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Thursday 21 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
This play session I noticed that although the game comes with a multi-player mode, it is actually more fun to just pass off the controller in single-player. I don't think this is a game that lends itself well to competitive gamepley; when I see a big object on my friend's screen, I want to root for him to collect the object, not try to impede his progress. The game is just too fun and silly to take any kind of competition seriously.
The single-player campaign has a really nice flow because the objects you roll up just keep getting bigger and bigger as the levels progress. I started out rolling up thumbtacks and legos, and now I'm rolling up cars and houses. It really makes me want to progress in the game because I am really curious what the biggest objects in the game are going to be. I think this is a great example of a game that may not have had the biggest budget, and certainly doesn't have the best graphics, but the designers still find ways to make the player feel constantly impressed because of the way the challenges are structured.
DESIGN
The core gameplay mechanic in Katamari is very innovative; I can't think of another game where the core mechanic is rolling up objects. I think the mechanic succeeds because there are always constant small goals the player is trying to achieve, like getting big enough to roll up an interesting object or the barrier to a new area. The core mechanic provides a very natural way of segmenting the levels based on your progression. In first-person shooters the player occasionally finds doors that will not open until they have killed every enemy in the room. This is an unnatural way to segment the level because it doesn't seem to make sense. But Katamary's segmentation based on rolling up the barriers to entering new areas seems very natural.
Another thing Katamary does well is set and stick to a consistent tone. Although the game always has a surreal feel to it, it also has a light and silly feel that keeps the game fun. Every level sticks very faithfully to this tone. I think the designers realized that the core mechanic of the game is somewhat silly and nonsensical, and so decided to make the story, characters and levels the same way to keep consistency.
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