Katamari Damacy Reflection / Review

Katamari Damacy. It’s one of the best video games in existence I’d say. It’s premise, spirit, and idea is all so original and amazing! The premise is that the stars have been destroyed by your comically self-centered father. The prince is commanded to fill the sky back up. You do this by getting your katamari (ball) and rolling around various places picking everything from colour televisions to skyscrapers up in your ever-growing ball of stuff, people and everything else.

Katamari Damacy doesn’t require you to figure out a complex story, idiotic control scheme or anything like that. It demands your brain at the moment it’s being played, and the more you use it the more you get out of it. It’s control scheme is simple, just using the two analog sticks in unison. The soundtrack is very uplifting, and the graphics are beautiful in their astounding colour and harmony. It’s also a very centering game to play, something that can get your soul back into place. It’s the only game that I play religiously, just because it always invites you to find something new in the amazing depth Katamari Damacy offers.

There are 3 basic worlds in which you roll around in. Each of the many stars and constellations you create are all so different in how they utilize the world and your mind. For instance, while creating the constellation Gemini, you’re finding twins; cats, campfires, humans and everything else. While going through the level, you’re constantly on the lookout for twins (not that they’re uncommon). This level especially makes you use your mind. You’re always on the lookout for the random twins, which requires a lot of concentration.

Katamari Damacy has also played a role in my changing view on videogames. It’s opened my mind up to the immense possibility videogames have, and how rarely a developer grasps that potential. Katamari Damacy shows you that it isn’t necessary to have a really powerful system and a bunch of add-ons to make a great game. On a personal level, it’s helped me to see videogames more openly in admiring their beauty in how imaginative this game is.

One of the more interesting parts is what people think the meaning of the game is. A while back, I posted a topic on the Katamari Damacy community asking everyone what they thought the game meant. The ideas people came up with were awesome! One of the best theories was how Katamari Damacy is a reflection on Japanese and north american culture in how people get so caught up in their materialistic desires. I’m sure we can all relate to that reality. By using the idea of the katamari (which means clump) taking away all of our material possessions and shooting them into space, the theory is supposed to reflect an ideal oneness of everything.

The ending song in Katamari Damacy (which means spirit by the way) definitely enforces the theory above. It’s talking about love and how we need to “roll” people into a ball of oneness. One could say that it’s easy to throw meanings together for such a random game, but I think there’s something in here.