It’s easy to see that Katamari Damacy is one of the most bizarre games ever made, but look deeper and you may find the joke is on us.
Katamari Damacy places you in the absurd position of having to repair the cosmos because your dad, the King, got plastered one night and broke everything. From its Crayola-in-a-blender color palette to its catchy music, Katamari Damacy is one big chuckle, but as Brendan Main suggests in Issue 220 of The Escapist, perhaps something serious is going on underneath the laughs:
But despite the lightness of Katamari Damacy’s world of plenty, the joke may be on us. By following through on an exaggeration of game logic, it parodies the inanity of gaming itself. Yes, rolling up random objects to make stars is ridiculous – but is it any less ridiculous to go searching for a blue key to unlock the blue door? How wacky is it that Mario, after being told for the umpteenth time that his princess is in another castle, doesn’t just pack up and go home?
Ok, “serious” is clearly a relative term when it comes to the world of Katamari, but the question remains: Is this all just silly fun, or is the King of All Cosmos giving us a wink and a nod as he sends us off to roll up a new Moon? Read the rest of Katamari Absurdity and tell us what you think.
