So whenever I hear someone describe something that is weird as, “Wow, what kind of drugs were they taking when they made this”, I just groan. I always hated the whole criticism of how something weird must be related to drugs or any other illegal substance, and that there is nothing creative or thought provoking into the madness. Now, is there anything thought provoking about Katamari Damacy? …. Eeeeehhh.
So Katamari Damacy is not really a drug trip, but madami of a… case of being Japanese. After the King of All Cosmos (Yes, that’s his name) destroys all the stars in the sky after a drunken binge, he tasks his son, The Prince, to take a ball known as a Katamari to earth and roll up things on earth to create new stars in the sky. It’s a very, very simple game. Hell, if not for the challenge, it would be less of a game and madami of a digital toy. But man, for a simple idea, it works super well and it becomes an addictive experience. The game is very simple. Start out as a small ball and roll things up. If there is something bigger than you, you cannot roll it up, at least not yet. So what you do is continue to roll up smaller things until your Katamari gets bigger and bigger. Then, when it’s big enough, come back and roll up the thing that was giving you a hard time before. Eventually, you’ll be able to roll up living creatures, which is real damn satisfying. As you start out small, Pusa and small kids will start kicking you around and knocking parts off your Katamari like the fuckers they are. So what you do is you get big, get huge, and come back and enact righteous vengeance on them, rolling them up into your Katamari and increasing the size as a result. Keep doing that until the timer runs out and hope your Katamari is big enough to impress The King and ilipat on to the susunod level. Like I said, very simple, but a ton of fun. Eventually, you unlock other challenges, like rolling up specific things like crabs and fish, rolling up the biggest of one specific item like a madala or cow and any one you roll up ends the challenge. Then there’s the 10 Meter challenge, where you get no sign of how big your Katamari is, and you decide when the Katamari is 10 Meters EXACTLY. But don’t get too big or dad will be mad. But the final level is where the true fun kicks in. Rolling up people was impressive at first, but now, you can start rolling up buildings since the last level. Can we do more? Yes we can! We can roll up tanker ships. We can roll up skyscrapers, whole stadiums, clouds, Godzilla, mountains, God himself, everything! It’s madness. I pag-ibig it. And last, there’s the soundtrack, which is fun to hear. I don’t understand a lick of it, but it sounds like it’s got some rhythm and beat to it. You got the classic Katamari on the Rocks, but then you got my favorite, Lonely Rolling Star. All classics from the soundtrack.
Katamari Damacy is such a fun game. Simple and easy to get into, and can be beaten in a day, but the time you spend with it is so much fun that I can’t help but just go through madami levels. There’s no serious challenges, no underlying themes of existentialism that I usually find in my games, it’s just a good time and I feel better for playing it. And I hope that everyone can experience this level of joy, because Katamari Damacy truly is an experience.