It’s tough to explain what Katamari Damacy is, and even tougher to try and explain the appeal of it. It’s a game where you roll things up into a ball and blow it up to make a star. That’s the core mechanic – just rolling around and picking things up. I understand that this sounds extremely bizarre, but trust me, it’s a ton of fun, even 14 years after the original release. Thanks to Katamari Damacy Reroll, which just arrived on Nintendo Switch and Windows, a whole new generation of gamers can subject themselves to this bizarre title.
In Katamari, you take control of the tiny Prince, who is the son of the King of All Cosmos. The King has accidentally knocked all of the stars and constellations out of the sky, and because he’s apparently a complete deadbeat, he tasks you with making new ones. So off to Earth you go, given a little Katamari ball and told to roll up all sorts of junk so that the King can then blow it up in order to put a star back in the sky.
The Katamari is a sticky ball that will cause anything smaller than it to stick to it. As you roll up things and get bigger, you obviously start being able to pick up larger objects. So you can go from picking up a little sandbox toy to picking up entire office buildings in a few minutes, if you figure out what you’re doing quickly enough. The whole idea is to play with perspective and just roll and roll and pick up junk that people have left around, eventually get big enough to pick up those people, and then the houses they live in, and then the whole world.
Rolling the Katamari is truly the only thing you do in the game – there’s no fighting, no platforming, nothing else. Just rolling. It’s a very Zen experience, honestly. Unlike later Katamari titles, the original Damacy is pretty short and pretty easy too, and at no point did I ever feel like I wasn’t going to get a big enough Katamari made within any stage’s given time limit.
I first played Katamari Damacy when I was in high school, and I was blown away by its surreal graphics on top of the absolutely bizarre core gameplay concept. Now, Katamari remains a favorite of mine, and getting to play the inaugural title in high-definition on my Switch has proven to be a total joy. I’d definitely suggest people give this Reroll remake a shot – and if nothing else, just watch the game’s opening at least once for the sake of having watched it. It’s as bizarre and as delightful as everything else about this game.
-Carrie Wood
