It is often said that some of the greatest works of art-from the Doors’ music to Coleridge’s poems-were created under the “inspiration” of one drug or another. Anyone playing Namco’s “Katamari Damacy” will agree that videogame creators may have their own narcotic muses. And like “Kubla Khan,” “Katamari Damacy” makes no sense but is absolutely worth the ride.
The game is based on a simple, but bizarre concept. The player-controlled character, the Prince, is trying to return the stars and the moon to the sky. They are missing because the Prince’s father, the King of All Cosmos, has somehow lost them. The King instructs the Prince to create material for new heavenly bodies by gathering objects from Earth. The Prince does this by pushing around his katamari, which starts off as a small, sticky ball that can pick up objects it rolls over. It can only pick up objects that are smaller than itself, though.
Naturally, the katamari grows and changes shape as it picks up more, but it never loses its stickiness. Thus, the ball will grow from a few centimeters in diameter, able to pick up nothing larger than a thumbtack, to over eight hundred meters, consuming pets, people, vehicles and even entire islands along the way.
The game’s different levels have one of two objectives. The “Make a star” levels require the Prince to grow his katamari to a certain diameter within a time period. He might have five minutes to nourish it from 30 centimeters to 3 meters. The “Make a constellation” levels have the Prince gathering up a particular class of objects. For instance, when making the constellation Cancer, the Prince must capture a certain number of crabs with his katamari.
Controlling the Prince, and hence the ball of everything that he is always pushing, is so simple that the game is playable even while “under the influence.” The Dual-Shock controller’s twin analog sticks are used “Tank Style”-move the sticks in the same direction and the Prince pushes the katamari in that direction. To rotate the Prince about the katamari, push one stick forward and one stick back. The katamari can also be “charged” to dash forward by waggling the sticks back and forth. That is the entire control system.
Despite its simple premise and controls, the game has its challenges. Pick up a pole and the ball becomes awkward to roll-slow to accelerate and hard to point in the right direction. Dogs and cats will chase down and harass the katamari when it’s small. Being attacked by pets or running into things the katamari can’t pick up will cause players to lose pieces-bump into a car while only two meters in diameter and the two people you just captured will escape. Through clever level design, areas can’t be accessed until the katamari reaches a certain size. Grow bigger, though, and what was once an impassable wall becomes a convenient step or sign to be rolled up. Completing a mission within the time limit requires a balance of exploring the area to plan the next move while continuously rolling up more items to grow the ball big enough to pull off the plan.
It is hard to share just how addictive “Katamari Damacy” is. There’s a certain satisfaction in starting with a ball so small that it goes unnoticed by the seemingly giant children and then consuming everything from coins to animals and seeing the children now futilely running from the building-sized ball of everything.
Everybody I have seen play takes special pleasure in chasing down the living things, sometimes laughing maniacally as their katamari becomes a ball of waggling arms and legs after rolling down a busy street. Perhaps it is the God-like ability to roll up everything, from a butterfly to entire islands.
It could also be the outrageousness of the cut-scenes. The King of All Cosmos is quite a character. He gives the Prince his objectives and praises him for success amid a constant gushing of bad jokes, but should the Prince fail, the king mocks him harshly. He’s so mean he might just make you cry. The supporting cast, a block shaped family that is traveling around as the Prince restores the sky, is completely irrelevant but absorbing simply because the cutscenes are so strange you have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next.
The in-game goodies add to the already addictive game. The Prince can be dressed in “royal presents” hidden throughout the levels. The multiplayer component has new characters, the Cousins, who can also be found in the levels. To open these features, the Prince must -drum roll please–roll them up into his katamari.
Multiplayer is a head-to-head race roll up more than your opponent in the time allotted. Get far enough ahead and you can roll up your opponent and her katamari.
The best way to describe “Katamari Damacy” is “you won’t understand until you play it.” The premise is outrageous and the fundamental gameplay simple, but play for a few minutes and you will be hooked. It is no surprise that the game feels like an acid trip. “Katamari” Damacy is so addictive and so wildly strange; it might be a drug itself.