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Saturday 26 January, 2008
Summary:
Katamari is a single player puzzle like game. It is very unique in that it has an adventurous feeling but is more of a puzzle in that there is very little conflict. The goal is to roll the katamari around the level in order to reach a certain size. In the higher levels there is a time limit. The player can only pick up objects based on relative size.
Gameplay:
I was very annoyed with Katamari. Very Very annoyed. It was too easy to get stuck and not be able to fix the mistake in time. The player needs to feel like it’s still possible to win up until the very end otherwise there is less incentive to play. I also found the music annoying. It was a nice score but the addition of words to the music made it seem that much more repetitive. Were there no lyrics I would have really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the story a lot. The actual storyline wasn’t extraordinary, though it was original. What I really enjoyed about it was the dialogue. There was a lot of it and I’m sure that after a couple times playing this game it would start to wear on me, but it was funny and held my interest long enough to read all of it. This definitely deserves applause as most gamers, myself included are in the game for the action, not the introduction.
I liked the animation in the game because it was simple. The characters were mainly shapes without a lot of intricate detail. Their movements were basic and predictable. Sometimes in-depth animation can be very visually aesthetic however it can get in the way of playing the game. In Katamari the characters were simple but very cute, helping the player to identify with them, but not become overwhelmed by them.
Gameplay:
I was much less frustrated this time as I played my way through a few levels. I definitely mastered the controls more and was able to steer more accurately as a result. However, now that finishing a level was actually a dim possibility it was more frustrating when I didn’t make it.
The story was less involving this time and I became more aware of the puzzle aspect of the game. In that way everything looked less foreign but also less intriguing. I still enjoyed the game but it felt as if I could have been playing any other puzzle game and it wouldn’t have made me miss Katamari.
Design:
The game has a very simple concept by design. The makers therefore made the navigation of the game easier and the actual completion of the game harder. This is a quality of a puzzle game. The effort is more mental. Remembering where certain objects are and how big you have to be to pick them up. In this way the game is more systematic than challenge requiring mastery of difficult skills very quickly and randomly. This is a very effective game design because it makes it playable for all levels of gamers. They don’t have to spend a lot of time training after which they lose interest in the game itself. Instead they can jump straight into the game and let the levels improve their skills.
What’s interesting about the game world is that like most videogames it gives the illusion of many choices and lots of open space. However they very carefully control your movement by only letting you pick up objects relatively smaller than you. So at first you spend your time in the area with the small objects and then move progressively into the areas with the bigger objects. Without even realizing it the makers are guiding you through the game. They very effectively simulated a choice for the player.
My main objection to this game is the view at which you sometimes see the game. When going under a table of behind a pole you lose sight of the katamari and the character. I know that this creates more of a challenge but I see this as unnecessary. By keeping the character and katamari in sight at all times the game makers would cut out a lot of the frustration that first time players could become discouraged by. If this were cut out it would not change the difficulty of the game drastically but it would lessen feelings of ill will by players just trying to make it through the lower levels.
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