Saturday Morning Gaming: Katamari Damacy REROLL

A million years ago, like 2004, a little game called Katamari Damacy came out for the Playstation 2.

I remember hearing rave reviews about it and all of the reviews talked about laughter and delight and how crazy the game was. You were this guy, you see? And you needed to roll a sticky ball over stuff. And if you rolled the ball into stuff that was too big, it would bounce off but if you rolled the ball into stuff that was small enough? You added it to the ball. And you started out just picking up little dinky things like dominoes and ended up rolling around and picking up the swingset in the backyard and the car in the driveway and the bus on the interstate.

And so I picked up the game and put it into the PS2 and the first thing that happened is that the game started playing you this song:

We quickly got excited and pressed start before we got fully 15 seconds into the song and then got THIS:

Golly, we sang that song non-stop for a month.

The gameplay itself is kind of like a tank game. Each thumbstick is like a tread. Push forward with both to go forward, push back with both to go back, up with one, down with the other to turn around.

What’s the story? Well, the King of the universe (your dad) got drunk and wrecked the stars in the sky. All of them. And, well, he’s back to his senses and realizes that he should put some stars back.

That’s where you come in.

You have to take your katamari and make new stars by rolling things up.

And you know that your Katamari is small to start with so you should begin by picking up thumbtacks and soy sauce packets and, if you get big enough, you’ll be able to pick up ketchup bottles and socks and snails and birds and cassette tapes and game systems and… well, eventually, big stuff.

I’ve gotta say, there is a joy in rolling around and bouncing off of stuff like paintbrushes and fruit bowls and then getting a katamari large enough to start picking paintbrushes and fruit bowls up.

Then the king shows up, barfs a rainbow, and congratulates you on the size of your katamari. Then he takes your katamari and makes it one of the stars in the sky to replace the ones he knocked down. (Or he chastises you for the puny size of your katamari and makes you roll another.)

It’s delightfully weird, wonderful, and will leave you with a smile on your face.

Well, if you played it and miss it (or if you missed it the first time around but now you want to play it), Steam has Katamari Damacy REROLL for 67% off, currently. Under 10 bucks. It’s silly fun, it’ll remind you of 2004, and you’ll be back in a place where just remembering the song will make you happy.

So… what are you playing?