Katamari Damacy is a unique game with some of the best music I've heard in a video game
The king of the universe, or one of his friends, completely destroyed all the stars in the sky. It is your job to rebuild space by rolling up as much crap as possible. There are around 20 different levels to complete. Half of them require building a star, while the other half require building a constellation.
Katamari is an interesting game to say the least. There is some-what of a story involved, though very non-evolving. A japanese (no surprise) wife and her kids leave to visit their dad before his launch to the moon. The launch cancelled because there is no moon. That's it. Pretty week. No punch lines, no ending. Some of the dialogue in this game is really wacky, but it should stay that way. I think the designers were high during this game and it really just all implemented well.
The music is basically japanese jazz, with an emphasis on vocal, saxophone, and other jazz instruments. Some of the best music I've ever heard in a video game. this is the only game in which I've played that I've wanted to go out and buy the CD.
The graphics in this game are very basic, and sub-par for the PS2. It seems that this game could have been designed for the N-64, or the PSX. Everything is very blocky, and bland in colors. But this doesn't detract from the gameplay in one bit.
The gameplay is simply fun and addicting. You use the analog sticks the entire time. It's very simple, but yet, really gets you hooked in a way I cannot explain.
My only large gripe, is that during some of the constellation missions, you can only collect ONE of the described items before the map ends. Well, lets say you are collecting a cow. The problem, is that you can pick up a bucket with a cow on it, or a milk bottle, and it would constitute as a cow. So you really have no idea what you can pick up, and have to replay so much times to find what items are passable that it just becomes nonsensical. Why change something that worked so well before?
PROS:
*Addicting gameplay
*Superb music by all accounts
*Innovational
*Just plain FUN that is adaptive to anyone!
*A great message at the end of the game
CONS:
*Graphics are O.K...but could have been better for the PS2 system
*Storyline could have had more work for it to mean something, but it seems to do the game justice for being a "wacky" game.
*The "get one item only" constellation builds are very discouraging