You would be hard-pressed to find a better overall package this year than the experience delivered by Katamari Damacy. A quirky game that is unmistakably Japanese in both concept and execution, Katamari Damacy is an outstanding testament to the virtues of simple, addictive gameplay wrapped in a healthy dose of personality. Looking over its description, you might expect this to be the kind of game that turns players off with too liberal a dose of Japanese quirkiness: You play as the pint-sized son of the King of All Cosmos, who has somehow lost all the stars in the sky, and you're tasked with cleaning up the old man's mess. To restore the stars, you have to visit various locales on Earth and collect enough material to create replacements for the recently lost heavenly bodies. The quirky premise is taken to a whole new level when the specifics of your task are made clear--the material you'll need to rekindle the stars is garbage that you'll collect by rolling a katamari (or "clump," in Japanese) over it, dung beetle style, in timed runs through disparate areas. And, as if all this weren't enough to guarantee the game a place in the annals of quirky games, Katamari Damacy's one-of-a-kind art style and eccentric soundtrack cement its cult status.

However, while such a package has the potential to alienate the average gamer, Katamari Damacy transcends the inherent quirkiness of its parts and offers an accessible and undeniably fun experience. The inspired lunacy of the tiny prince tearing through real-world locales and gathering anything he can roll over with his ever-growing clump of junk is guaranteed to elicit a smile from anyone who plays the game. The simple controls--you'll guide the prince through his junk-gathering adventure using the two analog sticks on the PS2 controller--make the game accessible to anyone, and its time-based objectives give it an addictive quality that will find players returning to it in the hopes of beating their previous garbage-collecting records. The inventive visuals, which give even the most mundane objects a crazy visual flair, keep the action visually interesting with goofy charm. At the same time, the inspired soundtrack--anchored by a catchy theme song, synthesized J-pop tunes, and jazzy swing numbers that, by all rights, shouldn't mesh as well as they do--offers an excellent auditory complement to the onscreen kookiness.

In the end, Katamari Damacy manages to pull together its various quirky parts and offer the best original puzzle experience we've seen in years, making it the clear winner in this year's race.