Innovative and enjoyable game from beginning to end .
Katamari Damacy is possibly the most unique and original game in history. Never before has there been such a fun title with gameplay as innovative as it is.
You are a small green Prince from another planet. Your father, a giant, strange-looking King got drunk one night and accidentally destroyed the night sky. Its your job to roll up a bunch of junk on Earth to form and create new stars, constellations, and the Moon. Its a humorous and strange story that you can't help but laugh along with. Your pompus, arrogant and funny father makes the ride (the story, that is) worth while.
The gameplay is the star of the show here. You, the Prince, have a spiky little ball called a Katamari. The katamari picks up anything you roll over, as long as it's large enough. The more stuff you pick up, the larger your katamari gets and allows you to roll up larger things, sometimes surprisingly large. There are two types of levels. When you make a star, you must get your katamari to a certain size before time runs out. This can sometimes lead to a bit of frustration if you're not fast, but overall the game isn't very challenging. When you create a constellation, you have to collect certain things, such as swans or crabs, or sometimes a single bear. Here, the size doesn't much matter. In the first few levels, you'll be picking up small objects like pins and pencils around a house, while in the end you'll find yourself rolling up houses, whales, towers, islands, and sometimes even whole oceans or skies, which is pretty incredible. The two analog sticks are used to steer, which works well after a little getting used to. Some of the turning elements aren't as easy and fluent as you'd like, so you might find yourself getting briefly stuck throughout the levels.
Its extremely satisfying to simply roll over an area and pick up anything you come across, from watermelons to elephants. Katamari Damacy is rather short though, you'll probably be able to finish the game in 5-8 hours. However, you can go back and try to make bigger, better Katamaris, so this adds a bit of replay value, as well as unlockable hidden items.
The game has Japanese cartoonish graphics, but they look good spread throughout the environments, and its rather impressive how the designers made so many different objects look nice. The light and catchy Japanese-pop soundtrack is another high point of the game. However, as with many core Japanese games, there isn't any dialogue. It might annoy you, probably not.
You'll find yourself smiling as you adventure through the fun-filled levels in the innovative and immersive game Katamari Damacy.
Pros:
-Using a Katamari, and overall gameplay is innovative and enjoyable
-Catchy pop soundtrack
-Good level design and environments
-Unique, humorous and strange story that'll keep you smiling
-Good looking cartoonish visuals
Cons:
-No voice work
-Short story mode, lasting 5-8 hours
-Controls sometimes don't flow and could become frustrating.
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 7.4
Sound: 9.5
Replay Value: 7.8
Concept: 7.2