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PlayStation (Games)

Katamari Damacy 2 Due In July 98

Posted by Zonk from the rollin-rollin-rollin dept.
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.
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Katamari Damacy 2 Due In July More

Katamari Damacy 2 Due In July

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  • Addictive as Hell (Score:2, Interesting)

    by CDarklock ( 869868 )
    I just picked this up yesterday on the advice of a fellow game developer, and the most amusing thing about Katamari Damacy is not just the way it takes VERY simplistic gameplay and makes it horrifically addictive, but the weirdo Japanese mentality behind all the messages. I'll certainly grab the sequel when it shows up.

  • Sold Out (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Mr.Dippy ( 613292 )
    "It will be priced at 4,980 yen ($46)."


    WTF. The first game was 20 bucks. Just because the game was a underground hit doesn't mean the maker should sell out and over price the game. 50 dollar games make baby jesus cry.

    • Re:Sold Out (Score:5, Informative)

      by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:26PM (#12145184)
      Relax man, games are often more expensive in Japan. For example:

      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). [rpgfan.com]

    • Re:Sold Out (Score:5, Funny)

      by UWC ( 664779 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:26PM (#12145192)
      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.
      • ok, the person who responded to this was an idiot
        the idiot who modded it "Troll" shouldn't be modding the 'Games' section because they obviously don't understand game humor

        if i had mod points, you'd get +1 Funny
        • Many thanks... though I'd probably prefer an "Underrated" to offset the "Troll" :-)

          Notable: first smiley/emoticon I've used in quite some time. Didn't know how else to convey my tone this time.

    • Re:Sold Out (Score:5, Funny)

      by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:31PM (#12145247) Homepage
      WTF. The first game was 20 bucks. Just because the game was a underground hit doesn't mean the maker should sell out and over price the game. 50 dollar games make baby jesus cry.

      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!

    • Re:Sold Out (Score:5, Funny)

      by CDarklock ( 869868 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:40PM (#12145348) Homepage Journal
      > WTF. The first game was 20 bucks.

      Well, as any smart provider of addictive substances knows, you *always* discount the first dose. ;)

    • Relax, the $40 is just in Japan. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @02:50PM (#12146068) Homepage
      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.

  • Sneak Peek! (Score:5, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:24PM (#12145173) Homepage
    Through ultra-secret inside contacts, I've managed to get my hands on some never-released audio clips from Katamari Damacy 2. Here's the transcript of the "intro" dialog:

    *skritcha-skritcha skratchitta-rachitta skOOOWP-a skritch skratch skratchitta-skritchitty-skritchitta skewww scratch skritchitta-sratcha-ratch sritch*

  • June! Now Longer and with Bonus Features! (Score:4, Funny)

    by WorkerGnome ( 680060 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:28PM (#12145216)
    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.
  • I still contend that this series has something to do with sushi.

  • Giant Rolling Ball (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jcuffe ( 873322 ) <jared@edifies.us> on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:46PM (#12145412) Homepage
    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?
    • If you think they need to make it different you clearly have not played the original.

      Once you do you will understand. Just adding more things to pick up would guarantee them a follow up buy by the majority of their userbase.

      Hell, I'd buy any new Katamari game just for the music.
    • Add Pirates and Ninjas. And then include some generic rage for the Prince of All Cosmos.
      • "We intend to make 'John Romero and American McGee Present Katamari Damacy 3' darker and more edgy. The Prince is bound to have some issues with the unsupportive King of All Cosmos, and in JMaAMPKD3, you'll be able to play out some of their strained interactions..."

    • 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?

      Personally, and I think this actually speaks for a lot of Katamari Damacy fans, I don't think they have to change anything at all. Katamari Damacy itself was so good and so short that what I really, really want is the Katamari Damacy equivalent of a Blizzard expansion pack -- just more levels

  • A couple of things. (Score:5, Informative)

    by schild ( 713993 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @01:46PM (#12145415) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • if it's going to be released in japan in early july, then you might be able to download it off the intarweb in late june. maybe that's what he meant by "out"

      and finding actual news IS hard. i tried it once. the headlines i came up with were:
      - davez0r has pizza for lunch...again!
      - it's raining
      - the weird dude hanging outside of gamestop says that star wars: galactic battlegrounds is the game of the year

  • gamecube? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @02:01PM (#12145572)
    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.
    • I agree with you completely. This gamne would fit nicely in the 'Cube library. Infact, I think that games like Katamari owe their existence to Nintendo. Nintendo proves that simple, quircky games are appealing. E.G. Wario Touched!, Super Smash Brothers, etc.

      • Re:gamecube? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by badasscat ( 563442 )
        I agree with you completely. This gamne would fit nicely in the 'Cube library. Infact, I think that games like Katamari owe their existence to Nintendo.

        Yeah, because it's not like Namco made Pac-Man before Nintendo even created their first home console, or anything.

        Namco is an old-school developer just like Nintendo (and if you want to go further back, both Namco and Nintendo have been around far longer than video games have even existed). They've both been making video games since the early days of th
        • Hold on a minute buddy. I don't mean that Namco is imitating Nintendo in any way. I mean that Nintendo, along with Sega (Super Monkey Ball), has proven that there exists a market for these quirky games, even in the US. I'm not dissing Namco's legacy, hell I'm not even talking about Nintendo's legacy. I'm saying that Nintendo supports this type of game on a regular basis, and the success of Katamari confirms Nintendo's strategy.
    • I agree that the "feel" of the game would fit the cube. However, it's not gonna happen, for two reasons: a) Nintendo doesn't get small games like this because they shun all but the largest 1st and 2nd party developers. b) The lack of dual analog sticks would take away one of the major fun parts of the game: the unique control scheme.

