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Games Entertainment

We Love Katamari Preview 42

Posted by Zonk from the i-love-katamari-too dept.
1up.com has a first look with video of the upcoming We Love Katamari. From the article: "Without question, the new game is its father's son -- very literally so, in fact. (The narrative that appears between stages details the tough-love story of the fruity King Of All Cosmos and his childhood struggles to win the acceptance of his own stern and cold-hearted dad.) More to the point, the gameplay itself is largely unchanged from last year's surprise hit. The control scheme is exactly the same, and the fundamental concept of rolling things into a giant katamari ball within a certain time limit remains intact as well."
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We Love Katamari Preview More

We Love Katamari Preview

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  • Hopefully this sets a trend (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dannyitc ( 892023 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @09:26AM (#13002414)
    Katamari was the epitome of everything that is good about gaming. A low-budget (which thankfully was reflected in the price), addictive, intuitive, fun and creative game that focused on gameplay. A breath of fresh air in a market too often filled with games with huge production values and flashy graphics that attempt to overshadow poorly done game mechanics.

    Keita Takahashi's speech at the Game Developer's Conference [gamespot.com] was very interesting, to say the least, and I think more game developers would benefit from listening to what he has to say.

    • On the topic of low-budget, does anyone know if the sequel will have the same price point? Or will the expanded content necessitate a pricier game?

      I don't think I would have bought the first game if it hadn't been so cheap, even with all of the hype. I could see paying 30 bucks, maybe, for a new copy of the sequel, but anything more than that and I'd probably just decide to wait for a used copy.

    • Re:Hopefully this sets a trend (Score:4, Informative)

      by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75@yah[ ]com ['oo.' in gap]> on Thursday July 07, 2005 @10:36AM (#13003373)
      Keita Takahashi's speech at the Game Developer's Conference was very interesting, to say the least, and I think more game developers would benefit from listening to what he has to say.

      I read that, and I honestly don't think he said much, at least if the story you linked to really got to the essence of his point. From the story, his point seems to be that games aren't very important, that he isn't very good at creating them, and that Katamari Damacy only turned out the way it did because he couldn't figure out how to do what he really wanted to do. He even said simple isn't necessarily best, it's just all he knows how to do.

      I don't really see how this helps anybody in the game industry.

      His first argument is probably the only one that carries any weight, although it's also the one most likely to be ignored. Game creators do have a sense of self-importance that leads them to create these massively pompous epics that play more like work than games. I don't just mean RPG's, either; I mean almost all games today. If more game creators would take the attitude that what they're doing doesn't really matter, I honestly think we'd get some better games.

      Unfortunately, human nature doesn't work that way - nobody wants to think that what they're doing is irrelevant.

      If what you took from his speech is that games should be more simple and accessible, well, he pretty much said exactly the opposite. I'd look more to a guy like Shigeru Miyamoto for that sentiment, although he hasn't really been backing up his words with his games lately, and anyway the public seems to be moving in a different direction.

      KD at least proved that there is still a market for a really good, innovative, different type of game that's played strictly for the fun of it rather than trying to wow with graphics or create some sort of community of grind addicts online. Unfortunately, I don't see a mad rush of developers trying to emulate what KD did - all I see in the pipeline is a continuing and seemingly endless stream of GTA, Halo, and Everquest clones.
      • Small, indy games exist and are a lot of fun...
        For example the games here (free):
        Aba games [asahi-net.or.jp]
        Hizoka Chi's games [big.or.jp]
        Or Cave Story [romhack.net], japanese indy game translated by fans.

        Or various other indy games such as Ballance [ballance.org] or Chronic Logic's games [chroniclogic.com], or CrimsonLand [reflexive.com].

        Ofcourse, hardly anyone ever heard about these games, but it doesn't mean they don't rock. Just download the demos and see for yourself. None of these games are "GTA, Halo or Everquest clones", but rather truly original ideas (playing a ball??) or fun ideas t
      • From the story, his point seems to be that games aren't very important, that he isn't very good at creating them, and that Katamari Damacy only turned out the way it did because he couldn't figure out how to do what he really wanted to do. He even said simple isn't necessarily best, it's just all he knows how to do.

