---

In 2012, Katamari Damacy was among the first video games to receive a permanent installation at the famous Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The inclusion, to a layman, may be confusing. Sure, MoMA is no stranger to a couple of left-field inclusions, but a video game where you roll a sticky ball around and try to collect stuff? This is what we're placing up against some of the most celebrated Impressionist and Modernist masterpieces? Dali's The Persistence of Memory, Magritte's The Lovers...Katamari Damacy, developed by Namco and released for the PlayStation 2. Seems a bit weird, right?

Well, with Katamari Damacy, weird is the operative word. And if you know anything about this game, you know that's not an admonishment. Katamari Damacy revels in its strangeness; it wears its surrealism proudly on its sleeve. This is the type of game you'd expect to find was some hidden gem Japanese exclusive, never officially translated to English...and, in fact, that was nearly its fate. Perhaps that's why so many people find it such a joy. It is unapologetically itself, and that earnestness is seeping out of every corner.

It helps that the game is fundamentally brilliant while being incredibly simple. Like previously mentioned, you roll around and collect stuff to make your ball bigger, trying to reach a certain size by a certain time limit. For 90% of the game, that's all you're doing. Its controls are alienating for about 30 seconds, thereafter becoming second nature.

And from then on, you're just rolling along, picking up little bits and bobs, watching your blob grow larger, and observing how the world changes around you as you get bigger. And doing so reveals some pretty tremendous level design; each one is packed with little vignettes, set pieces, and character details around every corner. This is what makes the concept so ingenious.

You start out with some pretty modest goals, but it doesn't take long to see how much your environment can change within just one level. Massive obstacles can become ingredients in a matter of minutes, and you'll likely remember exactly what level you collected your first cat, your first human, your first tree, your first building. The absolutely best feeling Katamari Damacy can give you is the freedom of knowing that everything is up for grabs here.

And when they say everything, they mean it. You'll probably play some early levels, content in the (false) understanding that "Okay, well, I'll probably get big enough to absorb x in one level, but y is surely way too big." And to your delight, the game proves you wrong at every turn. There's nothing more joyful than the feeling of seeing a giant octopus that dwarfs the size of your star in one level, then vacuuming it up like it's a crumb on your carpet in the next.

At each and every opportunity—from loading screens, to inter-level cutscenes, to the hub world, to EVERYTHING— Katamari Damacy demonstrates its incredible personality and vibrance. It practically forces you to enjoy it. The whole reason you collect these blobs in the first place is because you are rebuilding the galaxy after the King of the Cosmos destroyed them all in a drunken stupor. How can you not like this?

It's delightful in every respect. It's one of the most brilliant puzzle games ever conceived. It's funny! Gosh, is it funny. And waiting for this game's soundtrack to produce a mediocre song would be akin to awaiting the heat death of the universe. Heck, Lonely Rolling Star could have been the only song included, and it would already be one of gaming's finest OSTs. The rest is just showing off.

Perhaps, in spite of the previous praises, the core concept is still failing to sink it. "You just roll a ball? To what degree does this game have the right to be included among the very best of all time?" Well, consider this. How would you describe Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to someone who hadn't seen it before? Sure, maybe a skilled orator with a background in the arts could describe its composition, its brushstrokes, its harsh, angular lines, its impact on art history...but any true understanding could only come after seeing it for yourself.

In 2012, Katamari Damacy was among the first video games to receive a permanent installation at the famous Museum of Modern Art in New York City. For a museum that revels in modern, groundbreaking ideas, the idea that art can mean anything to anyone, it's hard to think of a more apt inclusion. It has now found its place, side-by-side with some of modern art's most treasured masterpieces...including, of course, van Gogh's opus, The Starry Night.

How wonderful, and how appropriate. So it shall remain for time immemorial—Katamari Damacy will serve as a beacon of creativity and inspiration, brightening the lives of all those who experience it, encouraging them to pass that light on to others. What a beautiful sight. The night sky has never shined so brightly. It seems that all, at last, is right with the cosmos.

---

Click Here To Go Back!