Watch your step, for you’ve just entered theGraveyard. Inside, we’ll be digging up games that have long been without a pulse. You’ll see both good and bad souls unearthed every month as we search through the more… forgotten…parts of history.
2004 was an interesting time in gaming because 3D had been established for about a decade and yet companies were still experimenting with just what could be done with the added perspective. Games like Ape Escape aimed to change things up within 3D platformers by making use of the Dual Shock’s two sticks to enhance what players could do, but few made it a key part of movement in general. Katamari Damacy came out during the rise of early ’00s anime fandom sparked by things like Toonami and Adult Swim and with it came otaku culture embracing things that were a bit off-kilter and fit into the idea of Japan being kind of goofy compared to America when it comes to pop culture.
Katamari Damacy was something of a sleeper hit for Namco at the time and was not something one would expect to see as a boxed release today, but due to the game’s quality, it still remains a boxed game on the Switch and was even sold on the PS2 brand new for $19.99. I vividly remember going to Best Buy on launch day and grabbing a copy and being hooked. The second the game starts up, you’re greeted to an insanely-silly music video of a goofy, cheery song set to insane visuals like a group of panda bears doing the Rockettes dance while the well-endowed King of the Cosmos flies around the screen with rainbows all over. It’s a bit of a trip and something that set the stage for the adventure perfectly.
The King of All Cosmos has gone on a drunken rampage and destroyed all the stars in the universe and tasks his son to fix everything for him while commanding him to roll a katamari around to gain enough mass to replace everything he has destroyed. It’s a goofy concept and one that relies on using both analog sticks to move around and do things like charge forward or even do a 180 instantly to get around the world. The twin-stick controls originally fit the dual shock 2 controller like a glove, but as time has gone on, it’s interesting to see just how different and in some ways better the experience can be using other controllers.
Playing the first game on the PS2 with the closer Dual Shock 2 sticks worked because there wasn’t an option, but as the series evolved and the first game has been re-released, it can be played in a wide variety of ways. Playing it emulated on the PS3 resulted in a similar-feeling experience with the Dual Shock 3 when compared to the Dual Shock 2, but plugging in a Dual Shock 4 and its wider sticks on the PS3 made for a better-feeling experience in the days before Katamari Damacy Rerolled hit and enabled it to be enjoyed with any controller on PC or on other consoles. Offset sticks like the Xbox or Switch Pro controller feel natural, although the larger distance on the DS 4 for either the PS4 or plugged-in PS3 playback still feels good.
No matter what controller is used to enjoy Katamari Damacy, it remains a fun and rewarding experience nearly twenty years after its initial release. It has aged far better in both concept and execution than many PS2-era games and the idea of rolling up a ton of stuff onto a ball to make it bigger feels great. You get a sense of progression within a single stage element – like starting on a desk and rolling tacks, then building it up to rolling up tape dispensers, and then desk lamps. There’s a sense of growth and progress at every turn and it’s something that continues on throughout the adventure.
You’ll start off trying to get to a smaller diameter, then grow into something that can envelope the moon to replace it. The ability to start small-ish is there in every stage and the stakes and objects are raised with each new level alongside some different goals to keep things fresher. There are some stages where you want to focus on collecting a certain thing, like fish or food. There are also presents to collect throughout many stages to get little trinkets to show off in the hub planet. Katamari Damacy is a literal collect-a-thon in the best way because it makes collecting things a joy to do instead of a chore and things like presents are optional, and the stages themselves remain fun to replay and only get better with time.
Having beaten the game on the PS2, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, it’s amazing how replayable this title is across the decades. Going through it on the PS2 was a riot because of all the goofy music making each stage fun to listen to, while the bright visuals pop even more with modern displays and things like HDR helping boost the colors. The concept itself is basically timeless and there haven’t been any games trying to copy its concept despite it not having a new entry in around a decade. It’s the kind of game that works perfectly either on TV where you can play it for an extended period or if you want a quick twenty minute session on the go with a Switch or Steam Deck, you can.
The concept itself is ridiculous and yet was done so well right out of the gate that all sequels wound up feeling like slightly lesser games even if they should in theory be better games. The sequel came the closest and increased the themed levels, while the PS3 and 360 entries each boosted the graphics up to a higher level. The PS3 incarnation in particular looked fantastic with its cel shaded look, but the purest form of the concept and best execution of its off-kilter sense of humor is the original. Seeing it get re-released on modern hardware in a physical form for the Switch and then gain a whole second life later has been great to see unfold.
So often, games feel like they’re going to be of their time forever and that holds true for a lot of mid-’00s titles, but not this one. It feels as modern now as it did then and if it wasn’t for things like CRT TVs, it could take place today as well – although even then, it had things like a faux-NES that were out of its time period anyway. In a way, having all of that slightly older tech in the game would fit in better now than it did even in 2004 as the retro market is so much bigger now for all kinds of technology. As time goes on, it would be great to see an all-encompassing Katamari collection released just to get all of the games available in one place. Until then, the first game is a timeless classic and one of the best examples of a big-name publisher in Namco taking a chance on a goofy concept and it paying off for many years to come.
