My Top 100: #67 – Katamari Damacy

 

In late 2004, I was in my first year back to University after taking a one year break to work, make some cash and clear my head.  Something had gone terribly wrong somewhere in the re-application process, and I was stuck with nothing but introduction classes or fillers completely unrelated to my intended major, Journalism.  I was discouraged and uninterested, and I didn’t see myself doing anything but dropping out.

As glad as I am now that I did that, I was pretty bummed out about it at the time.

Fall was in full swing by the time I started thinking I should bow out gracefully, and I knew that skipping class at that point was probably not that big a deal.  Once my friends Greg and Mitch were done their classes for the day, it was off to Greg’s to play a variety of games.  NHL 2005 and Mortal Kombat: Deception got played the most in those days…  ahhhh good times.

Eventually, I was out of school, but kept hanging out at the Student Union Building on campus.  My parking pass was still good for a few months, so why not??

The gaming sessions continued into the Wintertime, and Greg eventually introduced me to this game that seemed to be an import…  there’s no way a North American release would have Japanese lounge music…  would it??

 

 

The plot for Katamari Damacy goes like this; the King of all Cosmos has accidentally wiped every star and constellation out of the sky.  He has tasked the Prince to go to Earth with his trusty Katamari, a super-adhesive ball that picks up anything in its path, to rebuild the sky with any and all items he comes in contact with.  It’s similar to rolling a snowball, except instead of snow, it’s a bunch of random junk.  It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but in the context of playing the game…….  well, it still doesn’t make much sense.

Anyhow, every level has a time limit, and the King asks the Prince to roll the ball to a certain size before the timer expires.  It might seem simple, but there are a few things that can make the Prince’s job quite challenging.

To begin with, the Katamari can only pick up proportionately-sized items.  The smaller the Katamari, the smaller the number of items that can be picked up.  As the ball’s diameter expands, bigger items can get sucked into it.  If you’re moving along, picking up a bunch of (for example) eraser-sized objects, you might come into contact with a pencil, and it can stick to the Katamari as well.  If it sticks out of your rolled-up work of art at a weird angle, it can make for some not-so-smooth sailing for the Prince.

That’s pretty much all there is to Katamari Damacy.  The only way to truly appreciate this game is to play it, and feel that strange sense of accomplishment that comes with being able to pick up newer and bigger things (“I just picked up an ISLAND!!  Whoo!!”).  Thanks for thinking way, WAY out of the box, Namco!