Beautiful. It seems strange to label a videogame as quirky, bright, joyous and downright original as that, but in Katamari Damacy’s case, the description fits almost like a glass slipper on Cinderella’s tender foot. I know we’re all aware that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it would be churlish to argue that this game doesn’t deserve the accolade. From its graphical design, to its control, to its gorgeous soundtrack, Katamari Damacy would convince even Bernard Matthews that the word hasn’t been overused. Just... beautiful.

So far, so evangelical. Yet to actually describe what makes the game so good seems almost to strip the game of its inherent genius. What Namco seem to have grasped here is that at the heart of every great videogame there should be one idea, one core design that the whole thing hinges on. Get that right, and the rest of the game is mere frippery, almost an afterthought. Like Halo’s thirty seconds of repeated gunfire fun, Half Life 2’s gravity shenanigans and Ico’s dynamic between Yorda and Ico, Katamari Damacy’s genius lies in it’s simple, yet ever evolving task of rolling up the world and everything in it.

Video A - Almost

The story, such as it is, is borderline insanity. Whilst hurtling through the heavens, the King of the Cosmos has accidentally destroyed all the stars in the sky above. Realising his mistake he instructs his son, the Prince, to go down to earth and roll up as much stuff as he possibly can to replace the stars and recreate their celestial glory. You take control of the prince in his quest to repopulate the heavens with stars constructed from anything, from thumbtacks to mountains. Yes, it’s crazy, and the cut scenes that populate the game telling us the story of a family heading out to watch their father pilot a rocket to the moon make little sense, but within the context of the rest of the game it works a treat.

Every level begins with the King outlining the requirements of the specific star or constellation to the Prince, telling him what he has to roll up and why. All this rolling is done using a katamari, a somewhat odd shaped sticky ball that will pick up anything of a smaller size than itself and add it to its ever-expanding diameter. As more things are collected, so the greater the Katamari becomes and thus the more things that can be picked up and so on. Levels vary in objective, with some asking you to make the katamari as large as possible, others asking you to stick to one type of object in particular whilst another sees how close you can get to a set diameter for the katamari.

Video B - Getting

Control of the Katamari can take a little time to get used to, as all you ever really use are the two analogue sticks. These have to be used in conjunction with each other, similar to the movement of a tank, to push, turn, reverse and flip over the ever-expanding ball of detritus. It’s nice that at the start of the game you get a small tutorial to play around in until you feel comfortable with the set up, as it’s not your usual control method.

So, it’s all very odd so far. A bonkers storyline and an odd control method; where does the beauty come into it? Well, as stated earlier, it’s in the games simplicity. Rolling the Katamari around soon becomes second nature. Gathering up every day objects as you go, constantly on the look out for more stuff to pick up slowly spreads a huge smile of satisfaction across your face. It’s all about the feeling of power that the game begins to give you.

Video C - There

When you first start out, all you can grab are the smallest of small objects: drawing pins, matches, thumbtacks, batteries and a score of other tiny things. The first few levels ask nothing more than grow the katamari a few centimetres. People are huge and hulking, cats and dogs need to be avoided, rats chase you as do bears and cows. Everything is too big at this point for our small Prince and his ball.

As the game progresses, though, and the challenges start to increase, so the swing of power slowly starts to favour the Prince. What were once things to be avoided are now fair game for the growing ball of doom. People are sent spinning off before becoming entangled in the sticky mass being pushed about. Cats and dogs now run in fear of the looming ball heading their way. Yet as soon as this feeling of power starts to grab you the game opens up further, revealing more objects of even bigger size and bewilderment for the player to try and capture. By the end of the game, the Prince is literally rolling up the entire world in an orgy of katamari pleasure. Everything starts to fall to him, be they whirlpools, typhoons or even the islands themselves. At the end of the day, nothing is safe from being stuck to a big ball of stuff.

Video D - Now

This is the games greatest triumph: you roll up stuff and make a bigger ball, and the game just keeps on giving. Just when you start to think you’ve seen how big the Katamari can go then you spin round and see a hill with even larger objects on it that are just asking to be picked up. You get to them and then see more... all the while the level’s timer is ticking down and you’re trying to make judgements on whether you can pick up that truck or whether it’s too big and will knock objects off your katamari, costing you time and effort to pick them back up again. The game is simple, unadulterated genius. Pure in both design and purpose, and that's without even mentioning the stylised graphics that the game employs, all bright colours and simple shapes, or the fantastic soundtrack that seems to elevate the game even further.

The biggest shame is that it was never given a European release, seeing only the shores of Japan and America. It’s a shame because games of this quality don’t come along very often. There is a sequel coming to Europe, yes, but it’s scant compensation for one of the best games in the PS2’s lifetime being ignored over here. Katamari Damacy is simply one the best, most endearing, and simply joyous games you will ever get the pleasure to play. Keep rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling...