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Katamari Damacy (塊魂 Katamari Damashii, lit. "clump spirit") is a third-person puzzle-action
developed and published by
for the . It was first released in
and then later in . The game resulted from a school project from the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory and was developed for less than $1 million. In designing Katamari Damacy, the development team aimed to maintain three key points: novelty, ease of understanding, and enjoyment.
The game's plot concerns a diminutive prince on a mission to rebuild the , , and , which were accidentally destroyed by his father, the King of All Cosmos. This is achieved by rolling a magical, highly
ball called a katamari around various locations, collecting increasingly larger objects, ranging from thumbtacks to people to mountains until the ball has grown great enough to become a star. Katamari Damacy's story, characters, and settings are bizarre and heavily stylized, rarely attempting any semblance of realism, though the brands and items used are based on those current in Japan during the game's production.
Overall, Katamari Damacy was well received in Japan and North America. The game was dubbed a
and won several awards. Katamari Damacy inspired the development of other video games, and led to the release of eight sequels in Japan and other territories:
The primary story in Katamari Damacy deals with the aftermath of the planet-sized King of All Cosmos'
spree that wiped out all the stars and other celestial bodies from the sky. The King (who appears to be chronically dissatisfied with his 5-cm-tall son's small size) charges the Prince to go to
with a "katamari"—a magical ball that allows anything smaller than it to stick to it and make it grow—and collect enough material for him to recreate the stars and constellations. The Prince is successful, and the sky is returned to normal.
A side-story follows the Hoshino family as the Prince works at his tasks. The father, an , is unable to go to the moon after it is wiped out by the King, and the daughter, whose name is Michiru, "senses" the Prince's work—she can feel when each constellation returns to the sky. Ultimately, the family, along with their house and town, are rolled up in the katamari that is used to remake the moon.
The "Make A Star" mode in Katamari Damacy is the primary mode, where the player must grow the katamari to a specific size (diameter) in a limited amount of time.
The player controls the Prince as he rolls the katamari around houses, gardens, and towns in order to meet certain parameters set by the King of All Cosmos. The player uses the two
controller in a manner similar to the classic
to control the direction the katamari rolls. Other controls can be triggered by the player to gain a quick burst of speed, flip the Prince to the other side of the katamari and more.
Objects that are smaller than the katamari will stick to it when the player comes into contact with them, while greater ob colliding at high speed with any may cause objects to fall off the katamari, slowing the player's progress. The game uses size, weight, and surface area to determine if an object will stick to the katamari. This allows slender objects, such as pencils, that are longer than the katamari is wide, to be picked up, and these will alter how the katamari rolls until more objects are picked up. Animals such as cats will chase the katamari, knocking things from it, but once the katamari is great enough, it will scare the animals away, and they can be rolled up once they are chased down. As objects stick to the katamari, the katamari will grow, eventually allowing objects that were once hurdles to be picked up, and creating access to areas that were formerly blocked. In this manner, the player might start the game by picking up thumbtacks and ants, and slowly work up to the point where the katamari is picking up buildings, mountains, and clouds.
The typical mission given by the King of All Cosmos is the "Make a Star" mode, where the player needs to grow the katamari to a specific size within a given timeframe. Other missions have more specific collecting rules, such as collecting as many items (swans, crabs, pairs) as possible within a given time, or collecting the largest item possible (such as a cow or bear). The player can attempt a
mode for any level, in which they try to make the greatest katamari possible in the time allotted. Certain levels can unlock an "eternal mode" by creating an exceptionally large katamari. In eternal modes, the player can explore the level with no time limit.
Each level features two secret items that can be found. The first item is a royal present that contains an object that the Prince can wear. Most gifts are non-functional, but one includes a camera that can be used to take in-game screenshots. The other secret item is a cousin of the Prince, which, once rolled up in main gameplay, can be used as a character in the various multiplayer modes. However, cousins can only be found and rolled up after the game is beaten. The game also tracks which objects the player has collected at any time, allowing them to review all the various objects within the game.
