By Erin Reynolds - May 23, 2005

Damacy in a nutshell

At the hands of a mighty force, the entire universe as we know it has been shattered. You, a fierce and noble prince, must set out to rebuild it into the celestial glory it once was. Well, maybe you’re not so much fierce as cute - and small and green. As for the universe’s destroyer, that would be your dad. Yes, on a whim, your father, the King of All Cosmos, has decided to shatter all of the stars. To his surprise, this has upset a great many beings. Since you owe him your very existence, it falls on you of course to put the fragmented sky back together by replacing each and every star and constellation. In order to do this, you are sent to the Earth with a ‘katamari’ ball. With this ball, you plow through the poor earthlings’ homes, towns, and their hitherto stable world. By rolling around the katamari ball, you collect earth debris – from thumbtacks to cows to Jumboman. Certain stars or constellations require the katamari to be of a certain size or consist of particular items. And, of course, bigger is always better. If you are skilled enough to build the katamari’s girth up to a specified diameter within a limited amount of time, the king can transform the ball-o-junk into a star or constellation. By creating enough large katamari balls, you can make the glorious starry sky as good as new.

This is the game “Katamari Damacy.” Released in the

proves to the gaming industry that it is sometimes worth taking an unconventional, and potentially costly, yet genuinely creative approach to create new, exciting and clearly non-formulaic games.

Of course, that is an article in and of itself. This preview is of “Katamari Damacy’s” sequel, “We Love Katamari” or as it will be called in

[  1 |  2 |  3 | Next: (First Impressions) >> ]

1: Damacy in a nutshell 2: First Impressions 3: Final Thoughts