Kotaku: Katamari

Katamari Damacy Gets New Shape-Shifting Controls with Its Release on Vita

Owen Good — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EDT

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Katamari Damacy is just a working title but, frankly, it's as good as any for the version of the game soon to arrive on PlayStation Vita. Namco Bandai announced today that the venerable roll-em-up will get a Vita release on an unspecified date, and will take advantage of the new handheld's touch-pad controls. More »

Run a Katamari All Over This (and Any) Site

Owen Good — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST

Are you browsing this page on Google Chrome right now? Well, you're going to want to. Some saint of a coder has developed an utterly delightful hack that rolls up all of a Web page's text and pictures, Katamari-style. More »

Would You Like Some Katamari Art?

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EDT

Namco's Katamari Damacy is an iconic title. People instantly recognize it. This makes Katamari perfect fodder for an art show. Yes, an art show. More »

Monster Runaway Star Rampages Through Universe

Mike Fahey — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:30:00 EDT

30 Dor 016 is a star 90 times the size of our sun, ejected from its home, moving through space at a speed of 250,000 miles per hour. Anyone lose the plot to an epic science fiction video game? More »

Speak Now, Or Forever Hold Your Na Nahh Na Na Na Na Nahh Na Nahhs

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:30:00 EDT

Aidra and Ernest loved each other very, very much. So much that they got married. But it wasn't just any old wedding! It was one the King of the Cosmos would see fit to berate from on high. More »

Get Your Katamari Forever Soundtrack

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:00:00 EDT

From what we've seen of Katamari Forever, it's looking good! But from what we've heard, it's also sounding good, courtesy of its remixed soundtrack. More »

Katamari Available on iPhone

Owen Good — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST

It may be called "I Love Katamari," but it's not a knock-off. Straight from Namco Bandai, you can start rolling it up with your iPhone (or iPod Touch's) accelerometer for $7.99. More »

Keita Takahashi, Living the Playground Dream

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:00:00 EST

It's happening. Katamari creator actually is designing playground equipment. A while back, Takahashi said he wanted to leave the gaming industry and design playground equipment. GameCenter Iain Simons read this, wrote a proposal and began trying to rally support with the Nottingham city council. It's still in the early stages, but Takahashi envisages a wind turbine with a climbing net decorated with hundreds of LEDs. Close your eyes and imagine that. Yeah. He adds: More »

Katamari Creator Thinks Gaming Has "Lost Its Direction"

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:00:04 EST

When not harboring dreams of designing playground equipment, Katamari creator Keita Takahashi makes games and says kooky things. Some of those kooky things make sense, and some of them don't whatsoever. What's Keita think of creativity? More »

Katamari Sculpture Rolls Into Our Hearts

Mark Wilson — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:20:02 EST

How bad do we want to roll up all of the world's contents into a ball that can chase us ala Indiana Jones? Real bad. But this handmade Katamari sculpture would go a long way in quelling our somewhat frightening impulse. A 12" 1:12 scale model, everything was assembled through a painstaking process, requiring sewing, gluing and a little help from an inkjet printer. We so wish this were 1. for sale and 2. inexpensive enough for us to afford. Unfortunately, this beautifully crafted ball of stuff meets neither of these criteria...which is probably exactly why it's so fantastic. More »

Frankenreview, Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360)

Mark Wilson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:00:58 EDT

We're just outside of Tokyo, Flynn and I, taking a day after TGS to explore Kamakura—a city famous for its temples, and of course, the Great Buddha. After a spontaneous, mislead and treacherous hike through the deserted wilderness, we pop out on the side of a busy street loaded with bus caravans. We'd arrived at the Great Buddha. More »

