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blahquabats's Katamari Damacy (PS2)
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| [January 19, 2007 03:38:48 AM]
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The next 45 minutes were spent trying and retrying one level, never quite successfully, although with improved results each time. This game fights a battle with its own camera; the center of the view is a ball which you are supposed to increase in size, but the bigger it is, the harder it is to see where you're going. The game tries to compensate in a few ways: at certain thresholds, the camera zooms out, effectively reducing the relative size of the ball in in the camera. It also provides a "jump" command, which allows the player to instantly take a more birds-eye view of the surrounding area to scope out targets and obstacles. However, I still found myself attempting to lean over to look around the ball, which of course is impossible. Another camera problem is simply that it cannot be controlled, since the analog sticks are both mapped to movement. This means that in more enclosed areas one can get stuck and not be able to even see the ball anymore, having to resort to trial-and-error movements until one is freed. However, this kind of problem only comes up very rarely, and for the most part, the game does an incredible job of actually making replaying a level reasonably fun and worth it. there are a few frustrating moments when fast-moving projectiles which you are unable to amalgamate in your ball knock some of your hard-earned amalgamations off, but I think it's just enough frustration to make it a game which provides a reasonable level of challenge even for a fairly avid video-game player, without resorting to super-powered boss attacks or anything of the like.
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| [January 19, 2007 03:30:53 AM]
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I had played Katamari before, but never for long, and it was a long time ago. I knew the concepts and oddities behind it, but it felt like playing a new game. It is the sort of game where story and logic are thrown to the wayside in favor of pure gameplay and amusing content. I can imagine the designers must have had great fun in creating it, and the extensive original soundtrack is genuinely good while fitting in with the offbeat nature of the game.
I was bothered at the beginning by the controls, which make use of both analog sticks on the PS2 controller, in tandem. Turning in particular seems like something which could have been more elegant. But the game is pleasantly merciful in many respects, and the sound effects and visual qualities of the items you collect add more than a few chuckle moments to each game. There is an impressive array of items, which definitely adds to the experience by not recycling item sets extensively. The levels so far are decently varied, with different theme areas per level, but can sometimes be hard to navigate between until having familiarized oneself with the level by playing several times.
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blahquabats's Katamari Damacy (PS2)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 18 January, 2007
GameLog closed on: Wednesday 31 January, 2007 |
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