Thomas Kobelsky's Blog

December 6, 2008

Gameplay: 8/10
Story: 6/10
Music: 11/10
Visuals: 10/10
Overall score: 9/10

Gameplay:
Besides being extremely repetitive and sometimes downright annoying/frustrating as hell when you're at that one size that gets caught on EVERYTHING with collision, it's actually quite fun. the controls are a little weird at first, but you finally get the hang of them after you're like half way through the game (at least that's what happened to me).

Story:
A black hole has appeared in the cosmos so you have to roll stuff up and basically stick a cork in the black hole.
The entire story, summed up in 1 sentence. I shit you not.
And dont worry, I didnt ruin anything... they tell you to do this before you even get introduced to the katamari.

Music:
Quite possibly my favorite part of the game (besides the funny random shit you roll up in the game haha). I basically got addicted to the track "danketsu" (which, weirdly enough, just started playing in iTunes as i started typing that out...) and then it led me to a japan-exclusive game that i want to get sooo much, but then that lead me to the anime it's based off, and i'm in love with it. And yes... the whole soundtrack is J-pop.

Visuals:
I was a little skeptical about playing this wondering how they'd handle the constantly growing Katamari... but I was amazed at how fluid it all is, and there's only like 3 phases that you ever go through that might have a little bit of framerate issues.
As for the art-style... omg, so pretty. The people look like crap because they're basically made out of what looks like 30 polygons, but it's such a good art-style, so clean. Next to no detail in anything, no shadows that i can remember (except when you launch your katamari into the sky, then there's a shadow under you).
I'm a big fan of vector art-work, and this game is what I would imagine interactive 3d vector art would look like.

Overall:
Great game. Some people seem to think it's a game only enjoyable when your high as a kite, but i thought it was pretty awesome sober. it'll definitely get your heart racing when you're like 5 seconds away and still have to get another 3cms to win in the earlier stages, and like 12ms in the later stages.

-tk

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