I LOVE KATAMARI
The game play in Katamari revolves around you controlling a ball and picking up anything small enough for the ball's current size. For instance, in the games early stages you'll start out picking up only paper clips, erasers, and many other odd Japanese trinkets, but soon enough you'll start to see the ball get larger, and the things you can pick up become larger. You control the ball using only the two analog sticks in unison, pushing them both forward makes the ball roll forward, while pushing one left makes the ball go to the right, and for quicker turns, in this case to the right, push the left stick up and the right stick down. There are also a few other tricks, but none too important.
Graphically, the game separates itself from any other game of its time. It has sharp, blocky graphics which define the game of Katamari. The three levels are fairly big, and there is always plenty of stuff to collect, but more than often not enough time to do so. The people in the game sometimes run around, especially if they see you and you're a lot bigger than them. Of course they all have crazy hair styles, and then there's plenty of animals and other objects. Everything you've collected can be viewed in a seperate mode, which really gives the game most of its replay value.
The sound is great, too. There are about 20 different songs in the game, one for each of the games stages. They range from all different types, and most of it is catchy, even though a lot is in Japanese.
You'll get most of your enjoyment from the game simply by seeing in wonder how you can grow from having objects tower over you, and then five minutes later being to add them to your constantly growing collection of crazy objects. While the main game can be completed in only a few hours, you'll definitely find reason to go back to a lot of the game's stages, and "presents" are even hidden in some secret places around them.
This game gets out of the "rent" stats simply because it's a game completely of its own, from graphics to game play to sound, and still stands as one of my favorite PS2 games. And a little love for anything Japanese doesn't hurt, either.