This crazily fun game for the Playstation 2, released in 2005, has to be one of the most relaxing games I’ve ever played. But don’t let it fool you–the humor and fun in the game is only the surface of a game that actually requires more thought and strategy.

Basic Gameplay

You play as Prince Katamari Damacy, the son of the King of the Cosmos, and in this game (a sequel to earlier Katamari games), the King has gotten a little tipsy (okay, a LOT tipsy) and has accidentally destroyed all the planets in the universe except for Earth. In a panic, the King sends his son Katamari to Earth to collect lots of junk to make new planets out of. (To think of all the universes the King could make with the junk in my room…!)

The Prince is given a rather strange-looking, lumpy ball (also called a “katamari”), which “picks up” anything lighter than itself, and you are asked to roll the ball around and pick up items, making the katamari larger and larger. This process is called “rolling up” stuff. You use the two control sticks on the Playstation controller to roll the katamari around–the left stick controls the Prince’s left hand, and the right stick controls the right hand. (There’s a wonderful tutorial level which shows you more of the fine control skills–it’s a fun little mini-game in itself!)

Once you’ve gotten into the game, you explore several different areas of a park-like setting, where many people are hanging out waiting for the Prince to help them with a task. There’s a harried mother who wants her son’s room cleaned up, a schoolteacher who needs to get all her students home safely, a florist who wants a beautiful, large bouquet of flowers gathered, a camper who wants a big bundle of firewood for his campfire, and even a bird and elephant who want to see just how big a katamari can get. Each person you talk to gives you a different level to play on, and each person’s level requires a little bit different strategy and mindset to conquer.

As you play each level, new challenges appear. Some of the people you talked to before offer you new levels or new types of challenges later in the game. Example: the young sumo wrestler in training, who asks you to help him get big enough to fight first a relatively small opponent, then a medium-sized opponent, then a large opponent. Keep talking to everyone, even the people whose levels you’ve already done–you might find yourself breaking your old record, or completing an entirely new challenge!

What I Love about the Game

We Love Katamari is a fun, approachable game, suitable for children but challenging for all ages, with the different goals you must reach to complete different levels. It’s relaxing and hilarious (if you get the katamari big enough on the bird-and-elephant level especially…you start rolling up islands and giant buildings!). Though one would think the process of rolling up all these different items would get boring after a while, it never does–I’ve been playing it since 2007 and still love starting the game over and trying it all again.

The game is very easy in its controls, which frees up a lot of brainpower for thinking through the levels. In the levels where time is of the essence, for instance, you have to focus on getting just the essentials, not trying to roll up everything in sight. Other levels, like the campfire level where you have to make sure you’re rolling up something every few seconds so the campfire doesn’t go out, are very challenging. (Don’t let your campfire bundle fall into the water…just saying, it’s the only way to utterly fail at We Love Katamari.) There are still some levels I haven’t conquered completely–I may have completed them, but I want to complete them better. We Love Katamari is ultimately a game about bettering yourself, discovering novel ways to complete a task, and of course, laughing at all the junk you’re collecting along the way.

To Find Out More

We Love Katamari on Wikipedia
GameSpot.com’s We Love Katamari section