Larry Hastings
09-26-2004, 06:54 AM
If you hung out on the Dexterity message boards, you might remember the thread I started called "What can we learn from Fishy?" (http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-2194.html). To sum up: in the Flash game Fishy! (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/fishy.html), you start as a teeny tiny fish. Your goal is to become the biggest fish in the ocean. To accomplish this, you must eat fish that are smaller than you. Whenever you do so, you get slightly bigger. But don't touch any fish that are bigger than you; if you do, you die!
I was mesmerized by Fishy! for a day or two, and tried to think if I could apply this "avoid larger things, eat smaller things and get larger" gameplay to make a different game. I didn't come up with anything.
But someone else has, and the result is the delectable "Katamari Damacy" for the PS2! I've seen nothing but glowing reviews for this game, one going so far as to call it "happiness in a box", and I agree with all of them.
In Katamari Damacy, you start with a small ball called a "katamari". You roll it around on the Earth, and when it rolls into something that is smaller than it, the object sticks. Objects can stick to other objects, so you keep just adding layers to the outside. You can roll it up onto/over big things, if the step isn't that much taller than you, otherwise you just bounce off. If you smash violently against a big thing, or a moving big thing runs into you, you can lose a couple of items.
And, oh, the items! There are hundreds of different things you can pick up. In the earliest level, you start out picking up thumbtacks and work your way up to erasers. By about five levels in, you start picking up people. And by the end of the last level, not only can you pick up skyscrapers, Godzilla, giant squid, and airplanes, but you actually pull clouds out of the sky and islands out of the sea! I've pulled up the island I started on. Oh, the sense of scale!
As if that weren't enough, the game has this insane nonsensical storyline. The King Of All The Cosmos went on a bender last night, and destroyed all the stars in the sky. You, as his Prince, must rebuild the stars by starting with a katamari and accreting enough mass to make good replacements. The game also has a really fun soundtrack, and a loopy opening movie; they left the soundtrack intact from the Japanese version, and it's all just lovely.
As if all that weren't enough, this game was released as a budget title in the states! It's only $20 list, and I've heard Fry's had it on sale for $15! Good God, what are you waiting for, rush out and get this thing!
I was mesmerized by Fishy! for a day or two, and tried to think if I could apply this "avoid larger things, eat smaller things and get larger" gameplay to make a different game. I didn't come up with anything.
But someone else has, and the result is the delectable "Katamari Damacy" for the PS2! I've seen nothing but glowing reviews for this game, one going so far as to call it "happiness in a box", and I agree with all of them.
In Katamari Damacy, you start with a small ball called a "katamari". You roll it around on the Earth, and when it rolls into something that is smaller than it, the object sticks. Objects can stick to other objects, so you keep just adding layers to the outside. You can roll it up onto/over big things, if the step isn't that much taller than you, otherwise you just bounce off. If you smash violently against a big thing, or a moving big thing runs into you, you can lose a couple of items.
And, oh, the items! There are hundreds of different things you can pick up. In the earliest level, you start out picking up thumbtacks and work your way up to erasers. By about five levels in, you start picking up people. And by the end of the last level, not only can you pick up skyscrapers, Godzilla, giant squid, and airplanes, but you actually pull clouds out of the sky and islands out of the sea! I've pulled up the island I started on. Oh, the sense of scale!
As if that weren't enough, the game has this insane nonsensical storyline. The King Of All The Cosmos went on a bender last night, and destroyed all the stars in the sky. You, as his Prince, must rebuild the stars by starting with a katamari and accreting enough mass to make good replacements. The game also has a really fun soundtrack, and a loopy opening movie; they left the soundtrack intact from the Japanese version, and it's all just lovely.
As if all that weren't enough, this game was released as a budget title in the states! It's only $20 list, and I've heard Fry's had it on sale for $15! Good God, what are you waiting for, rush out and get this thing!