We Love Katamari

E3 Preview 2005 

Katamari Damacy’s success was extremely unexpected. It was an inexpensive game, but it was also a game of extreme quirkiness. The bright colors and strange characters and objects (such as a ball, referred to as a clump, that picks up objects) were not of American tastes, say marketing statistics. Namco proved them wrong. Namco proved that Americans can love Katamari, too.

You know who else loves Katamari? Namco. And why shouldn’t they? It’s one of the most original concepts seen in the past five years. Hence the creation of a sequel, We Love Katamari.

Brighter, more colorful, and infused with new levels, We Love Katamari is going to be the must-have sequel to everyone’s favorite game of quirk. 

The E3 demo was packed with weird addictiveness. Or was it weirdness that was addictive? The levels could be anything typical – a bedroom filled with toys, for example – so long as it was transformed into something odd. In-game characters are purposely deformed. They’re square, lack realism, and could have been designed for the PSone.

That’s not a complaint though. I’m just stating the facts. I gotta be honest: I never understood why the original was so popular. That was my own fault because I never really gave it a chance. I was forced to play the sequel (by Heihachi and Paul Phoenix, no less!), and now I can honestly say that I love Katamari.

Every object I came upon – toys, dolls, vacuums, tables, chairs, flowers, etc. – adhered to the clump. The clump is guided by a little green alien-type character with a strange, cylinder-shaped head. That’s essentially who you control, the green guy (or is it female? I can’t tell). He/she is guided with the analog sticks, which is really odd at first, but this is Katamari I’m talking about. What aspect of it isn’t odd? Just look at The King of All Cosmos. Even Burger King’s king is frightened by him!

It doesn’t take long to get the hang of the controls. Once you do, We Love Katamari transforms into an arcade game. It’s a constant race to get as many objects as possible, whether they’re plants or household items doesn’t matter. They could be anything. The counter tells you how many you’ve collected, and the time limit tells you if you’re doing a good job or not. (The more you collect, the more time you’ll receive and the further you’ll be able to go.) I can’t imagine a game like this being very long, but I do feel that it’ll have a lot of replay value, especially for those who couldn’t stop playing (and praising) the original.

We Love Katamari is topped off with a two-player co-op mode. The mode will be offline-only, but this is an experience that you should share in person anyway. Each player controls a part of the clump, opening a world of possibilities. Your success depends on the skillfulness of your partner and vice versa. Insane? You bet! Addictive? You better believe it.

Coming exclusively to PlayStation 2, We Love Katamari is sure to be stuffed in many stockings this Christmas. In the meantime I’ll be playing the original, and if you haven’t already done so I suggest you do the same.