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Katamari Damacy
By admin | March 8, 2010
Katamari Damacy can be literally translated as “Clumpsoul”, though, like the Japanese title, that doesn’t mean a lot unless you immerse yourself in the game. Some ackground is therefore required before the review commences.
The King of the Great Cosmo had a little bit too much to drink one night, and in his stupor lashed out at the cosmos, destroying all the stars in one fell swoop. Waking up with a terrible hangover, he realises what he has done and asks his son, the Prince, to clean up the mess. How? By collecting a load of junk from Earth, rolling it into clumps, and sending it up into the Cosmos to make stars, of course! Enter the Prince, a tiny green guy, standing only 1cm tall, with a
hammerhead to maintain balance.
If Katamari Damacy is anything to go by, making stars is not only easy, it’s incredibly fun. The game can essentially be played with the twin analog sticks alone, with control typically seen in mech and tank simulators: move both sticks in the same direction to push the clump that way, or push one stick forwards and the other one back to move the Prince around the clump. You can also get a speed boost by flicking both sticks up and down alternately, which can be rather
tricky to pull off but it’s invaluable for getting up hills quickly. There are, in addition, a couple of functions on the shoulder buttons: one allowing you to view the world from a bird’s eye view and the other allowing you to perform a quick U-turn.
After a brief introduction to the controls, you’re thrown in at the deep end. Starting with a clump no bigger than the Prince himself, you must roll around the deepest crevices of a house, picking up tiny things like drawing pins, moving up to Shogi tiles and batteries. Each stage has a target size and a time limit within which you must expand your clump to the minimum size. You can keep going beyond the target if you have time, giving the game some replayability from a high score perspective. Each successive stage sees the clump starting small but having to reach a bigger size than the previous stage, enabling you to light the dark night skies with bigger and brighter stars.
The progression in size is handled very well by Namco’s engine. As your clump gets bigger, it becomes harder to control, and starts to block your view a bit, but when you reach certain intervals, the whole environment scales up a little, allowing you to see more clearly, as well as elimininating some of the smaller objects which no longer have a noticeable effect on the size of the clump. Later in the game, this gives you an incredible sense of scale as you grow from 50cm
to 100m or more, picking up giant octopi and huge monsters, not too dissimilar to Godzilla. Get even bigger and you start to pick up whole towns and islands, something quite unfathomable when you first start rolling around the dank corners of a cellar at the start of the game.
The graphics are bright and colourful, simplistic yet sharp. Textures are avoided in favour of increasing the number of objects on screen. As such, the appeal relies heavily on quantity rather than quality with every manner of items being presented to you in your attempts to create stars - animals, food, game systems, vehicles, buildings. The game even has a complete library of everything you have ever picked up, categorised by type, size and name. Due consideration should also be given to people - your primary enemy, and also your main source
of clump fodder in later levels.
The living inhabitants of this earth are much the same as ours. They vary from small, squeaking mice, to huge, rotund sumo wrestlers. What they all have in common is the ability to thwart your growing progress. An alarm in the corner of the screen will warn you when any of these predators are in your vicinity - get too close and they will hit you, propelling you in their direction and knocking some of the items off your clump. If you have a hard impact, you’ll lose even more of your mass. But revenge is sweet. Grow big enough and you’ll be able to consume these enemies as part of your efforts to bring light back to the galaxy.
Audio is diverse and pleasing. Plenty of genres of music are catered for, all spinning their own take on the Katamari theme. A few big name Japanese vocals have been enlisted to add words to the melodies and the end result is most agreeable. The central theme is simple, memorable and transcends language boundaries. It may well end up being stuck in your head for days! For people who fell in love with the Vib Ribbon soundtrack, I personally recommend “Lonely
Rolling Star”, brought to life by the chirpy vocals of Saki Kabata. Other takes on the Katamari theme include Rock, Classical and Mambo, amongst others.
Presentation is typical of Namco - slick, innovative and extremely well
polished. Even from the start screen, everything is handled with the twin stick configuration. Select a file by pushing both the sticks left or right, then push both sticks forward to roll your clump towards the file, taking a chunk of the Namco logo with you. The game is broken up by bizarre animated sequences telling the story of a star-loving family going to meet their astronaut father at the rocket launch station. The sequences are short but sweet, and strangely entertaining. In game presentation doesn’t disappoint either, with a
well-designed HUD showing all the information you need, as well as a pause screen that shows you extraneous information that you didn’t need, but which is still interesting nonetheless, such as, “Your clump is now 10,354 times the size of a watermelon”.
Katamari Damacy can be played through quite quickly if the bonus stages and other extras are ignored, which will suit players without much time. However, it does have extra longevity for people who demand value for money. There are nine stages in the main storyline, with an extra seven stages to add constellations to the sky. The constellation stages offer variations on the gameplay, including a stage in which you must increase the size of the clump to a certain target, but you must guess when you reach that target by yourself, rather than being told your size, giving the game a “Price is Right” flavour. Not forgetting the potential replayability of high score attempts.
For skilled gamers, though, the game may seem rather easy. There are only a couple of stages where you may feel challenged at first, and once everything has been unlocked, there may be some feeling of dissatisfaction. If you’re the type of player who enjoys high score challenges, you may be somewhat appeased, but the majority may tire of the game quickly once completed. Of course, if you’re looking at this year’s release schedule, wondering how you’re going to fit
everything in, games of this length will be right up your alley, but pennywise gamers who like a long, drawn out game may want to think twice, in spite of the fun factor.
There is a two player mode included, for those who have the friends and the inclination to try it. It’s rather unspectacular, but may be of interest when all else is complete. The two of you face off in a bowl-shaped arena, three minutes to play, and the biggest clump wins. The screen is split vertically, and as the clump sizes increase, the arena expands with new, larger items to pick up. Of course, if one of the players gets enough of a lead, they can roll over the other player and add them to the clump, in which case the screens join and
the victim must wiggle the control sticks frantically to break free. After a few plays, it becomes clear how limited this mode is, however. Only the items change from arena to arena, and the only real deciding factor here is who can control their clump more efficiently - all the items are laid out in rings, enabling an adept driver to roll up items in next to no time. Certainly a welcome addition, the two player mode could have been so much more if Namco had put more effort
into it. But don’t let that deter from the single player effort.
For eager importers, Katamari Damacy will not provide too many language
problems. The story may be unfathomable, but everything else should be within the realms of trial and error. A European release can’t be ruled out, but a US release seems very unlikely. It’s likely to become hot property when word spreads of its goodness, so I recommend a quick purchase if you’re teetering on the brink of buying it. You won’t be disappointed!
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