cortez72's Profile

We Love Katamari

Published: Tue 3 Mar, 2009 | On:

There has been some discussion on the NZGamer forums about Noby Noby Boy, and whether or not that little character which goes around sucking things up, also sucks.

That game was created by the team respondsible for We Love Katamari, which definitly does not suck! This reviewer is concerned that not enough people love Katamari, so for those who missed out, read on.

It is seldom that you load a game up, an know from the first moment it is going to be supremely different to anything you have played before. When the Namco logo pops up, it prompts you to select from 3 save slots, the selection is done in the theme of the game to follow... You roll up the letters 'Na', 'm', or 'co' in the landscape, and the opening movie rolls moments later.

This is the fundamental principle of the game, rolling things up. You play as 'The Prince of the Universe', tasked by the King to roll a Katamaki (a nobbly ball) around various locations on Earth, collecting all manner of things. Each item collected sticks to the Katamari, and now you are rolling a ball with pot plants on one side of it, and a cats litter tray and trumpet on top. The collected items slightly alter the way the Katamari rolls, and your role is to continue collecting things, as your negotiate the environment and compromised Katamari's shape.

Sounds easy? The concept is so very simple... Enter the amazing control scheme to inject the fun. The Katamari is controlled by both PS2 thumb sticks operating together. The thumb sticks represent The Prince's hands, pushing both together will command The Prince to push with both hands, rolling the Katamari foreward. As you become more familiar with the 'tank like' controls, you will be able to make sharp turns by directing one thumb stick forward and the other back, strafe from side to side as you roll down a corridor collecting things on either side of your Katamari, and so on. Other controls have been included to aid you in your speedy collection of items, such as quick turn's, initiated by pressing down the thumb stick's (buttons L3 and R3).

Speed is essential. Most stages are timed, the objective: make a Katamari, say, 8 meters large in, say, 3mins. And away you go. This is not the only play mode however, some stages provide you with a much greater time limit, and the option of making a Katamari as big as you can. Furthermore, the game concept is not always just about rolling Katamari, no, sometimes you find yourself rolling a snowball, or rolling a Sumo wrestler around a town.

Town is only one of the many places you can collect things. Some levels are set in lakes, others in a bedroom or living room. These levels expand as your Katamari grows, so although you were as small as a thumbtac when you began, soon you have left the living room, rolling up cars and pedestrians in a city street! The load screens between environments are as quirky as the game itself, The King of the Universe's head spinning on screen as he complains about loading times preventing him from talking.

Every aspect of the game is unfimiliar, in part this is due to the insanity applied to the construction of the game. Nothing really makes any sense. The game story, told in chapters between every few levels completed, about how the King of the Universe came to be, is easy enough to understand, but will still leave you puzzling. The whole game is bizzare, from intro to end credits. The level select field is just that, a field, in which people yell out for help, when you approach them, they feed you a story about how they were dreaming of paper cranes, and suggest you might like to roll a few hundred paper cranes up with a Katamari.

The results of your rolling efforts, are turned into planets, the final objective will be the roll up the solar system, but you must first fill it with stars and planets... and you will enjoy every minute of it.

Thats a promise. You will hum the crazy Japanese pop music. You will enjoy the blocky, low polygon, completely functional graphics, its all part of its own artist charm. You will enjoy finding new playable characters in every stage, all family members of The Prince, rolled up by a Katamari, as you slip into moments of Pokemon like "gotta catch them all" frenzy.

This game is simple, yet compelling. How often do you smile as your play a game, uncontrollably. You just rolled up an elephant, and it trumpets as you roll your Katamari around, you will be smiling. The longevity of the title speaks for itself, I am still playing it now, more so than any other PS2 title, and I have owned it for 3 years.

Find, play and enjoy. 10/10.