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Weird, weird, weird....and really good!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 203 / 215
Date: October 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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!

Marble Madness Gone, well, Mad

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 107 / 123
Date: October 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Surreal game, flawlessly executed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 51 / 54
Date: October 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

One of the best puzzle games in a very long time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 31
Date: October 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

SIMPLY AMAZING

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: September 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Chu chu chu-ru...chu chu chu-chu-ru...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: February 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Whoever decided that Katamari Damacy should be released over here in the US, should be fired or promoted. This is one of those games that's so insane, it has little hope for a huge fanbase here in the States. But at the same time, it was a huge step forward in innovative gaming for a mainstream audience. It's hard to explain really. The game won't appeal to everyone. Mostly, a small niche of gamers. The same kind that can appreciate other out of wack games such as Seaman and Incredible Crisis.

When you start up the game, you can watch an opening cutscene of ducks singing "Chu chu chu...chu chu chu-chu ru" while the theme kicks in, and flowers dance along and pandas do a jig as rainbows bust in all over the place. What the hell is going on here? I still don't know, and I've played through the game twice so far. But you play as a very tiny Dashing Prince, whose father- The King of All Cosmos destroyed the stars in a freak accident. Instead of him fixing things himself, it's up to the Prince to set things right once more. And this isn't some kind of "coming of age lesson" set by the King either, he's just an egotistical guy who goes on about how great he is. But that's not saying it's annoying, in fact, it's hilarious what he says after each level. But as the Prince, you roll around a Katamari, which looks a lot like the Bumble Ball. Rolling it around, you pick up objects on Earth, making it bigger and bigger until it's big enough to be launched into space and make a new star or constellation. You have to start out small, usually with objects you'd find on a desk, or small foods such as seeds. But as you roll things up, you can pick up bigger objects, and create mass chaos. What other game has you start the level by rolling up thumbtacks, only to be picking up corporate buildings and giant squids later on? If you can name one, push yourself down a flight of stairs. You can roll up household objects, plants, animals, buildings, cars, islands, tsunamis, planes, monsters that look a lot like Ultraman and Godzilla, HUMANS (the scream they give off in the tutorial is priceless), and much more. It's fun to check out the Collection to see what you've all rolled up. There's tons of replay in going through the levels to get everything here. Another tiny bit of info worth mentioning- the physics here are some of the most realistic in games today. The game has a unique control scheme in that you never use the four main buttons (triangle, circle, x and square) while rolling the Katamari around. It's all done via the two thumbsticks. Both have to be pushed in order for it to be moved. This is also a minor con, as controlling the Katamari isn't exactly a second nature. There were many times where I failed completeing a level thanks to not getting in the right direction fast enough. But after you make a star, you're treated to quick cutscenes of a family who goes on a trip to the space station. What happens? Well, I haven't laughed so hard by imagery + pipe organ music used at the same time before. The game had a lot of firsts for me. Who knew that rolling around objects could be this fun? No one. That's who.

The game's fun. That's all there is to it. But there are some minor gripes. The first one I mentioned was that controlling the Prince and Katamari can be difficult from time to time. There's a quick-turn feature where you click in both thumbsticks, and you pull a 360˚, jumping to the other side of the Katamari. While it makes things much easier, you still have to move around to get the right angle. And sometimes, the game is just cruel. There's one level where you have to make a bear constellation, and all you have to do in the level, is roll up a bear. That's all. In fact, you can "complete" the level in about 4 seconds, as there's a bear right in front of you when starting the level. But I wanted to go for a bigger one. This almost gave me a stroke. There are tiny bears scattered in the level, and in order to get the biggest bear, your Katamari need to be huge. So by the time it gets big enough, you can't see in front of it too well, and chances of accidentally rolling a smaller bear are high, which causes the level to end right away. And what's worse, there's a huge bear with a rocket booster dashing around the place, knocking you backwards into objects if the Katamari's too small. Stupid bear. How great it felt to roll him up and launch him into space. It's things like this that'll get you. And don't get me started on when you try to fit through a doorway, and objects start to fall off in the process. But I brushed these aside, and kept on playing, which made for one of the most memorable gaming experiences in a long time.

