"I either read or play stupid Japanese video games. My biggest obsession is Katamari -- you have this ball and you start rolling up stuff -- it sticks to you if it's smaller than you. So you start rolling up tacks and carmels and sticks of gum. The bigger you get you start rolling up people, and they're screaming, and cars and buildings, until you roll up the whole world. It's fun for me, because I'm a total control freak, so it's like I'm cleaning up. I'm making this big massive city of buildings and noise and cars [into] a clean, green pasture. It makes me feel better. It's one of those weird OCD things."Review and explanation of the game from dignews.com
- VH1
Katamari King and Queen costumes from craftzine.com
Word of mouth on this one is pretty strong, so maybe you've already heard the premise. For those that haven't, the idea is, the colossal King of the Cosmos (a complete and total loon) went a little… nuts last night (more so than usual). The American version omits the original Japanese explanation: he was plastered. Anyways, he screwed up the galaxy something fierce, destroying all the stars in the sky. Being the lovably lazy and irresponsible guy he is, he decides that you, the teensie-tiny Prince of the Cosmos, must fix it. This is done by… rolling up random junk in a ball. Don't worry, the story isn't supposed to make sense. You start off small, the size of a paper clip, rolling a ball called a katamari, essentially using only the analog sticks to maneuver.
Great page exploring the ways Katamari can be used to change how we interact with media on the nets
As the user rolled around the town, the text chunks would appear in the right menu. Clever programmers could produce some sort of active linking system that would build links between the chunks that relate or hook up especially well, so that as the page went along links appeared between chunks. The reader could stop rolling at any time and scroll the right window up and down to read what he/she has collected. There could also be an 'export' function that allows the reader to save a clear .html version of the katamari they rolled. - Katamari Interface
