11.26.2005

I'll admit that I didn't play the first Katamari Damacy game just for the fact that it was so freakishly bizarre and strange, and the fact that so many people were ranting about how great it was. But, I caved in and went to buy it the other day. I've been on Thanksgiving Break all this week, and since there's been crap on the OnDemand all week, I figured I'd use a $50 gift card I had to pick up the first Katamari game since it was only $20, and it would be something to do. Well, they didn't have it, so I had to spend $30 to get the sequel instead.

Despite how bizarre the game is--and it's VERY strange--the game is just incredibly fun for reasons unknown. Anybody--even the most rabid fan of the first game--has to admit that as far as story line/plot, dialog, sound, and style goes, this game doesn't exactly shine, and it really makes you wonder if the game designers were tripped out on acid when they put it together. After only an hour or so into the game, I began to just completely ignore any dialog occurring between the "fans" and the King, and just skipped over any cutscenes that cropped up so that I could get right into the gameplay as fast as possible. And, I wound up muting it and putting headphones on after a little while, too, because the sound quality is somewhat horrendously frightening, between the scratchy noises when characters talk, the sound of the fans calling for your attention, and the crazy background music in the levels.

But, despite the flaws I just stated, there's something incredibly addictive about the gameplay, which is the true heart of the game. The basic premise of the game is that after the first game, the King of all Cosmos and the Prince are so popular that they go around granting requests for fans of Katamari Damacy, from cleaning up some kid's room to building a giant snowman. You then proceed to roll up a little Katamari ball and collect various items along the way. The more you collect, the bigger your Katamari gets and the bigger the items you can pick up are. You start off with little things like paperclips, bits of paper, and coins, and then work your way up to people (which is VERY funny to hear them scream, by the way), houses, and even the land itself when you get big enough. After time runs out or you've met your varying objective, you go back to the King, who places your Katamari in the Cosmos as a new "star", though they look more like planets than anything.

The controls take a little bit of getting used to, since you have to use both analog sticks, but there's not much of a learning curve at all, and everything is relatively simple. But, that's what makes it so much fun. It's the type of game that's easy enough to pick up that the casual gamer will have just as much fun as a more hardcore gamer. I've heard that the Katamari games are on the top 10 lists for female gamers, though I don't know what they mean by that, exactly. There are lots of girl gamers that are into the same games as most guys...