Ok, I’m pretty tired out and sleepy here so I will just do a quick update for today. Having had only 4-5 hours of sleep within 48 hours is totally bad. I know but I can’t help it, been totally addicted to my PS2 games and animes recently. And it all began like this. *chuckles*

My games parcel from Hong Kong arrived here on Monday earlier on, which only took 2 days from the supplier to ship and reach my place. *elated*

And upon opening the parcel, yes it’s my ordered list of games. I made an online order via Play-Asia earlier on, and been a first-time customer of the site I was at first rather skeptical about its shipping and reliability, but in the end I still couldn’t resist it and finally took the plunge, reason been they offer rather good prices for the japanese import games, much cheaper than over at NCSX. And since it’s rather hard to get japanese import games here (I don’t like to collect asian version of JP games by the way) and even if the shops here do, they often overcharge you with a premium amount which I don’t like. So rather than getting myself chopped like a carrot-head, I decided to take the risk and order online via Play-Asia. (no risk no gain right?)

The main actual reason for this online order is actually because of this particular game, called Katamari Damacy. Katamari Damacy can be literally translated as “Clump of Soul”. It’s a wonderfully fun and weird game, how weird you might ask? Just like what the Japanese title describes, though that doesn’t explain a lot unless you play the game yourself. Therefore I will cover some of the background summary about this game before I continue with my ‘mini-review’.

The King of the Great Cosmo had a little bit too much to drink one night, and in his stupor lashed out at the cosmos, destroying all the stars in one swoop. Waking up with a terrible hangover, he realises what he has done and asks his son, the Prince, to clean up the mess. How? By collecting a load of junk from Earth, rolling it into clumps, and sending it up into the Cosmos to make stars, of course! Enter the Prince, a tiny green guy, standing only 1cm tall, with a hammerhead to maintain balance. So it’s up to you, his son and heir, to build new stars by rolling the katamari around little 3D environments on earth gathering up the local flora and fauna.

So on to my mini-review of the game. I was addicted to this game for the past two nights, so it tells you pretty much. This game doesn’t impress you with edge-cutting next-generation graphics, or a deep compelling story-plot with the likes of the Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy series. Instead it captivates and consumes you with its simple yet addictive gameplay, you simply just roll. Controlling your katamari (the clump of ball) around is as simple as pushing the two analog sticks on the PS2 controller, the control scheme is really intuitive with hardly any learning curve. (Kids would easily be able to pick up and start playing it immediately)

Gameplay-wise, when the katamari touches objects smaller than its size it picks them up. A little katamari can only pick up small things like pins and needles, dice, pieces of candy and insects. As you continue to pick up more objects the katamari grows and the scale of the world changes. A larger katamari can pick up bigger objects that a smaller katamari won’t be able to like TVs, chairs, cats, cows and even humans. So the more you snag the larger the katamari gets, and the larger the katamari gets, the larger items you can snag. Over the course of a given level, if you have enough time, you can get your katamari to the point where there’s literally nothing it can’t pick up. In a way, this is like playing a monster movie from the monster’s perspective. This is like totally sick you know, like rolling over a bunch of people or a whole island, like a mad psychotic. It’s real fun though, you really have to try it to believe it. Not since the long-gone days of my youth can I remember a game attracting such interest and admiration from worldwide gamers (every review site I’ve read raves about this game) without relying on some new technology wizardry or popular franchise to do so. If you want me to vote, I would vote this to be the game of the year. So please do yourself a favour, pick this up if you have a PS2 and haven’t, cos this is absolute pure gaming goodness in one great innovative concept. Kudos to Namco for coming up with something like this. *claps*

Note, those of you who have basically zero literacy of japanese, do not fear. The japanese import version doesn’t require a deep understanding to navigate within the game, except that probably you will lose out on the story and the cutscenes. Those of you who do not wish to purchase the japanese version, you also have the alternative of getting the US release, it’s already been released here locally since late Sept. Ok I shall end this entry while presenting you with some screenies of this great game, feel free to check them out. I’m off to bed now, oyasumi minna! (^o^)