Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: 94

94: Katamari Damacy (PS2)
Developer(s): Namco/NOW Production
Year: 2004

Previously I said that Lego Star Wars was the easiest game on this list. If I give away titles like that, this game would easily obtain the honour of being WEIRDEST game on this list, likely with little effort (there will be, of course, some strong competition for this later on). In one of the strangest, most bizarrely controlled games ever, with a soundtrack so curious and great, the gameplay is the real star, and boy does it shine through (the “star” comment is a pun, by the way).

In the game you play as the overly dejected Prince of all Cosmos, son of the King of all Cosmos, a giant, hammer-headed egotistical overlord of all space, who gets drunk and wrecks up the stars in space, apparently by ramming into them at high speeds. Of course, he can’t own up to it, so he sends his son out to do his dirty work for him, belittling him all the way. This leads to some comical cut-scenes between levels that tell the story with a sarcastic touch of humour not found in ANY game made outside of Japan.

But the treat of this game is the gameplay; as the prince, your job is to roll up enough junk on Earth to repopulate the heavens and bring the lights back to the night sky. At first your goal is to generate small little balls of random stuff found in homes (thumb-tacks, pencils, batteries, etc.) until you get to later levels, in which case you will eventually get large enough to roll up the entire house those items are found in, the whole downtown market, and – eventually – the whole city and islands, clouds, and (if you are good enough) God himself. There are fewer joys than rolling your giant ball, built by cars and elephants and street lights, guiding it down a busy city street and hearing the people scream as they are unwillingly rolled up and – in the end – thrown into space and ignited by the King in a grand display of arson unparalleled in any other form of fiction. The controls that allow this to happen are all intuitive and never overly complex.

The graphics are muddy as hell, but you won’t care. The best part of this game isn’t how it looks, but the nice part is, the awful, blocky style really lends itself well to the concept of the game. While it would be devious (more so than it is) to roll over realistic looking people and animals, the game would insanely difficult to get on shelves. The cartoony look makes running innocent pedestrians over and destroying their homes that much more fun, and far less sinister.

All in all, this game – a game that started a franchise – had enough charm and innovation to get noticed, not just by myself, but by the world a large. With plenty of level diversity, secret items to obtain, and a soundtrack so zany and catchy its in its own league, the fantastic gameplay is cushioned nicely, making for an addictive experience unlike one you’ve had before. While possibly difficult to find these days, the original Katamari is the one to get, and get it you should.

Classic Moment:
The opening video. Link provided, nothing else needs to be said.

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Added September 29, 2016
Hope that video still works, otherwise I’ll have to replace it.
This game is amazing. One of my fondest memories was playing it at Drake, waiting for Aaron Jaco to arrive so we could go to one movie or another, and I was close to being done so he sat down to watch. The proceeded to watch for about another two hours, taking turns.
Rest assured: we missed the movie.
The sequel to this one is solid, too, but not quite as good.