Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy, where the very premises of the game is merely to roll, roll, roll. You can roll up erasers, candy, chairs, dogs, fences, cars, people, houses, islands, giant squid, and even clouds. You play as the Little Prince, whose task is to roll up lots of stuff on Earth so your dad, the King of All Cosmos, can blast it into the sky to make a star. Why a star you ask? Well somehow your loving father managed to wipe out all the stars after drinking too much and is making you clean up his mess. Each level you're are provided with a set diameter that your katamari must reach at the end of a time-limit. When first rolling your katamari you must start with small things such as candy and erasers. As soon as you've obtained enough, you can start rolling up bigger things and so on. While trying to reach your objective you are also presented with a jazzy little soundtrack, that soon becomes embedded into your memory. If you reach the goal measurement, you father is pleased when he releases your ball into a star in the sky. However, if you fail to meet the requirements, he becomes angry, but still releases your dingy little ball of stuff. There isn't really a matter of losing but trying to go above and beyond the challenges given you. is possible to go above and beyond in your rolling process. Katamari is a third-person puzzle game that focuses toward the four points of humor, novelty, easy comprehension, and enjoyment. The game's creator Keita Takahashi, was tired of seeing so many games that looked the same and decided to do something different. His inspiration simply came from the concept of the enjoyment a child feeling from rolling around a ball. He also talks about how since video games aren't essential to our everyday lives, they need to be more meaningful and unconventional. Namco, from Namco Bandai Games, even told Takahashi that his game was too simple, but was ignored. So the simplicity of the game itself, which constitutes rolling lots of things of with your katamari, is intended to be the most enthralling part of the game. The humor is derived from all the random and different things that can be rolled up during the game. Whenever you roll up people they scream (which I always obtain great enjoyment from) or when you are in the process of rolling after someone in order to stick them to your katamari, they try to run away. When you choose to start a new game in the start-up menu, you are started off with a rolling tutorial. In order to move around, you use the two analog stick on the Dual Shock controller to choose the direction the katamari rolls. Depending on the way you flip the analog sticks you can also gain bursts of speed, flip the angle of the Prince rolling the katamari, and so on. There is also a multiplayer option, where you and a friend can battle each other with your katamaris. First person to roll up the most stuff wins! If you meet your goal before the time limit is up, you can continue rolling and make your katamari even BIGGER and if you manage to make your katamari twice the size of the goal measurement, you can even unlock the eternal mode. In eternal mode you roll around the level with no time limit. This is not explained in the game, so therefor its something you have to find out by merely trying to overachieve the goals set in the game. Before you begin each level, the King of All Cosmos gives you a little pep talk. Sometimes he mentions that he got you a give but lost it on Earth. So it's up to you to roll up the gift during your time down there. However, he doesn't tell you where the gift was dropped exactly. The more you are able to roll up during the time-limit, the better chances you have of accidentally rolling up the gift in the process. The little gifts amount up to things the Prince can where while he's rolling such as a guitar he wears on his back or a scarf. In The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell in the Chapter 3: The Lens of Fun, Bernard Mergen explains "Games, competitive games, which have a winner or a loser, are not, in my definition, play." According to that definition, games of that nature are not something you can play. However, in Katamari Damacy, it is not necessarily a matter of winning or losing as it is "doing well." If you fail to reach your goal within a set time-limit, you are merely scolded for it and there are no limitations to how many times you can re-roll a level. Also in The Art of Game Design, spontaneity is deemed an important part of 'play'. How more spontaneous can you get when rolling up an entire world with a katamari that started out the size of a pencil eraser? Also the fact that you can't really always plan out what you are going to roll up. Constantly trying to roll up a set diameter might seem like work after awhile, but if you set your own personal goals, such as achieving thirty meters over the set goal, you create a new kind of play. What motivates a player to roll in this game? People are all for discovering the surprises in games and finding new places they haven't seen yet. So a person thinks "I need to collect all the surprises" or "I need to achieve the set goal in every level". Finding all the items is part of the fun, all of them varying in rarity, and it's always interesting to see what they are since most of them are of Japanese nature. So what is it about the game that makes it so interesting? It could be the bright, blocky colors and Japanese influence. In one aspect, this game is a form of looting. Throughout the game you are constantly collecting items with your Katamari. People love gaining things, so this is the perfect game to do just that.
The only items available in the game are the items you roll up in the levels. You have to make sure though that you keep the items attached to your katamari, for it is possible to get them to become un-stuck. So it's important that you try to keep all the stuff you've collected.
So in conclusion, roll up cheese, books, and people. Discover hidden surprises and create THEM STARS.