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While we were roooling along... October 22, 2004
Okay, imagine this as a premise for a video game: You play a little ball of garbage that rolls around picking up other garbage, until you become a huge ball of garbage, at which point you turn into a star. Sounds weird? It is, it's called Katamari Damacy, and I'll be damned it it's not a LOT of fun.
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I've played games where you play as a soldier, a raccoon, a robot, a vampire, a college student, a dead travel agent, a Persian prince, a Jedi, a singer, a plumber, a cyborg, a superhero, a fox, an alien, a martial artist, a wizard, a car, a tank, an assassin, an athlete, a gorilla, a secret agent, a samurai, an archaeologist, an elf, a mercenary, a pirate, a spaceship, a photographer, a gangster, a dragon, a computer program, a cat bugler, a zookeeper, a scientist, and a monkey trapped in a ball. But I've never played one where you're a sticky wad that adds things to its mass as you roll over them.
(Technically you don't play as the ball of garbage, but rather a tiny green Prince of the cosmos that runs around behind it and keeps it rolling. But like that's any less weird.)
This game is, I think, Pac-Man with modern technology. That is to say, it's got brilliantly simple gameplay (roll the ball over stuff) but it's addictive and a TON of fun. The coolest thing is probably that as you pick stuff up your ball grows and you can pick up larger stuff. So you may start a level picking up strawberries and crayons, but by the end you can be rolling over cars, bicycles, and people. I hear that in later levels you even get up to rolling over buildings, skyscrapers, amusement park rides, and sperm whales. Everything scales seamlessly, and it's just ineffably cool.
Also, the music is weird and totally awesome. If you know where I can get this music, please let me know.
But you know what the best part is? This game sells for $20. New. Twenty bucks for one of the most creative, charming, and fun games I've played in a long time. If you can find it (I was apparently lucky, since it's in short supply) buy it.
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Comments
Posted by Darren & Rebecca Tabor on October 26, 2004 1:55 PM:
Cute! I can't wait to see the Halloween outfits. :-)
Posted by Jamie on November 1, 2004 4:23 PM:
Scroll up! :)
Posted by Flynn on October 6, 2005 1:04 PM:
You can get the soundtrack from either someone on E-Bay, or more directly, from CD Japan. Do a search for it...your spam filter isn't letting me post the URL.
The soundtrack(s) are TOTALLY worth the import price.
Posted by Amber on November 16, 2005 3:42 AM:
I adore this game and its sequel! It's so much fun to play, and the music is awesome. I've even got Livejournal icons of the Prince and his cousins rolling! ^_^
Posted by Lashiens on December 19, 2005 3:18 PM:
You can get the soundtrack to both Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari at http://www.gamemusic.com
Roughly about 29.99.