      • Re:gamecube? (Score:3, Informative)

        by PyroMosh ( 287149 )
        You realize that it's both developed and poublished by Namco, right?

        You know, the Namco of Pac Man fame?

        And Soul Caliber II fame? (You know, the game, where Nintendo granted them the rights to use Link from The Zelda series in it?)

        Check out Nintendo.com's master games list.

        Also there are dual analogs. One's called a C stick. It might be a tad more awkward due to the non symatry, but it's entirly doable.

      • Re:gamecube? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by HAKdragon ( 193605 )
        Nintendo doesn't get small games like this because they shun all but the largest 1st and 2nd party developers.

        I take it you've never played Ikaruga or Alien Hominid
        • The original post probably should have read: [I[Nintendo doesn't get small games like this because [B]their fans[/B] shun all but the largest 1st and 2nd party developers. [/I]

          Both Ikaruga and Alien Hominid basically bombed on the Cube. Gamecubers generally only buy Nintendo games and the odd huge third party title, unfortunately.

          (Neither game was an exclusive to GC either, I should point out. Ikaruga was a freaking twice-removed port from its original Arcade and Dreamcast releases.)
      • Uh... there are two analogue sticks on a Cube controller.

        The layout would get uncomfortable really quickly, though - the C-stick is definitely designed for occasional tweaks to the camera angle, rather than being a main control.

        A Mac version would be nice, especially if you could control it with the motion sensor in the new Powerbooks :)

    • DS Release (Score:4, Informative)

      by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @02:53PM (#12146093) Homepage
      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.
      • But if it was released on multiple consoles, then even more people would be able to enjoy it than if it was simply on the PS2 (and DS, apparently).

  • Can't wait (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gwenna ( 763131 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @02:06PM (#12145610)
    to pick this up in June. Like that's possible....

  • Cheap at $50 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MilenCent ( 219397 ) * <johnwh@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @03:05PM (#12146242) Homepage
    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.
    • So ... you're knocking Nintendo because someone else made a game that was off the mainstream, and therefore since Nintendo didn't make it, they suck?
      • No, I'm knocking Nintendo because, increasingly, games like Katamari Damacy, and Animal Crossing and Pikmin, are the only things that get me excited about video games anymore. I *expect* cool things like this from Nintendo, but there hasn't been as many of them this generation as I had hoped. From Namco it was more unexpected, and thus all the cooler when it happened.

        Again, you could interpret it as a knock against Nintendo. I rather think of it as a knock against the entire damn video game industry.
  • You don't pick up the cows
    • > You don't pick up the cows

      Gads, you should have my girlfriend playing on the Taurus level. She barrels around a corner and I scream "LOOK OUT, A COW! ARGH!"

      And she restarts for the 20th time, she's hell bent on getting that cousin. When she finally finds him, she's gently "sneaking" around the cows guarding him in a way that'd put Solid Snake to shame.

      Finally did it. Don't think she got the gift though, so we'll be dodging cows for a while yet.
      • If it was just the cows, that'd be one thing... no, anything black and white is cow enough for the King. I finally settled for a "big enough" cow-man after a stream of milk cartons, black and white hazard cones, and signs with picturess of cows.
  • ..but they'd need to release it for more fsking systems.

  • So, we meet again! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Minna Kirai ( 624281 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @03:32PM (#12146559)
    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?

  • The beauty ofthe game... (Score:4, Informative)

    by British ( 51765 ) <british1500@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @03:37PM (#12146632) Homepage Journal
    ..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).
  • I've now checked 5 different blockbusters, and 2 hollywood videos, and not only can I not find this game (it's just 6mos old, right?), but they have no clue what I'm talking about. Hopefully 2 gets some more attention from the "outside" (not gamers) world.
    • I'm not surprised. This game almost accidentally made its way out of Japan and spread on other shores mainly on word of mouth. Figures then that it's not rentable in Blockbuster/others purely due to the lack of promotional material these people base their purchases on.
    • You probably won't find it for rent.

      See, NAMCO only did a limited run when they made the English version of Katamari Damacy. They didn't expect it to be a hit.

      Well, now the word is out, and everyone wants one. But NAMCO won't up the production rates. So it is VERY VERY hard to get ahold of it to buy - forget about renting. For example, I've asked several EBX's if they have any copies - they always say "no, but we keep trying to order some in...". Amazon is sold out, used copies sell on Ebay for 30$, when
      • I've seen it in plenty of stores: Best Buy, Gamestop, EB... they typically only have a few copies on the shelf, but that's true of any non-new PS2 game.

        You should do a search on eBay for Katamari Damacy. The U.S. version sells for $16 brand new on eBay, if it sells at all.
  • I really hope the soundtrack in the sequel will be as good as the original. Those jazzy and weird electronic tracks compliment the game very well.
    I downloaded the mp3's a while ago, but still wish to find the cd-version, has anyone seen it online somewhere?

    • Re:soundtrack (Score:2, Informative)

      by GrosTuba ( 227941 )
      How is this search engine called again ? Ah, that's it : Google.

      After a quick search, here is the first relevant link : Katamari Damacy Soundtrack [gamemusic.com]. And no, I won't gain anything from you clicking on this link.

      And yes, it completely deserves to be bought, especially the Japanese version, which is IMHO slightly better thant the US version.
  • I like rolling over cats.

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