JustinFlood.com

My dreams come true as Beautiful Katamari rolls onto the iPhone

We’ll after the release of the app store,  I posted an article requesting an accelerometer-controlled iPhone port of the incredibly silly ball rolling game Katamari Damacy.   For those unfortunate enough to not have played the original,  let me give you a quick rundown of this incredibly bizarre game.

Katamari Damacy places you into the character of  “The Prince of All Cosmos”,  a tiny little green dude.  Your dad,  the Hunter S. Thompson-esque  “King of All Cosmos”, has gone on a bit of a bender, and managed to screw up the whole universe by destroying all the stars.  So being a lazy king, he sends you off to do his dirty work and put all the stars back together.

Now how would you go about putting a star together?    By going down to earth and rolling up all the junk you can find.   You are given a ball called a Katamari, that anything sticks to.  And you’re tasked with rolling around this ball all across earth,  picking up all sorts of items,  starting small with tacks and rubber bands,  and moving up to plants, animals, cars, islands, etc.   As your katamari gets bigger and bigger,  it can pick up bigger items.   It’s a simple concept, but beautifully executed.   There’s nothing like playing it, and seeing a cow that you really want to roll into your katamari,  so you task yourself with making it big enough to roll up said cow.

It all sounds absurd, and of course it is.   It has a sense of humor somewhere between odd japanese game shows and monty python.   The music is also similarly absurd and you’re likely to be whistling it to yourself for weeks after playing.

So when I read this morning that Katamari for the iPhone had been released.   I was a bit more excited about it than even I was expecting to be.   The price is a bit steep at $7.99  but certainly not out of the average person’s price range, and the frame rate is a little stuttery,  but all in all it’s a fantastic port, and stays very true to the Katamari look and feel.

If you want some absurd fun that will keep you occupied for hours on end, I can’t think of a better game to buy.

Click Here to Download Beautiful Katamari for the iPhone or iPod Touch

Tags: App Store, iPhone, iPod Touch, Katamari Damacy

Katamari Damacy – Just begging for an iPhone port

I was playing the original Katamari Damacy today on my aging ps2. I hadn’t touched the game in months, but I felt like just having a bit of mindless fun. While playing it, something struck me!

This game would be PERFECT for the iPhone!

For those who haven’t played it, Katamari Damacy is an extremely odd and occasionally hilarious game where you play the role of a tiny prince from space, tasked with rolling a large and extremely sticky ball that attaches itself to anything it rolls over.  Your father, the King of all Cosmos, who is kind of a strange Hunter S. Thompson type, eggs you into rolling larger and larger balls of junk to replace all of the stars in the sky, which he accidentally broke.

Yes, it’s as bizarre as it sounds, and it’s an absolute blast.  There is a real satisfaction to be had from rolling a larger and larger ball of stuff, first collecting small objects like pushpins, and tacks, and pencil erasers, then as the gravity of your ball gets bigger, collecting parking cones, people, whales, buildings, etc.

The accelerometer based controls of Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone would be a perfect fit for the game, and someone needs to get in touch with the developer and get them working on this as soon as humanly possible.  I for one would buy it on release day.

Here’s a video of the game in action!:

Don’t tell me that Katamari wouldn’t be anything other than a load of fun on the iPhone 3g and iPod Touch! ROYAL RAINBOW!

erm… If you play the game you understand.

Tags: Games, iPhone 3g, iPod Touch, Katamari Damacy