KATAMARI DAMACY: If God were to make a video game, this would be it
The premise is so simple but so cute at the same time. The Creator of the universe, in some unknown event, knocked all the stars out of the sky. It’s up to you, little prince (though I would like to believe that the creators of Katamari Damacy knowingly gave kudos to the writer of “Le Petit Prince” by making his habitation a “walkable-in-a-minutes” ball resembling a planet) to fill man’s night sky with beauty once again.
Now why would the Creator have you, little prince, do what He could easily do in one perfect syllable?
And that’s the first lesson. The Creator asked you because you are His and He wants you to feel responsibility for something important (making the night sky beautiful again), and also because He wants you to share in the beauty of creation.
Now Katamari Damacy is beautiful at its essential core, filling the night sky with stars again, but it is so humorous and is the epitome of “don’t take yourself TOO seriously” that its humorous elements have to be magnified.
The objects all make either attention grabbing or humorous noises upon roll-up, and the colors the game uses are both easy on the eyes and fun. As you go through the world that the creators of Katamari Damacy have envisioned for us, you feel a part of it, but you always know that it’s not the real world due to its utter simplicity (all characters maintain a blockiness and sway from side to side like those old weeble wobble toys that gave us the memorable saying “it weebles and it wobbles but it don’t fall down”
.
It is the instant gratification that Katamari Damacy gives that makes it such a joy to play.
And not just that, but it is so simple to get into that anyone can pick it up and play in no more than 5 minutes. After just 5 minutes you too will be rolling up objects to fill the night sky with beauty, and you too will share in the responsibility of our cute little prince.
There is so much more that could be said about Katamari Damacy but I think I’ll leave it at this. If God were to make a video game, it would be Katamari Damacy. It presents important life lessons in a package that is cute, sweet, and endearing all at the same time. It is like the perfect alphabet soup, leaving you feeling warm inside and letting you see how the different elements add up. And there’s never the same word twice.
Despite its only shortcoming, that it is a rather short game, it’s still only $20 brand new, and you can’t deny the fact that it doesn’t get more wholesome than this.
And if you pay attention, who knows… You might actually learn something.
As a final thought I wonder what the creators would say were I to pose the question “Are you religious?” I imagine they would, in Katamari Damacy fashion, playfully walk around the question and put me on the spot, giving me an unequivocal and poignant “YES” wrapped up in a question: “Did the Creator of the Universe NEED his little prince to fill the night sky, or did he just want the little prince to learn about responsibility and pride while having a really great time doing it?”
The premise is so simple but so cute at the same time. The Creator of the universe, in some unknown event, knocked all the stars out of the sky. It’s up to you, little prince (though I would like to believe that the creators of Katamari Damacy knowingly gave kudos to the writer of “Le Petit Prince” by making his habitation a “walkable-in-a-minutes” ball resembling a planet) to fill man’s night sky with beauty once again.
Now why would the Creator have you, little prince, do what He could easily do in one perfect syllable?
And that’s the first lesson. The Creator asked you because you are His and He wants you to feel responsibility for something important (making the night sky beautiful again), and also because He wants you to share in the beauty of creation.
Now Katamari Damacy is beautiful at its essential core, filling the night sky with stars again, but it is so humorous and is the epitome of “don’t take yourself TOO seriously” that its humorous elements have to be magnified.
The objects all make either attention grabbing or humorous noises upon roll-up, and the colors the game uses are both easy on the eyes and fun. As you go through the world that the creators of Katamari Damacy have envisioned for us, you feel a part of it, but you always know that it’s not the real world due to its utter simplicity (all characters maintain a blockiness and sway from side to side like those old weeble wobble toys that gave us the memorable saying “it weebles and it wobbles but it don’t fall down”
.It is the instant gratification that Katamari Damacy gives that makes it such a joy to play.
And not just that, but it is so simple to get into that anyone can pick it up and play in no more than 5 minutes. After just 5 minutes you too will be rolling up objects to fill the night sky with beauty, and you too will share in the responsibility of our cute little prince.
There is so much more that could be said about Katamari Damacy but I think I’ll leave it at this. If God were to make a video game, it would be Katamari Damacy. It presents important life lessons in a package that is cute, sweet, and endearing all at the same time. It is like the perfect alphabet soup, leaving you feeling warm inside and letting you see how the different elements add up. And there’s never the same word twice.
Despite its only shortcoming, that it is a rather short game, it’s still only $20 brand new, and you can’t deny the fact that it doesn’t get more wholesome than this.
And if you pay attention, who knows… You might actually learn something.
As a final thought I wonder what the creators would say were I to pose the question “Are you religious?” I imagine they would, in Katamari Damacy fashion, playfully walk around the question and put me on the spot, giving me an unequivocal and poignant “YES” wrapped up in a question: “Did the Creator of the Universe NEED his little prince to fill the night sky, or did he just want the little prince to learn about responsibility and pride while having a really great time doing it?”