Beautiful Katamari Rolling onto PS3 and Wii

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 03:00:57 EDT

Click to view First this, now this: The Bandai Namco Games US page lists Beautiful Katamari as a PS3 title and a Wii title. Previously, the game was supposedly a multi-platform title, but then the PS3 version was apparently abandoned due to porting issues and sluggish PS3 sales. Since this past spring, there has been rumblings of a Wii version, and the game's designer confirmed it was under consideration. Still, Beautiful Katamari was then announced as an Xbox 360 exclusive, and the released box art even carries the "Only on Xbox 360." According to Bandai Namco's site, the PS3 game's release date is TBA as is the Wii one (Xbox 360 should be out in October). Does that mean "Only on Xbox 360" is totally meaningless? If this is true, guess so!
More »

New Beautiful Katamari Screens are Hot

Mark Wilson — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:40:58 EDT

Literally. Beautiful Katamari will feature a new Roller Roaster mode in which players need to roll up massive amounts of "hot things," like pizza, coffee and pictures of Crecente. Laws of physics would generally argue that in order to reach 10,000 degrees Celsius, one would need more than a multitude of 100 degree Celsius objects in close proximity. But shhh, don't tell the King. More »

Beautiful Katamari Demo Hits XBL

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:20:34 EDT

Thought the BioShock demo was enough? Wrong. The Beautiful Katamari demo rolled onto Xbox Live this morning, catchy music and cute graphics in tow. The Xbox 360 exclusive won't be out until this fall. So, go on. Download it. DO IT. More »

Beautiful Katamari Details Roll Into Your Life

fdemarco — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:00:00 EDT

The lucky bastards over at GameSpot got a chance to do a hands on with the new Beautiful Katamari and brought back some details with them. The game will be available via Xbox Live Arcade and from the looks of it, the gameplay and art style that make Katamari great have remained untouched. There will be a ton of new content though, including eight new playable characters, new music and all new levels. It will be presented in glorious 720p HD and will also include achievements to help pump up your anemic gamerscore. As in the other games, Beautiful Katamari will have a central area where you can access all your cousins, royal presents and save/load your games called Princetown. Clever, eh? More »

Clip: Hot New My Beautiful Katamari Footage

fdemarco — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:00:00 EDT

The announcement of My Beautiful Katamari was met with mixed reactions. Some, like me, were excited for yet another round of candy colored Japanese bizarreness while others thought it wouldn't be the same so why bother and yet still others could have cared less. More »

Top 10 Planet Friendly Games

Maggie Greene — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:30:47 EDT

Just in time for Earth Day, which is today (living in Taipei, where a layer of suspicious-looking black gunk coats every exposed surface on my roof, I didn't even notice), Game Daily brings us a list of the top 10 planet friendly games. A couple of my pet favorites are on here: Katamari, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon (I'm not sure farming has ever looked so fun and environmentally friendly as it does on my DS) all make the list, along with some unexpected choices like Grand Theft Auto. More »

Another Katamari Cake!

fdemarco — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:00:00 EDT

It's been a while since I posted a game cake, but this one definitely deserves it. This is probably the best representation of Katamari Damacy in cake form that I have yet seen. I was always fond of that star-like icing decoration. It reminds me of all those character cakes my Mom used to make me when I was a kid. It's a bit of an antiquated style, but in this case , it works perfectly. More »

Rumor: Beautiful Katamari Rolls On To Consoles This Fall

fdemarco — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:00:00 EDT

Website Orange Lounge Radio has a pretty good track record with reporting rumors that usually turn out to be right on target. Their newest addition to the rumor mill is that Namco has announced to retailers that a new Katamari game, entitled Beautiful Katamari, will be arriving on all three next gen consoles this fall. They even go so far as to list release dates and prices. According to their source, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will hit on October 17th at $39.99 followed swiftly by the Wii version on November 14th for a slightly cheaper $29.99. Their source is listed as a "someone who works in video game distribution" and if you doubt their word, they have put together a little FAQ explaining exactly why you should believe them, including this post on Xboxic which seems to corroborate the story. More »

Those Katamari Earmuffs Look Like Jubblies!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:22:58 EST

Just in time for winter comes these insane mammary-like Katamari earmuffs. There's even a secret compartment where you can stuff twenty dollar bills. The pattern appears in the December issue of Shojo Beat magazine, so you can make them if your into having large funbags on the side of your head. Brian Ashcraft More »