        I don't really see how this helps anybody in the game industry.

        It's because he's honest about all these facts. Also, that he was willing to try something that no one else had done instead of
        • Argh, my comment seems to have messed up.

          What I was trying to say about Miyamoto is that the man isn't responsible for everything Nintendo puts out, he's more of a producer these days, he supervises and suggests, even recommends, but he doesn't make games himself as much anymore. There are many creative minds at Nintendo these days, and they all deserve some of the credit (or lack thereof) for their output.
  • Cancer! It's so YUMMY!

  • Sing it with me! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jwriney ( 16598 ) on Thursday July 07, 2005 @11:45AM (#13004057) Homepage
    All together now...

    Na naaaaaaaaaaaa, na na na na na na, na, na naaaaah na nana naaaaaaa...

    Na NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, na na na na na na (etc)

    --riney
    • the soundtrack is simply amazing. I want to wad (or roll?) you up into my life.. Let's roll up to be a single star...
    • Don't forget the bass beat!

      Na naaaaaaaaaaaa, na na na na na na, na, na naaaaah na nana naaaaaaa...
      DOOga dooga dooga dooga DOOga dooga dooga dooga!
      Na NAAaaaaaaaaaa, na na na na na na, na, na naaaaah na nana naaaaaaa...
      DOOga dooga dooga dooga DOOga dooga dooga dooga!
  • Seems like this kind of game is right up GameCube's alley. Is Sony the publisher/developer?

    Of course, I only have an Xbox, so I guess I'll never get to play it...

    • Re:PS2 exclusive? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jclast ( 888957 )
      No no no. As much as the DualShock 2 is my least favorite controller, it is uniquely suited for Katamari Damacy.

      The analog sticks are the same size and they're directly accross from one another. I wouldn't want to try it with a c-stick or the Xbox's offset sticks.
      • This raises a question I've had for a long time - what's stopping 3rd party manufacturer's from selling an Xbox controller with the d-pad and left analog locations swapped? (Or is such a controller available?)
  • All of these people who thought that Katamari Damacy was so awesome because it was innovative and broke the trend of sequelitis are now defending We Love Katamari because innovation is risky and it's better to make a good game that's more of the same than to make a bad game that's innovative.

    Not that I'm not looking forward to this sequel; it's just that I find this funny.

    Rob
    • With any luck this new game will improve on what the developers wanted in the first place. It could be a sequel and still introduce new style. Then again, it could just be an expansion pack.
    • I think this may be one of those times, though I won't attempt to comment on their frequency, where a sequel is warranted. The original game was and is tons of fun, but it's also very small. The bonus of having more levels and larger levels is what appeals to me about We Love Katamari - I'm sure I'll enjoy the 'specialty' levels' tweaked dynamics as well, but in all honesty I just want more to roll.

      The nice thing about this sequel is that the developers themselves said, "Our game is good, and people lik

      • I think this may be one of those times, though I won't attempt to comment on their frequency, where a sequel is warranted.

        Disagree. The original was great...

        The original game was and is tons of fun, but it's also very small.

        ...but it was also the perfect size. By about 80% of the way through it was getting a bit repetitive. Any longer and it would've been tiresome.

        They made a perfect-length game, charged a great price for it. Definitely a good value.

        But it's really not a game that demands a

  • I've seen previews/hands-on at

    http://ps2.ign.com/articles/616/616670p1.html [ign.com]

    http://www.psxextreme.com/scripts/previews2/previe w.asp?PrevID=419 [psxextreme.com]

    and http://www.game-instructions.com/previews/we-love- katamari-hands-on-preview/ [game-instructions.com]

    Still, its always good to read a new article to keep the interest going.
  • Unfortunately, I'm dyslexic so when I bought this game I thought I would get to see some squid in a voting booth.

    Kalamari Democracy. Huh huh.

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