Katamari Damacy

The Good
It's been a long time since a new twitch game so simple, yet maddeningly addicting has come along. Then this title quietly pops out of nowhere, and it's utterly brilliant.

The opening cinematic of this game only leaves you scratching your head in confused wonderment at the flying animals, flashing colors and rainbows that seemingly have nothing to do with anything. The story leaves you just as puzzled as your snotty father berates you for his own mistake. And then....

And then the game begins.

It starts out so simple. Pick up a few household items. As levels progress, you pick up larger things. Then animals. Then people, cars, buildings, stadiums, rainbows, octopus, mountains.... all to make stars. And the controls are so simple, it just becomes more fun to roll up anything you can fit onto your katamari. The game is delightfully addictive, and using both analog sticks is definitely intuitive.

The graphics and music are catchy and fun. Hearing people scream as you roll them into your ball becomes a sadistic delight. The game is never really violent. It treats the chaos with a very playful and light-hearted attitude.

At $20, there is no reason for a hard-core gamer not to add this to their collection.

The Bad
Multi-player is something I hope they build upon more in the sequel. I can fault the gameplay. It's spot-on, but there's nothing worse than running out of time when you're just SO close to building that star.

And hopefully, the next game will be longer in terms of overall playability.

The Bottom Line
There's nothing sane about Katamari Damacy. It's silly and random, and often times, makes no sense whatsoever. This is one of the few exceptions that a player will care less.

There aren't a lot of unique and original games like this that come out. As a gamer, I would like to see more innovative games like this come out than the same trends that publishers pound into our heads that we need to have every year. Namco definitely deserves a lot of credit for bringing this unusual title out.

Again, for its low price, it would be a shame to miss something this special to play. Highly recommended.

The Good
The gameplay premise is so preposterous that you'd think I was on LSD if I told you that the object of the game is to wad stuff up into a giant ball. That's it! Wad everything you can find in the gameworld up into a giant freakin' ball! It sounds goofy, and it is, but it is simultaneously one of the most addictive and fun games that I have ever played in my 25+ years of electronic gaming.

The gameplay is whack: You use both PS2 dual-shock analog sticks to control your katamari across one of several game worlds, rolling over things to pick them up and add them to your wad. And I do mean picking up anything and everything you can find: gum, nails, ants, etc. As the wad gets larger, you can pick up larger things such as cats, dogs, people, bicycles, chairs, etc. Finally you can get so big that you're wadding up entire buildings, tankers, giant sea monsters... It's freakin' nuts!

If that alone were it, Katamari Damacy (pronounced kah-tah-mar-ee dah-mah-she, loosely translated as "clump of souls") would be a great game. But it transcends greatness into an instant classic because of the soundtrack. The soundtrack... each and every song (with exactly one lounge-singing exception) is sweet, perfect, appropriate, and uniquely Japanese cool. Each track is so good that I find myself listening to them outside of the game all the time.

And after it's all said and done and you've had the time of your life, the more technical programmers out there will realize how clever the game engine is, as it convincingly portrays a game world that lets you pick up tens of thousands of objects while hiding the background processes that make it possible.

The Bad
The multiplayer mode doesn't have options to expand the time limit or choose different arenas. The multiplayer mode is fun, don't get me wrong, but without those kinds of options, it gets stale after 3 or 4 matches.

The Bottom Line
At a price of $20, every single PS2 owner should be ashamed to not own this game. Please support wacky Japanese technology. Seriously. It is so rare that an original gameplay concept is brought to market -- moreso, that is actually FUN -- that we all owe it to ourselves to buy this game and support the concept.

The Good
Almost nothing.

The Bad
I heard a lot of positive things about this game, so I was looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately, it was one of the most inane games I've ever played. It's typical for a Japanese game in that it is heavy on text and short on action. And I normally ENJOY reading, but not when I'm trying to play what is supposedly an action game.

I don't care to read numerous screens of text for a platform (PlayStation 2) that is mostly built for action. What's worse, though, is that the text is completely inane and poorly translated. Maybe I just don't "get" Japanese humor, but I found the text almost unbearable to read--and there was so much of it! Instead of just telling the player how to play the game, it goes on and on on tangents which, I assume, are supposed to be funny, but I just found stupid.

I also couldn't get into the plot or identify with--or even feel sympathy for--the hero. It looks like a horse pill with legs. How is that supposed to make me feel heroic or even useful?

Perhaps if you're in tune with Japanese culture, you may enjoy this game. Otherwise, don't bother. I found nothing engaging about this game.

The Bottom Line
A complete waste of time and money