Katamari Damacy is the proof that there are really original games to be made.
The presentation is... surreal. The opening movie will tell much about the contents of this game. "Am I stoned of I just saw toadstolls poping up from my screen?" resumes quite well what I wanna say. The fact is, KD brings something we often see in Salvador Dali's paintings, but never in a videogame. All kinds of unexpected things can happen in this universe, and when we take the main plot of this game... erh...
The Great King of All Cosmos crashed into all the stars of the sky, making all of them disappear. Now it's up to you, the Prince, to rebuild them, using your Katamari to collect objects from Earth.
Sounds crazy? Yes? Now you are understanding! All this crazy stuff ends up being a great and lasting fun, when it comes to seeing all the unbelievable things KD has to show. Some are wuite simple, like the crabs threatening each other with water-guns, others are disturbing, like gluing a house to your Katamari and hearing all the people inside screaming with joy/terror...
Graphically, KD is pure junk... but it works so well, so well, that you will find yourself admiring the simplicity of it. Everything looks blocky and with square corners, but as EVERYTHING has this same look, in five minutes it will seem too natural for you to distinguish and notice this. One major feature is the fact that you can build your Katamari from an almost-nothing 5cm to a city-eater monster with over 300 meters of diameter with no load times, no slow downs and in a pace that will make you enjoy the ride as you never did with most games you played.
One advice: play it while somebody watches, and change places after a while. It's really fun just to watch as the other person rolls up the Katamari and clumps everything in sight, plus you will be able to notice certain things, like the amazing suonds each object produces once it is added to the clump or the despair of people getting swallowed by it... It sounds tragic, but, believe me, its comical!
Talking about sounds, KD has a great deal of songs and SFX to offer, all with a great, over the average, quality. The main theme is just perfect-fitting to the style of the game, as are all the tracks available. Most are in Japanese, but that helps you to aclimatate, since all the game takes place in a regular Japanese room... house... neigborhood... city.. country!... Yes, you will go from one to another, believe me!
One special comment must be said about the cutscenes: they tell the story of a regular Japanese family (specially brother and sister) around the fact that all the stars have disappeared. Though they are short, you will have a good laugh everytime the kids pop up in your screen or the little girl says that "Oh! I feel it. I feel the cosmos!"
In the end, the only drawback for Katamari Damacy is that it is too short... But don't think you will stop playing it quickly: the stages are so fun that you will be replaying them over and over again (specially the latter ones). So, take my word, this is not a rentable: buy it and have hours and hours of cutish fun, fo a change!