In the two-player mode, a player can choose to play as either the Prince or one of his numerous Cousins. The s player one on the left and player two on the right. Players compete simultaneously in a small arena to collect the most objects within three minutes. The playfield is replenished with new objects periodically. Players can ram into each other, knocking items from their opponents' katamaris, and if one player leads by a fair amount, then it is possible to roll up the opponent's katamari.
Toru Iwatani, head of
for Namco, stated that the idea for Katamari Damacy resulted from Keita Takahashi's school project from the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory, a sponsored institute for game development education. Keita Takahashi's final thesis bore out the core gameplay ideas, while a team of ten (including the student) developed the final product. The game was developed for less than  million, a tenth of the cost of Namco blockbuster titles such as
or . The game took a year and a half to develop, with eight months of prototyping.
Lead developer
said that the team was aiming for four key points in developing the game: novelty, ease of understanding, enjoyment, and humor. Iwatani compared the game to Namco's , which focused on simplicity and innovation and served as a template for future games from the company. At one point during development, Takahashi "proactively ignored" advice from Namco to increase the complexity of the game.
The core gameplay of Katamari Damacy is the subject of U.S. Patent 7,402,104, "Game performing method, game apparatus, storage medium, data signal and program". The patent, issued in 2009, primarily describes how the game maintains the roughly spherical nature of the katamari when objects are picked up, though extends to concepts such as tracking objects collected based on temperature or weight values, which were modes included with later games of the series.
Katamari Damacy was first revealed at the 2003 , at which the press dubbed it a "snowball simulator". The image featured on the cover of the pre-release demo showed the large red ball used in "Tamakorogashi", a game played at Japanese school sports meets (undokai) that was an influence for the game. Plans for releasing the game in Western countries were tied to its performance in Japan. Katamari Damacy was first shown in the
during the March 2004 . Due to its popularity at trade shows and a write-in campaign, Namco decided to release the game in the United States.
In , Katamari () means "clump" or "clod" and Damashii is the
form of tamashii () which means "soul" or "spirit". Therefore, the phrase approximates to "clump soul". The two
that form the name look similar (sharing the same right-side element ), in a kind of visual . The name is officially
as Katamari Damacy in most releases. In an interview with Dengeki Online, producer
said that when asked about the title, "It just popped into my head suddenly, and this is what it has been from the beginning."
The music in Katamari Damacy was widely hailed as imaginative and original (winning both 's and 's "Soundtrack of the Year 2004" awards) and was considered one of the game's best features. The soundtrack was released in Japan as . Its eclectic composition featured elements of traditional electronic video game music, as well as heavy jazz and samba influences (). Most of the tracks were composed by , and many feature vocals from popular
singers, such as
TV series, and
, including
and . One track is sung and written by , composer of the
soundtrack.
Katamari Damacy enjoyed moderate success in Japan. The game was sold at about two-thirds of the price of a new game at the time. It was the top selling game the week of its release with 32,000 units sold, and sold over 155,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2004. However, Namco originally estimated that over 500,000 units would be sold in Japan.
The game was not released in PAL territories such as Europe and Australia since publishers thought it was too "quirky" however,
picked up both sequels,
and , for release in Europe.
The North American release of the game was very well received by professional reviewers, was mentioned and praised on , and was a featured sidebar in the May 23, 2004, edition of
magazine. Time continued to praise the game in its November 22, 2004 "Best games of the year" special, calling it "the most unusual and original game to hit PlayStation2". Most retailers underestimated the demand for such a quirky game, and only purchased a it rapidly sold out nationwide, with sales surpassing 120,000 units in North America. It also won the U.S. award for "Excellence in Game Design" at the 2005 , and
awarded Katamari Damacy its "Best Innovation" prize in its
of that year. Katamari Damacy was one of the recipients of the 2004
in Japan, the first time a video game has won this award. In 2015, the game placed 13th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.
