I’ve been thinking for some time now that writing this feature, my own take on THE Retro Gaming Essentials, is probably going to end up being a bigger spend of my time than I originally anticipated, more than likely topping out around 100 entries, give or take.
I’ve already got a list that I maintain that has more than double that amount of games under consideration, though that number – that of multiple hundreds – of reviews looks, quite frankly, daunting and unfun. The 100 number seems to be a good, sensible target.
And yet … it’s still ambitious. Each entry takes several hours to put together. So, that’s basically 100 relatively long think-pieces on games that, for the most part, have also already been written about ad nauseum.
One wonders if this might all be a tremendous waste of time.
But then again, gamers are getting younger all the time, and even genuine Grade-A bangers might need that little extra push from people like me to have the younger set move some retro games off their backlog and actually get to playing the darn things.
Regardless, there are certainly gems that will slide into a countdown of this sort that haven’t been discussed enough already, and giving those games more of an audience seems a worthwhile endeavor.
Video game preservation has become more and more of a topic of discussion, and with good reason.
Unlike other media, like film, the method of delivery with games is constantly becoming outdated. Yes, in movies you have film -> cassette -> DVD -> digital … and yet, those movies can be preserved via standard methodology of digitization and basically not be lost to time at that point. At least, it’s not a feature of the experience. It takes actual neglect/oversight for a movie to vanish from existence (at least at the studio level).
Conversely, when a game was released as an exclusive for an unpopular system or for a PC so underpowered you can’t even properly emulate it anymore, well that presents a problem. The ability to even play the thing will be called into question. Games will be lost and forgotten about. Things that were genuinely beautiful … will be gone. Possibly forever.
The oddball, less popular games therefore require extra advocacy.
Criminally underrated gems like Chrono Cross and Air Zonk deserve their flowers, and so to include them here, and to give them a little extra attention, is to my way of thinking, a good thing. Perhaps even an important thing.
Yes, for preservation and historical documentation purposes. But also because so much of the web seems dedicated to hate nowadays that spreading some love feels like a positive thing on its own merits.
Truly, everyone deserves love.
Even the weirdos.
Especially the weirdos.
Katamari Damacy is one of those weirdos.
Katamari Damacy at a glance:
Genre: Puzzle Action
Released: 2004
Platform: PlayStation 2
No. 13 in USgamer’s “15 Best Games since 2000”
Developed by Namco and released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004, Katamari Damacy wasn’t, to be fair, entirely an unknown at the time (or even today).
Strong word of mouth and critical gushing pushed the game to selling out in the United States, and people’s affection for it has only grown over time, with multiple sequels and even a re-release/remaster coming along in its aftermath.
And yet, it’s been more of a cult success than a mainline one … the above-mentioned sellout only occurring thanks to stores pre-ordering small, inadequate stock of the game due to justifiable concerns over the game’s potential popularity.
In other words, it was a risky game to produce, and a risky game to buy into.
What made that the case is its unflinching creativity and celebration of the bizarre.
The basic concept is strange enough as a starting point. You take on the role of this little alien guy stranded on Earth. Through some sort of mishap involving a monarch whose entire existence seems dedicated towards mocking you and bouncing you around from task to task like a marionette, the stars (yes, the stars) have gone missing. You’re charged by your king with remaking the stars (or at least the major ones correlating to constellations in our sky).
If this all sounds ridiculous so far, congrats, because it should. You’re on the right track.
Anyhow, the objective is to recreate the stars. How are you supposed to do that? By rolling a spherical sticky magnet around the different levels you play on Earth, of course.
Let’s get weird.
This magnet will attach itself to any object you roll it over, with the caveat being that it needs greater mass and momentum to attract bigger objects.
So, you have to start with smaller objects like paper clips and thumbtacks, graduate to medium-sized things like potted plants and vegetables, and continually build your rolling ball of misshapen doom into something that can eventually engulf skyscrapers and battleships.
It’s the snowball effect, wherein a snowball rolling downhill gets bigger and bigger and bigger, except here, instead of snow, it’s a collection of mismatched items that are wildly diverse – oftentimes mundane but also oftentimes not so mundane.
You haven’t lived until you’ve rolled over a screaming kid on a tricycle and made him a part of your death ball. Or perhaps recreated the by-now cliched description of a tough athlete with a literal rolling ball of knives. Or, you know, sucked up an entire herd of cats. Or a power plant.
The challenge inherent in this madness is that there is a time limit, and that in each environment similarly sized objects are spread around the map, so you have to develop a proficiency for rolling over certain things and not others while moving about the entire map in a timely and nimble manner.
It’s all presented with a wink and a smile, in an absurdly bright clip-art style, with a hummable samba-influenced soundtrack, coalescing into a package that is definitively weird, humorous, and hopeful.
Yes, the king will trash talk you as you come up short of his arbitrary goals, but he’ll do so in a way that is undeniably hilarious.
Yes, the world presented is full of mundane objects, but those objects interact with one another (and you) in increasingly bizarre and delightful ways.
Yes, you’re at times taking out your aggression on the world around you, but the world keeps trucking along anyway.
Katamari Damacy, literally translated as “clump spirit,” turns 20 this year and got its start as the passion project of Keita Takahashi, who was originally an artist at Namco. At its heart, the game is dedicated to this core concept, of rolling unique, smaller things into a bigger whole … and I think there is something beautifully symbolic about that.
It’s inclusive.
Through its dedication to showing good humor and including a diversity of people, animals, and objects to consume, I think it shows us that we are interconnected, and that there is a place for all of us in this bizarre, strange world we live in.
Point of fact: You’re not going to advance past a stage unless you figure out a way to make a hugely diverse set of things and creatures a part of your strategy. The gamer is required to be inclusive. And it is this inclusivity that continues to resonate with me.
Not unlike other classics like “ToeJam and Earl” in its dedication to a non-violent sort of sensibility, as well as a love for a goofy strangeness, Katamari Damacy exceeds that state of enjoyment and becomes something altogether greater by becoming a love letter to the very things it pokes fun at.
Yes, it is supremely satisfying to roll over the annoying car that keeps honking at passers-by on its own merits.
“Ha, ha, TAKE THAT!”
But there’s an enlightenment here too. An affection. You’re not detonating the annoying car into atoms. You’re folding them into a bigger goal. They might not be coming willingly at first (or at all), but you’ve got them contributing to the task at hand.
They’re helping.
Gosh darnit, that stupid, annoying, honking car is part of the whole. And they’re helping.
Finding that kind of beauty and purpose in the ugliness is just chef’s kiss storytelling. And in the current world of divisiveness and political polarity and stupid general bickering … that just might be the best feeling of all.
So what makes it worth playing today?
The PlayStation 2 could be argued to be the pinnacle of gaming, as its popularity – the highest selling console EVER – helped spawn an absurd wealth of companies to develop for the system. That abundance of developers led to an insane reservoir of high-quality games, many of which can be argued as being the most emblematic or important to the experience of playing on the PS2 itself (or to playing games in general).
Indeed, the PS2 games which have scored at least a 90/100 on the aggregation site Metacritic number over 50. And glancing at most of the “best of” lists around the Internet, you’ll find very little consensus between them, save for a few requisite inclusions near the top.
It is within that context that one begins to understand how a beautiful, creative game like Katamari Damacy could get lost in the shuffle a bit.
At the time of its release in 2004, I recall seeing it, learning about it, and being intrigued by the concept … but nevertheless NOT taking the time to sit down with it and experience it for myself.
There were a lot of other things to play, afterall.
But as I think back on it, my boredom with the medium – which manifested within the next year or so of Katamari’s release and resulted in my taking a near decade-long break from playing much of anything (beyond a few mobile and retro games) – almost certainly could have been alleviated to some degree (or at least delayed) by Katamari Damacy.
It was a joy to finally experience the game when I did play – an instant classic that immediately surged to the top of my favorites list. And it did that for the reasons previously highlighted:
- It’s different.
- It’s funny.
- It says something delightful about humanity.
It is the sort of mirthful game that will make you fall back in love with gaming. And against all odds, it has become the game I recommend above all others among PS2 games, getting listed in my countdown above any other PS2 game (including, as we’ve established, several genuine bangers).
Are you tired of playing the same thing?
Are you worn out on games in general?
Whether you’ve grown tired of the ultra-violence or the general sameness of it all, or even if you haven’t yet reached your breaking point BUT do want something different, I truly think this is the game for you.
It’s a genuine weirdo.
And it deserves as much love as our world can give to it.
It’s certainly already given us that in return.
Dave’s Score: 10/10
Check out the whole Retro Gaming Essentials list here!
How to play
- Original hardware (PlayStation 2)
- Katamari Damacy ReRoll (remaster) — Nintendo Switch, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Luna, Stadia