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Katamari Damacy 2 Due In July
A sequel to the ball rolling simulator Katamari Damacy is due out in July of this year, according to a Gamespot news blurb. From the article: "In Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy, gamers once again assume the role of the diminutive hero known as the Prince of All Cosmos. And, once again, the prince must save the universe by rolling around a giant snowballing mass of sticky debris (katamari) to pick up various objects." Update: 04/08 06:02 GMT by Z : If it's okay with everyone, I'm just going to retcon this one and pretend that I know how to read.
*skritcha-skritcha skratchitta-rachitta skOOOWP-a skritch skratch skratchitta-skritchitty-skritchitta skewww scratch skritchitta-sratcha-ratch sritch*
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi will be released in Japan on November 27th for 8,800 yen ($84.45 US).
Well, quite a bit of effort went into ironing out the mechanics of the new card-based rolling system. I mean, is 6 cards in a hand enough? What level of deck customization should be allowed? What about resources? I think the ~$50 price is justified.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
And by June, they actually mean June 38th, in that The Powers That Be have declared an extension of June into the domains previously granted to July.
Yeah--the worst part is that giant robotic arm that comes out of nowhere, grabs you by the waist, carries you to the nearest game retailer, and forces you to buy it.
The injustice of it all, I tell you! If only there were some way of not buying these horribly overpriced games!
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
You should really just go out and rent/buy a copy. There's just no good way to describe the game using mere words--you really need to experience whole the giddily bizzare thing for yourself.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
> WTF. The first game was 20 bucks.
;)
Well, as any smart provider of addictive substances knows, you *always* discount the first dose.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
I want to see how they can make another game where you roll a giant ball around, and manage to make it fresh again... it's like making Tetris 2. How much different can you make it without crippling what makes it fun?
Zonk,
1. How did you manage to get the date SO WRONG?
2. It's only coming out in Japan in July, not America. We'll probably get it late summer early fall if we're LUCKY.
3. Is finding actual news really that hard? This is a press release. A non european/US press release at that.
You've been naughty. You get a copy of Eve Online for Christmas.
schild
editor, f13.net
Every time I hear this game mentioned (the original actually), I can't help but think this would be a perfect Gamecube title. "Stick everything in your big ball o' crap" fits beautifully next to "town full of animals that trade shirts" and "diminutive astronaut throwing sprouts at pill bugs". I wish Nintendo would be a bit more proactive when it comes to nudging developers to release games for their system.
to pick this up in June. Like that's possible....
More sugar!
And yeah, I don't think there's any way that the game could have succeeded at $50. It's like a novel toy with some guided play and objectives, and I don't think many would see justification in paying $50 for that.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
That's the same price the original was in Japan, as well.
I bet you anything when they release it in the US, it will be at the same $19.99 price point.
Namco has somewhat announced that they are making Katamari Damacy for the Nintendo DS.
Personally, I'm glad it's out for the PS2. That means the most amount of people can enjoy it.
I went in halfsies on a PS2 specifically for *this game*, making its effective cost to me $85, and it was worth it. I've ranted a number of times about how Nintendo is practically the sole source of originality in the game industry anymore, but their release schedule has been so *light* lately....
And Katamari Damacy is simply great, it beats anything Nintendo has come up with this generation, even their more original stuff this time around, Pikmin and Animal Crossing. Here's hoping other developers take a hint from its success.
But even with all this... I wouldn't have bought a PS2 by myself for it. $170 is too much for one game.
You're thinking of the Calamari Damacy.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I disagree. It's much more than an "Average" game.
:)
I have other ball-rolling games. Most notably - and most horribly - Fusion Frenzy for the xbox. You know, the game they have to GIVE away cause nobody in their right mind would buy it.
But Katamari is the only ball rolling game that's horribly addictive. It's because I love to see the world from different perspectives, and I love the whole klep-o-mania aspect of being able to reach out and steal everything into my big ball.
The soundtrack is adorable. It's the only one nobody asks me to turn down or turn off when I play video games. I sometimes find myself whistling the "roll you up into my life" song while doing housework. The opening title, with the psychadelic mushrooms, is so happy and peaceful. In fact, there's nothing violent in this whole game... and yet it's still fun. Well, you can pick up people, but they're still alive when you do that, and don't seem to be harmed that much.
The king's dialog is hysterical. That's another big part of the charm. The king is massively high on drugs, I think, and his inane comments really perk up the game. "155 maidens! The sky will be so lovely! Still, I am far, far, prettier than them..."
I've played a good number of games this year, but usually once I finish the game, that's it. I don't play it again. With Katamari, I often pick it up for a few minutes of happy ball rolling, constantly trying to beat my old scores and unlock the eternity levels on stars 4, 8, and the moon. Or find all the presents. Or finish my collections of objects. The replay value is incredible.
I can't wait for the next version. I only wish they'd announce a date so I could get my pre-order in. I worry that NAMCO will underestimate the demand and not make enough copies... it's very hard to get a hold of the original Katamari Damacy, due to NAMCO not wanting to flood the market, so I've been unable to give copies of this game away as presents to my relatives. I just want to make sure I get my order in early so I don't have to wait.
Tepp
Alack, my evil half-brother, Minna Daisuki, has somehow survived our last confrontation and returned to bedevil me again! Shall I never be rid of that meddling do-gooder?
..was the fact it had crude graphics for certain items.
All of the humans and such looked like Playmobil figures. It looks as if the developers tried using as few polygons as possible to make them. The result are eye-catching characters with weird tweaks(like diving board hairstyles). The cop reminds me of the cop from South Park.
I also like some of the sounds the people make when you pick them up. One of them is a woman making a weird cackling laugh "ahihahiahhaihaih".
Probably an unlocalized sound, unlike the ones that are in plain English.
The other favorite sound is one of the big office where there's a phone ringing and some woman screaming.
As for a sequel there's some room. You could introduce a puzzle segment where you have to get your katamari a certain size to pass a tunnel, otherwise it goes down a pit(like billiard balls).
AC: You roll stuff up using the least intuitive controls I've ever used.
Games require a certain amount of difficulty to be engaging and fun.
The classical example is Doom, a game about killing monsters. The easiest, intuitive interface would be to have a 2d overhead map where you can click on each monster to explode it with an orbital laser... but that way is slightly less entertaining.
AC: I mean, no one has ever done a ball rolling game before using just one directional control, obviously you need two.
Yeah, but somehow none of those make rolling even half as fun...
AC: Minna Daisuki basically means "Everyone (loves/really likes)"
True, but sentence order in Japanese is not the same as in English. Instead of "subject verb object", it is "subject object verb", or even "object subject verb", as each noun has a suffix telling which role it plays in the sentence. That suffix can be omitted, in which case the listener takes her best guess as to what role it plays. If you just say "Minna daisuki" by itself, that may be interpreted as "I love everyone", because that's more likely than "everyone loves me". (Test it yourself, such as by pasting words from it into Bablefish)
So, if the verb isn't at the end, its not really a grammatical Japanese sentence at all, and the true meaning is anyone's guess. It could just as easily mean "Katamari Damacy loves everyone"... or, it could be an intentional mimicry of English word order (as in "Everyone Loves Raymond")