Katamari if you direct it into small areas, thereby decreasing its diameter. The genre it most closely resembles is a puzzle, but even that is unfair because there is simply no antecedent to compare this game to. Second to the gameplay, the soundtrack in this game is simply entralling. Throughout the course of this morning, I find myself 12 hours later humming the soundtrack to level 4 of the game. The previous levels soundtracks are no less catchy. I have read the reason why this game does not rate higher is because of its lack of replayability: the game is too short. Pay that no heed, this game has endless challenges to it, there is a massive object compilier list that keeps track of all objects captured throughout the game, it is conceivable to play through this game without getting nearly all the objects. There all also hidden bonuses and areas to unlock. All for 20 dollars. I would buy this game for 50 dollars, suffice to say, in a year or 2, retailers will be selling this game for 4 or 5 times the list price. It will be a collector's items, when I bought my copy yesterday, I was able to purchase the last in the store. The retailer had only ordered 3 copies of Katamari Damacy, when I phoned in all 3 copies were available, 4 hours later, 2 of the copies had gone, and I purchased the last. My advice is if you are reading this as of the end of September 04, to run, not walk to your nearest store, and with any luck at all, a copy will be available for purchase. In the age of big production videogaming, with endless sequels, and lack of originiality, this game harkens back to the golden era of videogaming when developers had to be truly creative, and placed true substance over style. My highest recommendation.

Katamari Damacy is like the alpha-male of the almost esoetric weird/original genre. The graphics are old-school and "blocky" in such a good way - it looks nostalgic without being messy like when things were blocky by accident. The story and gameplay elements are so kid friendly, so really anyone can play and enjoy this game, but it's not just for kids at all. I'm 21, my mother's 46, and we both love this game to death. The music is clever and catchy, the hilarious sound effects from rolled-up bystanders never get old, and you almost have to instantly fall in love with the King of All Cosmos character. The price is low and the replay is so insanely high, that there's really no reason you should be without this game at all. Unless, of course, you dislike fun... You don't dislike fun, do you?

Playful, inventive, joyously addictive... I'm not sure which adjectives can describe this game properly. It's like Monty Python and "Magical Mystery Tour"-era Beatles moved to Japan, got pregnant and did a lot of drugs. This is their love child.

As earlier previews noted, the object is to roll a "katamari" through the environment until it gets large enough for the approval of "The King Of All Cosmos" in the alloted time limit. His demands are low at first (10 cm) but with each level, the ball must get bigger. Also, what you can pick up depends on how big your katamari is. At first, just pushpins and stamps are added, but the objects available get bigger in a hurry. If you bump a larger object too hard, pieces of your katamari are dislodged. If the object is almost big enough to stick but not quite, it will wobble when you touch it.

Controls are easy. You use both analog sticks (like tank tracks) to steer the katamari. I have passed four levels and one bonus level now without using the "Jump" or "Look" features (L1 and R1 buttons). You'll also love the soundtrack, and the complete absurdity of the plot is a scream. This will be a cult classic very soon.