Saturday 3 September, 2011

Who loves katamari? We love katamari.

This game was funny. It was totally self-reflexive. It was all about how popular Katamari Damacy was, and the King just wants to please his fans on Earth. I mean, all it did was reference how much everyone loved Katamari Damacy and how awesome the King and his tights, hairstyles, head, etc. were. I loved it. And it retained all the quirkiness of the original, though at times it felt like it was trying too hard. We <3 Katamari was just like the first one except you roll stars for fans instead of for the King. I don't think they could have ever topped the story of the original, where the King got drunk and knocked all the stars out of the sky, but you know, they tried.

The levels were a bit more varied, especially their locations. One level is underwater, another you make a snowman, and the final level (I guess to one-up the final level in KD), you roll up the sun using all the stars you've rolled throughout the game. I thought it was interesting taking requests from fans, since they thought up some pretty random reasons to make you roll a katamari. The one I remember best is a request from a sumo wrestler who is too small :( He got beat by some other sumo wrestler, so you actually take him instead of a katamari and roll him up over food so he gets nice and fat and round and sumo-ish, and the goal of the level is to roll up his opponent. There was a really pretty level where you roll up fireflies to make the katamari brighter so this studious student can study at night. So yeah, more of the same silly fun.

Just a note, I've been playing games with other people lately, which is weird. I guess because I have a few roommates now, I just kind of have an audience sometimes if I'm playing in the living room. Like, H got really into watching me play Growlanser, kept asking me all about the story even outside of playing, and he came to work the other night and watched me finish Bioshock. J has been playing We <3 Katamari on and off with me. He sat and we alternated playing for a couple hours this afternoon until we finished it. We played a few head-to-head matches too (I won 2 and then let him win the 3rd!). I kind of forgot what it's like having people watch me play, since I'm always the one watching other people play. Kind of a strange feeling being on the other side of that. Other than that, I remember how much fun it is to sit next to people and play games. I played plenty with people, just usually in MMO form over the internet, over the last few years, but haven't played a lot with people or just with people in the same room really since I lived with Daniel like 5 years ago. Crazy. It's fun!

I had no idea that We love Katamari was so...hmm, self-indulgent? I guess that's a good thing in the quirky comedic way the series has always been. No?

Yeah, it worked pretty well! I was skeptical at first, but pleasantly surprised. I've been trying to think what, if any, other games could pull off the same type of self-referential humor (or have pulled it off).

I guess the Metal Gear Solid games do it a lot...but my sense is that the tone is quite different in the Katamari game, no?