I Love Katamari

We rolled the King and Queen, We did.

The thrill of getting the katamari big enough to roll people up still has not worn off. The squealing and hollering is music to my ears. This time round, the soundtrack didn't really roll me off my feet, with my favourites being the upbeat Everlasting Love and the offpitch rendition of the theme song, Katamari on the Rocks. If madness has a song, that would be it.

I fully support the cause of saving the pandas and have rolled up enough stuff in the streets to make sure they'll be around to populate Katamari 3.. if it ever comes to that. Highly unlikely though, as creator Keita Takahashi was already reluctant enough to see a sequel but grudgingly decided to go for it so that the result wouldn't be a total botched-up job. He's all about originality and creativity but if the fans have clamoured for it, who is he to stop the King of all Cosmos from making a triumphant return ?

All I want is more places to roll in, more variety of stuff to roll up and more dramatic sound effects when the big ball looms nearer and nearer. More of an expansion pack than anything else. The fiery katamari was a novelty, the sumo wrestler eating everything in his path a total workout, and the new rules invented by Baboo! a change but nothing compares to just gunning for the biggest katamari before the clock runs down. The rumble of the controller as the first pieces of land are picked up, absolute thrill !

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na katamari damacy...

Demon vs King of the Cosmos

Shin Megami Tensei : Nocturne, henceforth known as SMT:N intrigued me for about 2 hours. After that, I went back to Katamari Damacy. Rolling around collecting junk is severely underrated fun. Dark Cloud 2 had me reeled in for 100 hours but all that real-time action made me feel like there's a thousand little Max's in my head, jabbing with one of his cubic-looking hammers. Radiata Stories captivated me with the storybook pretty pictures, but I really am short of memory card space right now. Can't bear to erase any of the old ones. Yet to finish Suikoden 4 too, after stashing about 80 characters into my ship. Finishing a game has never been my goal when I put a new disc in. Endings make me sad. What the hell have I actually finished playing then ? Most of the stuff I play on the PC is. On the PS2, I'd say Kingdom Hearts, FFX, Under The Skin, Suikoden 3, Katamari Damacy. Geez. Most other stuff, I'd bet it hovers around the 70% completed range. I imagine that if I leave it at that, the world I left still goes on. But the ones I have completed, they feel completed, done .. and dead. I bet I'd make the lousiest game reviewer around.