Seen Akira? Seen that bit where Tetsuo starts devouring the planet? Okay, well, this is kind of like that, but a lot less terrifying and a lot more humourous.
Essentially, you are placed in around a dozen or more bizarre, earthbound stages where you have to roll this ball around that picks up stuff. As the ball grows bigger, the player opens up new sections of the level and is able to roll over and absorb larger items – from normal household furniture to people to whole continents! There is usaully some sort of timelimit, some optional goals and a target you have to achieve to pass the level. The controls pretty much just involve the two joysticks on the pad, and this does take some geting used to, but you'll be a pro by the time you get to the last few levels.
And that's part of the problem: by the time you start to get the hang of it, it's all over. There are new challenges, items to collect, etc., but a lot of the levels are recycled. Making matters worse, there are several levels that are suspected to be on the disk but can only be unlocked through paying for them via Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Several achievements also require that you pay for the pleasure to unlock them, and this all sort of taints the innocent, silly humour of the gameplay experience, sadly.
Despite the bad taste left in my mouth by Bandai's obvious greed, everybody should at least try one of the Katamari games. The gameplay is fun, challenging and addictive; the music is a fantastic collection of bouncy J-pop songs; and the art style, combined with excellent localization for the dialogue and text, sets the game apart from everything else currently out there.
