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Sun, 05 Jun 2005
I'm so proud -- not only did I find time to get into a game store and purchase a game but we find out its so good my wife got instantly addicted and played all day! (and I got 20 mins in too...) Yes folks, Katamari Damacy is as good as people have said, and in my opinion is a return to the old school days of creative entertainment - challenging without being stressful - an action puzzle game that entertains while making you giggle like a little kid again.
This is my blog's first game 'review' so hopefully my scoring metrics make some sense. For a game this different its a little difficult to compare to other games so I'll come right out and say its not the prettiest or most incredible sounding game around, but its one of the best right now. So my review is tilted and I'm seriously wiped out from yard work and am half asleep so I'm sure my writing isn't up to snuff today.
- Genre: 3D Action puzzler
This is a strange one to describe but I will attempt it nonetheless; the game is about a tiny Prince who pushes a small ball (a 'katamari') around a 3D landscape comprised of various obstacles. The first few rounds begin on the planet Earth in a more or less typical house -- a living room featuring a table, television, radio and various pets and rodents scurrying about. Scattered about the messy place are hundreds of obstacles of various sizes, from caramels and clothes-pins to pachinko balls to plants, magnets, shrimp, dinner plates, batteries, pop-cans, frogs, mice, cats -- you name it. When the katarmari is rolled over or into something it will either roll on past it, or pick it up (the katarmari is evidently highly sticky), or just bump into it. Bumping into something at high speed may knock free a pile of accumulated debris, while picking things up is the goal of the game.
- Gameplay: 8
Most levels are a race against the clock whereby you're given so many minutes to grow your katamari to a certain size or more. Theres a meta-goal but I've not quite fathomed what it is -- apparently the King of All Cosmos knocked the stars from the sky and you (being a Prince) have to put them back by building large katamaris and converting them into stars. You can also collect certain types of objects (perhaps to unlock things?) or pick up gifts hidden in the worlds by your master, but really all of this is irrelevent -- the game is compelling enough just by rolling around picking things up. And you know what? This is excellent fun and grooves to some inner instinct. As you roll across things your katamari slowly grows so that it can roll over larger and larger obstacles and get you into areas previously unavailable or pick up things that you wanted to moments earlier. For instance, at the onset you're pickng up yen-coins and tacks and match-sticks and other trivia, but after a few seconds you'll have increased in size enough to pick up small balls, pencils and chopsticks which get you over other terrain. You can build up speed, do quick reversals to avoid falling off tables or rooftops and all the usual things you would expect (jump high in the air to survey an area, etc), but in the end its just plain fun to roll around over and through things, knock over stacks of carefully placed legos and run over that cat thats been chasing you around for 5 minutes. One thing I really enjoyed was picking up odd shaped objects (like chopsticks) which make your katamari roll or skip like a football, sometimes causing it to skip over things you'd want to pick up. Insanely fun.
The fact that my wife enjoys it is very telling -- shes not a hardcore gamer and traditionally women are a different and difficult audience to acquire. She does love her puzzle games and clearing the level so this appeals to her like crazy..
- Graphics: 7
This game is pretty attractive and yet flat at the same time. The graphics almost look PS1 quality (limited textures and lighting, low detail levels but nice level design), but like everything in this game is done with flare and a style that pulls you in. Furthermore, as the katamari grows the camera zooms out so you can still see what you're doing and its amazing just observing the slow growth of the thing. Apparently in later levels you can pick up automobiles, aircraft, people, etc, so I can't wait to see that in action. So a pretty good looking game in style but its not stunning.
- Sound, Philosophy, Environment: 7
Katamari Damacy has a grove all its own just as Dance Dance Revolution and Jet Grind Radio had theirs. The music is soothing and funky and I've found myself humming some of the main tunes all day (Parappa the Rapper had the same effect when I first picked that up a year or two back.) In-game audio is appropriate and as cute as the artwork. The whole game is pulled together pretty well and has a philosophy I need right now .. when things get stressful just roll it on up and away you go. Namco designed this game as a budget and experimental title but it doesn't feel like it -- sure the graphics are a little weak, but theres a lot of design and pollish to see here and its a very enjoyable experience. And a little weird in that way only the Japanese can pull off -- 60's style camp and cuteness like Shonin Knife. After playing this game for a few hours, I'm sure when you drive to work the next day you'll feel the urge to roll on over some annoyance in front of you..
- Controls: 8
Controlling the Prince is done via a tank-like controller setup; play is done almost exclusively with the two analog joysticks on the dual shock controller. Push both forward and the Prince pushes his katamari forward. Likewise, pulling back on the sticks either applies brakes or pulls the katamari backwards. Pushing one stick back and the other forward pushes the katamari while also moving around it and thus achieves a turn. Theres some other tricks such as instant-180-turn and jumping into the air for a look around, but the basics are like driving a motorcycle -- roll forward or push-turn (but without the buttless chaps and corner-wipeouts.)
- Funicity: 10
This is a fudge-factor I've built into my metric system to handle games like this -- whereas many games rely purely on pretty graphics to wet a players appetite others will succeed on pure gameplay, and still others just have an indescribable zen to them. Katamari Damacy has many things going for it from the easy controls to the simple yet plainly addictive puzzle game premise, but has this abstract zen that appeals to some inner desire we all have to grow and succeed. This is a harmless game where theres no danger to the player character and no real stress beyong racing the clock -- just good old fashioned innocent entertainment done with the funk.
- Value for the buck: 10
Brand new this game sells for $24.95 CDN ($19.99 USD I believe?), and can be had on sale or used for half that. I'd rather pay two bills for a great game than 8 bills for a fancy but crappy PSP game any day. This is the Pacman for the year 2000!
- Final Score: 8+7+7+8+10+10/6 = 8 out of 10
Rating defense:
Yes, I know Katamari Damacy 2 just came out in Japan. Take it easy, I don't get a lot of time to game. This is like 70s kitche fishbowl-shoes -- quirky and zany and more brilliant than lasagne. Its been a lot of years since we've seen something simple and creative (like Tetris!) come out of a major game studio and it proves that they don't need to spend enormous amounts of resources to make a good game, and selling it on the cheap is a masterful stroke. Namco deserves a lot of credit for this.
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