Although the game has rapidly achieved a cult following and has been praised by many reviewers, it also has its share of criticism. A common complaint is that the game is relatively short and repetitive—it can be completed in under ten hours, and the gameplay stays virtually the same all the way through. However, others, such as
reviewer Mark McDonald (who gave the game 8.5 out of ten with his EGM staff), argue that the game's limitations are made up for by its strengths: "Sure, you're basically doing the same thing each mission, but Katamari's elegant controls, killer soundtrack, and wicked humor make it perfectly suited for replay." As a well-executed, non-traditional game, Katamari Damacy has been influential in the game development community. Since its release, a number of designers have developed works inspired by Katamari: one example is .
On July 29, 2012, the game was included in an exhibit at the , entitled "Century of the Child: Growing by Design". Here, the game was used to demonstrate the change in toys and "playthings" over the 20th century, specifically praising the game for its "quirky manipulations of scale" that makes it accessible for all ages. Vice president of marketing for Namco Bandai Games America, Inc. Carlson Choi described the inclusion of Katamari Damacy to the exhibit as "a testament to the creative designs embodied in Namco Bandai’s games ... in addition to being a validation of video games as a modern form of interactive art."
On November 29 the same year, the game was included in the
of the Museum of Modern Art. Curator
selected Katamari Damacy among the first fourteen games to be displayed in the museum, which was chosen according to a variety of criteria, including "visual quality, elegance of the code and design of playing behavior."
Katamari Damacy has spawned numerous sequels on the PlayStation 2 and newer game consoles. The game's direct sequel on the PlayStation 2,
(みんな大好き塊魂 Minna Daisuki Katamari Damashii, literally Everyone Loves Katamari Damacy), was released internationally in 2005 and 2006. Its story is , following on the success of the first game, most of the levels are based on requests from newfound fans of the King and the Prince. Though sharing the same mechanics, We Love Katamari introduces new gameplay features, such as co-operative play, and new goals, such as collecting the most valuable objects, that would continue through its sequels.
(僕の私の塊魂 Boku no Watashi no Katamari Damashii, literally My My Katamari Damacy using the ) was released for the
in 2005 and 2006, featuring levels based on helping the animals of an island devastated by a .
(Beautiful Katamari Damacy (ビューティフル塊魂 Byūtifuru Katamari Damashii)) was an
title released in 2007 and 2008, following the Royal Family using katamaris to close up a
created while the King was playing tennis. The newer console allowed for higher-resolution graphics and support for online network play, leaderboards, and downloadable content. While
ports were planned for Beautiful Katamari, these never were released.
(Katamari Damacy Tribute (塊魂TRIBUTE Katamari Damashii TRIBUTE)) was released for the PlayStation 3 internationally in 2009. Katamari Forever incorporates a mix of previous levels from the series, framed around the King trying to recover from , and new levels where the katamari is needed to repair the damage done by a rampaging "RoboKing". It further improved on the graphics capabilities of Beautiful Katamari and introduced new moves for the player.
was released for the
in 2009. Similar in play to , the player used the prince to drop a katamari into the playing field to clear the puzzle field.
(Katamari Damacy No-Vita (塊魂ノビータ Katamari Damashī Nobīta)) is a regional launch title for the
portable game system in late 2011 and early 2012. The No-Vita moniker is a play on the Vita console name and the Japanese word nobita, meaning "to lengthen or extend". While the core mechanics are similar to other games in the series, Touch My Katamari allows the player to use the rear touch pad on the Vita to temporarily stretch the katamari into an ovoid shape, allowing it to roll through narrow spaces or collect small objects.
Several mobile versions have also been released. Rolling With Katamari was released in Japan in 2007 for the Mitsubishi P904i series of phones, using their tilt-sensitive technology to let the player control the katamari. It was ported to J2ME for release in other countries.
was released in 2009 for several wireless devices and is a 2D side-scrolling version of Katamari Damacy similar to a mini-mode included with Me & My Katamari.
was released in 2008 for the
and , with later patched for the
devices and for . Another iOS game, , was released in early 2011.
WindySoft, a South Korean developer, announced plans for a Katamari Damacy Online game, which was due to be released in 2007. It was never brought to the US.
The character of the Prince became a mascot for Namco alongside Pac-Man and makes an appearance in some other Namco-Bandai games, such as , , the
series and .
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