I’ve heard this described as “charming” and “original” but this may just be one of the trippiest, weirdest gaming experiences of my life. But no matter how odd it tries to be (and it tries really hard), it’s really quite a simple concept. If you’ve never played a Katamari game it goes something like this: you are the teeny-stylised princely son of the mighty, vain, mean and lazy King of All the Cosmos, whose inability to rule properly means that all the planets and stars have fallen out of the sky and been sucked into a black hole. So poor old you get stuck with the job of rolling around your sticky ball, picking up lots of… well… junk… err… stuff umm… crap.
And that’s it really. Katamari (and no, it’s not beautiful, even in 720p, it looks like the PS2 game of the same name) summed up in a paragraph. Can I go and play something saner now? No? Okay, well then, I’ll pad it out a bit by explaining that why, despite being completely nutso BK has a strangely addictive quality. The ability of rolling collect ‘em ups to hook the gamer extends as far back as the ‘80s with games like Marble Madness and Red LED, and the same maddening fascination holds here.
From a central hub where you can toddle around and select various options (high scores, the co-op mode, online vs. mode and several other things I can’t be bothered to mention) you can enter various levels in which you actually do the collecting. So off you go, trying to ignore the King’s annoying comments, rolling around the oversized levels (you’re tiny remember, so think: Micro Machines without the cars or boats) and pick up all kinds of junk lying around. From crayons to candy and even people; the bigger your Katamari gets the bigger the objects you can pick up. Every level has a time limit and as you complete them you unlock more and more (and more). There’s a co-op mode so you can share the lunacy, and you can play online in a vs. mode too.
The fact is that although this is an extremely Japanese game, complete with unfunny “jokes”, derisive comments on your fledgling efforts (do Japanese games always have to do this?) and dodgy translation, Western gamers of just about any age might enjoy BK’s simple but addictive gameplay, or I equally accept that they might just as easily be driven mental by its occasionally tight time limits and faintly mental, drug-induced graphic stylings. An intermittently unhelpful camera and some ridiculously and unnecessarily unique and quirky controls mean that sometimes you won’t be able to see where you’re going, or even be able to move in the direction you want because of sticky-out bits of scenery, and yet something will still most likely drag you back for ‘just one more go’ … Fortunately you can try before you buy as there’s a demo on the 360 marketplace. I strongly suggest you try it.
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