Homemade Katamari Damacy Costumes

Jason Chen — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:40:39 EST

Halloween may be over, but that doesn't mean we can't show you these awesome (ly freaky) costumes of the King and Queen of All Cosmos. Can't...stop...staring...at...king's...sexy...legs. Jason Chen More »

Gaming Pumpkin Heads

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:22:31 EDT

By posting this, we acknowledge one thing: Our inbox will be bombarded with countless game pumpkins. That's okay, but make 'em good, gosh dernit. Frodo from the Weekly Geek Show carved his a Katamari pumpkin, a Triforce pumpkin and what looks like Ken Kutaragi. Nice work, Frodo! Brian Ashcraft More »

A Safe-For-Work Katamari Pole Photo

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 06:22:15 EDT

So. Yesterday, Florian posted a naughty pic and got everyone at work in trouble, including himself. He actually felt tremendous guilty about the pic and sent us a handwritten chicken scrawl fax in which he wrote "I shall not post photos of impaled naked people ever again on Kotaku" 539 times. Today, we bring another impaled photo from a reader with the clever name "Anonymous"—it's a Katamari birthday cake that has a Prince with stick rammed up his tooter. Delicious. Brian Ashcraft More »

Travelers Insurance Does Katamari

kotaku.com — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:00:08 EDT

Before this delightful Katamari rip-off ad from Travelers Insurance, it had never occurred to me that any frail meat puppets caught in the onslaught of a Katamari would find all of their limbs horrifically snapped and mangled; their bodies pulverized into a slurry by the relentless pressure of the rapidly building layers on top of them. Ghoulishly, this thought thrilled me, so I am disappointed that the commercial ends with everyone walking away from the Katamari just a-okay. More »

The Princess of the Cosmos! Mario with Boobs! Goddess of War! MegaWoman!!!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:21:44 EDT

The always delightful GayGamer points to artist GuitarAtomik (AKA Marques Cannon), whose thang is taking male video game heros and putting them in dresses and tube tops. His DeviantART page features a gallery of sexy heroines, which he creates using Photoshop and Illustrator. Currently his "Dante" from Devil May Cry is available as a print. Hot! Brian Ashcraft More »

Giant Katamari of Blue Jeans in China

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:22:13 EDT

Anytime a large ball of something is discovered, we are immediately sent it with the tagline: "Check out this giant Katamari doohickey!" We hate to rain on everyone's parade, but there were balls of crap before Katamari Damacy. That game just made balls of crap cool. Here's an art installation in Shanghai, made from thousands of blue jeans. The diameter is roughly 16 feet. It looks like something from Katamari, if the game took place in a Levi's store or something. But really, what the hell does this sculpture mean? Brian Ashcraft More »

Threadless: Half-Blood Prince of All Cosmos

brownlee — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:40:02 EDT

Here's another Threadless design you all should vote for: a strange Katamari Damacy meets Harry Potter mash-up, "The Half Blood Prince of All Cosmos". Here's hoping the Prince is planning on rolling them all into a pit filled with glass and honey. Florian Eckhardt More »

Japan Hates LocoRoco

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:23:44 EDT

Sony has rolled out a giant failure with LocoRoco. Oddly fun, the game was pegged to be the PSP's own Katamari-type hit. The company poured millions into advertising the PSP game, even shifting marketing focus from other titles to LocoRoco. This game, Sony was convinced, had all the makings of a smash. More »

Stop The Stop Motion Katamari

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:22:13 EDT

Namco's Katamari Damacy was one of those games that totally caught me off guard the first time I played it. I hadn't seen anything like it and was genuinely trying to figure out what the hizzy heck was going on. That took all of ten seconds. Then I was ready to move on and not have anything to do with the game. The same can be said about this fan-made stop motion clip. Though, ten seconds is being kind. Brian Ashcraft More »

Kotakuite Chris Rolls Katamari!