In all honesty, the graphics are terrible. They look about mid-PSone quality. The humans are blocky, but it's intentional. I mean, they look like Lego people. The fact remains, this game wasn't made to wow audiences with the ps2's hardware. What it lacks in graphics, it makes up for in charm. Colors are everywhere, and that intro cutscene alone could make for a great cartoon. One thing worth mentioning here is that I never once had slowdown while playing. The framerate kept at a steady pace no matter how many objects I rolled up at once, or how much was going on on-screen. If Amazon allowed star ratings for each category in a game, the graphics would just barely get a 2/5.

But with the music, it's all perfect. After the first hour of playing, I found myself humming all the tracks while doing other things. Typing reviews on here, doing tasks at work, drawing comics, doing anything had me playing the tracks in my head. It's a great blend of crazed jazz and...I don't know...really happy music I guess. To put the music of Katamari Damacy into words is pointless. Just sample a few tracks and see for yourself. Every track is great on its own. My favorites include the little acoustic bit while you're on the main menu/planet, and the pipe organ bit that kicks in when the King is telling the Prince about the goal for each level. The sound effects are good too, but there isn't too much going on. When you roll up an object, it almost always makes a sound, appropriate for whatever it is you just got. Humans scream, dogs bark, corporate buildings ring (with all the phones in 'em), etc. The 50/50 thing I had in mind was the sound of the Katamari rolling. Hearing this thing rumble once it got big enough would've been kinda cool, but then again, it'd get annoying to hear it over and over through the levels. Oh, and I love how the King's voice is just turntable scratchs. It made for a great touch.

If you can appreciate "weird" games, then don't hesitate in picking Katamari Damacy up. The concept is great, gameplay is a blast, the music is memorable, and the plot (what little there is) is hilarious. And replay of course, is there as well. Yep, there's not much bad to say about this gem. Pick it up while you can. Especially since it was released at such a low price.

Good Design, Great Play, Great value

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: October 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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!

More addictive than crack.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: April 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You will be shocked when you see how crappy the intro scenes are, almost feeling as if someone has stung you on recommending Karamari Damacy, but once you start pushing that ball around the place with objects sticking to it as it builds up in size to eventually have houses and football pitches gelling on to it, you will understand how wholly original this game is, and why it has been compared to crack. This is the most addictive PS2 game to date. It doesn't look like much, but you just can't say No. You can't! The idea is so simple. You can't pick up bigger objects until you have a diameter that is about twice the size of the object, which means you need to start small and work your way up. The problem is crashing into things reduces the balls size so you need to be able to find the right sized objects to roll over and navigate about properly while on a timer. Simple, but the kind of thing to keep you up to 6am with your eyes coming out your head. Royal Rainbow to all who have played it!

A Great Surprise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: December 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

One of the Most Underrated Games Ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: September 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is outstanding! I first saw it on Cinematech (a show on G4TechTV) and was intrigued by the graphics. After reading praise for it from many magazines, I decided to pick it up.

You play the role of a prince whose father (King of the universe) "accidentally" knocked all of the stars out of the sky. It is your job to recreate stars (and some of the major constellations) to repopulate the sky.

Sounds pretty unique, but it is the gameplay that gets you. You push a "katamari" (Japanese for ball) around, and it picks up items that are smaller than it. You start by picking up thumbtacks and sticks of gum; eventually you can pick up people, animals, and houses!

Most stages are timed, making the manic nature of the game even more fun. This game has great music, decent graphics, and the kind of "old school" simple fun that is lacking in a lot of today's newer games.

Its $20 price tag makes it affordable, but its gameplay will keep you coming back for more!

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