Katamari Damacy REROLL

I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started playing Katamari Damacy, but I was wrong. Before I booted it up, I had the idea that this was going to be like one of those games where you eat everything smaller than yourself in order to grow and eventually be big enough that you can consume absolutely everything (which was pretty much right). I also expected that to be the game's focal point (which I'd now argue is pretty much wrong). It was once I heard the first "NAAA NA-NA-NA-NA-NA NA-NAA" of Katamari on the Rocks (the game's opening theme) that things started to shift in my brain. Now, while Katamari Damacy's gameplay is unique and quite excellent, it's clear to me that everything else, the art style, the music, and the story, is what actually makes this game as exceptional as it is.

Katamari Damacy sees you taking control of the young Prince of All Cosmos as he rolls up objects around Earth into big balls using magical devices known as katamari. Then, the balls are used to replace the celestial bodies destroyed by his father, the King of All Cosmos, when he was "being naughty". Now if that doesn't make a "Feeding Frenzy"-style game sound captivating, I don't know what would. Now that the soundtrack has hooked you and the introductory story has thoroughly locked you in, Katamari Damacy hits you with its first level and things get weird again. 

For a game about rolling a ball around, the controls really could be so simple, essentially following the same framework that any other game with a third-person perspective has before. Still, Katamari Damacy opts to do something else entirely. While you might expect the left analog stick to be used for movement and the right for the camera, they are instead designed to mirror the Prince's hands as he pushes and pulls the katamari. Pushing both sticks in the same direction will move the katamari the same way, but different directions will cause it to turn. There's even more you can do beyond that, but in the first stage, just getting the hang of the basic controls will be your biggest goal. I had to fight with the controls for the first few stages, but we came to an understanding, the rest of the game was amazing.

There's something very satisfying about starting from virtually nothing, weak and helpless, then ending in a state of unrivaled power and control. Katamari Damacy nails that unique feeling in every single one of its main levels (the special stages offer a nice variety of challenges to break up the gameplay, but never feel quite as thrilling to play). Even though I would start small and be forced to work my way back up every time, I loved seeing the katamari grow, and it never got old picking up something that had previously blocked my way due to its size. Honestly, Katamari Damacy became a kind of power trip for me, with each stage leaving me feeling more and more unstoppable. By the end of the game, I was practically emptying stages of everything you were allowed to pick up, and it was absolutely incredible.

I truly had not anticipated how much I would enjoy this game. The gameplay was definitely a unique draw, but it was everything else that really enthralled me. The eclectic music, the humorous things to roll up, the absolutely stellar writing for the King of All Cosmos, and so much more. I guess the extreme sense of power that comes with amassing an enormous katamari shouldn't be overlooked either; getting drunk on that power led me to quite a few "just one more level" moments. All in all, I found Katamari Damacy to be both more fun and far more interesting than I had initially anticipated. With the remake of We Love Katamari coming out soon, I can't think of a better time to try this game out.

The game is available for Steam here (as of 4/3/23): https://store.steampowered.com/app/848350/Katamari_Damacy_REROLL/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 4/3/23): https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/katamari-damacy-reroll-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 4/3/23): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/katamari-damacy-reroll/9pfwpnp19f1b
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 4/3/23): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0700-CUSA24361_00-KMDMCMGMMAINGAME

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