brownlee — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:40:57 EDT

Chris writes: More »

Katamari Sculpture Stuck In Berlin

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:22:36 EDT

Lucky Germans. They not only get to eat yummy fritters and guzzle delicious beer 24-7, but also can stare at this Katamari-type statue thingy. Located in Berlin, this giant sculpture is located on the way to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. There apparently isn't a plaque explaining what it is or who made it, but we'll just chalk it up to general nuttiness until some lovely German folk clue us in. Brian Ashcraft More »

We Love Precious Katamari vs. Pac-Man Crafts

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 19:13:14 EDT

... Precious. Seriously, now this is one of the best examples of handmade copyright violations I've ever seen. For a mere $9.50 (cheap!) you get: More »

Post-Takahashi Katamari May Be A Reality

brownlee — Fri, 26 May 2006 12:40:46 EDT

And speaking of this site's inexorable Katamari fixation, our enthusiasm started flailing wildly about the room like a rampant fire hose, spraying whatever less-than-subtle euphemism you'd care to mnemonically conjure, when we read that the Katamari Damacy series may not be dead after all. More »

Stop-Motion Katamari

brownlee — Fri, 26 May 2006 11:40:37 EDT

We sure hope we haven't posted this before, because it's adorable. A stop-motion Prince rolls his Katamari boll through a doll house. Very cute, but we'd never quite realized that the Prince was actually the gaming equivalent of a dung beetle before. FLORIAN ECKHARDT More »

Keita Takahashi Talks and Pisses You Off

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 25 May 2006 11:22:11 EDT

Is Katamari kreator Keita Takahashi for real, taking the piss or on drugs? Or golly, all of the above? I have no clue as I've never met the dude, but Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield did at GDC, so he'll hafta fill us all in. Until then, we can rummage through the detris of quotes Takashi has left behind. ~~Drum~~ ~~Katamari~~ Drum roll please... More »

San Francisco Katamari March Photos

brownlee — Mon, 22 May 2006 10:40:40 EDT

If you couldn't make your rotund way to last weekend's Katamari Damacy march in San Francisco, affixing to your sticky girth a potpourri of Americana as you rolled across the nation's highways, Kodak is hosting a beautiful gallery of photographs. Not that there was any doubt, but it looks like gaming geek paradise. Did anyone end up going? I envy you. How was it? Give me a report in the comments. - Florian Eckhardt More »

Katamari Embroidery!

brownlee — Thu, 18 May 2006 09:40:22 EDT

We're not sure what the Katamari Prince is doing hopping around in that Kuribo Boot, but otherwise, absolutely adorable. The perfect patch to sew onto your heavy metal denhim jacket to subtly accentuate your sensitive side. More »

More Retro Baking!

brownlee — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:40:08 EDT

The improbably named Rakka Deer sent us a link to her great Flickr photoset featuring some enthusiastic and charming attempts at immortalizing classic game characters in cupcakes and pies. Not only she baked the chain of Centipede cupcakes above (or to the right, I guess... this new widescreen template is so damn unpredictable), but a Pac-Man cupcake, a Space Invaders apple pie and Tetris cookies. More »

Magnetic Katamari Pen Holder!

brownlee — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:40:06 EDT

What would we do with Kotaku's occasional most luscious apparatus, Alice? She hardly ever writes for us anymore, but still, we pushed ourselves through the enantiomorphic bubble into her Looking Glass Wonderland daily, and she always has cool little video game crafts for us to coo over. Like this knitted and magnetic Katamari pen holder, above! More »

Real Life Katamari Flattens San Francisco

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 02 May 2006 09:22:50 EDT

On May 21st, a group of ~~freaky~~ fun-lovin' Katamari cosplayers are going to gather refrigerator boxes in San Francisco and make a giant katamari out of it. They are entering the certifiably odd 12K Bay to Breakers run and picking up junk along the way. 12K run? These Katamarians won't get further than 1K before this half-baked idea runs out of gas, and they gather for a group hug. More »