> -----Original Message----- > From: Dana [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:31 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Japanese game > > It's that cool? Can you tell me a little about it?
It's brilliant. I did a full review on list a while back (but I'm too lazy to dig it up). In essence you play very tiny "Prince of All Cosmos" whose father, the megalomaniacal "King of All Cosmos", has recently gone a bender and knocked all the stars from the sky. To replace them you must product clumps of stuff either of a certain size, a certain consistency (containing lots of something) or with one special ingredient (for example the biggest bear you can find, but only ONE bear). To do this the King places you in either the "House", "The Town" or "The World". You're given a ball, a Katamari, (translated literally as "clump") which you can roll around. The areas are littered with... well... stuff. Anything really. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of different objects. You roll the ball around and things stick to it. The bigger the ball gets, the larger the thing that will stick to it. In "The House" you might start on the table were you're rolling up thimbles, erasers and sugar cubes. In a little bit you can grab batteries, pencils and playing cards. Later you'll be grabbing flowers and grapefruits and mice and still later flower pots, radios and shoes. Finally you'll eventually graduate to televisions, tables, car tires and children. "The Town" might start you off under a car. After a while you'll be able to grab that car itself in your clump on your way to grabbing building, elephants and marching bands. The world can being with a one meter Katamari which can eventually reach up to 900 meters (where you're grabbed clouds out of the sky, whales from the ocean and lifted islands up from the sea floor). It's important to understand that the Katamari doesn't absorb or change anything - it simply sticks to things. Roll you clump over the end of a pencil and it will roll lopsided due to the pencil (or bicycle or ocean liner) sticking out of it. The graphics are very simplistic, but suit the game perfectly. There is no graphicness to the "violence" (although you do pick up people and animals they are not displayed as being hurt in any way). The music is infectious Japanese pop and the levels are wonderfully absurd and surrealistic. There are fields of sunflowers, circus trains, salsa bands riding elephants and such. There are swirling rows of legos and vending machines and there's little feeling better than clumping up an entire baseball team (and their fans). The sense of scale is perfect (and, I think, pretty educational). While the placement of objects is whimsical the size of them (well... most of them, there are giant mushrooms and squids and even a "storm God" to clump up) is not. My son was amazed that he could start out picking up basketballs and teapots then later was picking up the basketball court and the caf�. Later you can go into the "gallery" area where you can see the items you've collected sorted by size or type. Some items are common and some are rare (many of the people, for example, are properly named. You can grab "Mr. Yamamoto" for example). Once you finish a level your father examines your clump and, if it's suitable, he'll turn it into a star or comet (or, later the moon). If it's not big enough he'll ridicule it and create star dust. Throughout the levels you'll find interesting (but ultimately useless) little presents to cling to. These change the Prince's looks (for example sunglasses or a muscle shirt or a guitar). You can also find hidden "cousins" which gather at the space mushroom from where you can launch multi-player games. I can't say enough about the game. It's just the most original, addictive, purely fun game I've had the pleasure to see in years and years. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:139735 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
