Halloween - Small Dog Costume - Katamari Damacy Style - Katamari Prince [Etsy via Wonderland]

Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi's next game, Noby Noby Boy (nee Nobi Nobi Boy), is being shown in video form only at Tokyo Game Show. Honestly, this is not what we had in mind. Unfortunately, of all the Namco Bandai games we've seen so far at TGS, this is not one of them. We're left scratching our heads. It's shockingly different in... gameplay(?) than what we'd seen at previous demos. We'll be camped out at the TGS PlayStation booth to try to make sense of the madness...

It's a job I don't envy — my research this year has partially comprised of looking at translations going the other way (from English to Chinese), and it's been very enlightening to look at the various ways titles get translated. They range from near word-for-word translations to titles that have radically different emphases than their American counterparts. Add to that the job of translating everything inside a work, and that's a lot of acculturalization that needs to be done. What games have done it well? What have really fell on their face? And if you had a chance to rename something - or tweak interior translations - what would it be?

Game Design Challenge: Rename Katamari Damacy [GameCareerGuide]

He tells Gamespot:

In an ideal world, I want to see only one major console being retailed on the market, and everyone actually making games for just one console, and bring the price of that console down from what the three currently cost right now.

Ah utopia! So which console wins the bloody war? Is it the PlayStation 3, "exclusive" home to Nobi Nobi Boy? Nope, the game designer envisions a totally new console, something that can shake up the industry. There's plenty more fantasy where that came from at his Q&A.

Q&A: Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi [Gamespot]

In the best quality video of the display, unsurprisingly at Gamersyde, we're shown a controllable trio of Boys, amid scattered livestock and pets, simply bumbling about. The titular characters are shown stretched out, playing with animals, safely ingesting and passing them, floating through the air, all with a distinctive, attractive style. The game's emphasis on physics is apparent, but the objective escapes us.

I recommend taking a look at the Gamersyde hosted clip, if only for a fun personal game session of How The Hell Is This Going To Work.

Nobi Nobi Boy presentation video [Gamersyde]

It would be impossible for us to be here... if the world was not peaceful. If there was heavy fighting or pollution in the cities could we talk about video games like this? If you're suffering from poverty and disease could you worry about collecting coins? I don't think so.

I don't know about the future but we will see more of the darker side of reality on the Earth. I'm not trying to be the next Al Gore but I'm not sure if we could afford to have video games in ten or twenty year's time. I'm not saying that we don't need game events or games themselves, but in order to enjoy these events we should recycle rubbish... be friendly to your neighbors.

I might be being idealistic but I truly think so. Video gaming is good but it's also a luxury. You can't play video games unless you are financially well off.

Keynote [GamesIndustry]

I spent about 15 minutes with the musical journey this morning before I became too distracted with the experimental arrangement, but fans of game music who loathe paying for things should give the MP3 a whirl. Thanks to Geoff for turning us on to Bob's work.

w00t (and Other Recordings) [BobOstertag.com]

Big pic of the geeky handbook after the jump.

Thanks for the tip, Henry!

Keita Takahashi, a formally trained artist, commented, "I haven't had the chance to consider my plans for the day just yet but I'm definitely ready to enjoy myself! I'm hoping to share some of my works at the event so let's hope everyone can join me in October!"

Sounds like a potentially amazing amount of fun to be had by all, especially since Takahashi seems to have no idea what he is going to talk about. Expect hastily scribbled restaurant napkin speech notes

I especially like the description of the festival given in the press release below.

GameCity is the only event in the UK to bring developers, students and lovers of interesting culture together in Indian restaurants

Takahashi stretches out for GameCity/BAFTA Vision Statement

Unique talent headlines line-up for 2007 festival

24th July 2007. Nottingham, UK.

GameCity today announces Namco Bandai designer Keita Takahashi as their 2007 Vision Statement speaker. The unique creative genius behind the original title Katamari Damacy and recently announced Nobi Nobi Boy will deliver the 2007 GameCity Vision Statement, sponsored by BAFTA, on Saturday 27th October at Nottingham's Broadway Media Centre.

Keita Takahashi, a formally trained artist, commented, "I haven't had the chance to consider my plans for the day just yet but I'm definitely ready to enjoy myself! I'm hoping to share some of my works at the event so let's hope everyone can join me in October!"

Established in 2006 at the inaugural GameCity festival, the Vision Statement event is a platform for uniquely personal, creative perspectives from within the videogame industry. In 2006, Lorne Lanning gave an incisive and enormously well-received speech, detailing his perspective on the potential of videogames before announcing his new Hollywood movie 'Citizen Siege'.

Festival director, Iain Simons said, "We're enormously excited that Keita has chosen to participate in the GameCity festival and deliver the Vision Statement keynote. This really is a unique opportunity for gamers to spend some quality time in the company of one of the most exciting developers working today."

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is the UK's leading organisation dedicated to the recognition and promotion of excellence in the fields of the moving image. Renowned for its high profile Film and Television Awards ceremonies, the prestigious BAFTA mask has long been seen as a symbol of excellence. The Academy is now committed to the development of the contemporary art form of video games, and to lending equal weight to its British Academy Video Games Awards as that given to film and television.

Kam Kandola, Regional Programmer for BAFTA commented, "BAFTA is tremendously excited to be working with GameCity on our second Vision Statement following on from the British Academy Video Games Awards which are taking place on 23rd October in London. Opportunities for the public to meet with industry leaders such as Keita are very valuable and we are delighted to be continuing to help to bring the creative excellence behind video games closer to the people that play them. This event is part of our BAFTA in the Regions programme which is all about celebrating the very best in the fields of the moving image to as wide an audience as possible, and we're looking forward to another great BAFTA Video games event at GameCity."

GameCity is the only event in the UK to bring developers, students and lovers of interesting culture together in Indian restaurants, and this year promises to continue shattering expectations of what a videogame festival could be. Taking place across an entire city, the festival happens in a huge variety of venues - from cinemas, to market squares, to restaurants, cafes, schools.

GameCity is all about celebrating the culture and development of videogames, specifically bringing the people who make them into contact with the people who play them - and who want to make them. Students from Universities across the UK will be attending in their droves to question, probe and applaud the developers taking part.

With the full programme yet to be announced, GameCity can promise the participation of some extraordinary talents. Developers already involved include Frontier, Freestyle Games, Travellers Tales, Free Radical Design, Mode 7, SCEE and more are signing up daily.

Importantly from an Industry point of view, GameCity is perhaps the most visible example yet of the public sector stepping up and explicitly supporting an industry so often under attack. Iain Simons, festival director commented, "We are delighted with the support that the festival has gained from the City of Nottingham and its lead partner, Nottingham Trent University. It feels like a real milestone on the journey to mainstream culture for interactive entertainment that an event like this can happen at all."

GameCity 2007 happens all across Nottingham from the 24th - 28th October, 2007.

The game, which is loosely translated at "Stretchy Stretchy Boy" or machine translated as "Unrestricted Boy", doesn't have a release date, nor did Namco Bandai reveal the game's genre. Given Takahashi's creativity, I'm going to assume that Nobi Nobi Boy will probably not adhere to any currently known genre.

This goes a long, long way to make reparations for the Xbox 360 exclusive release of the fourth Katamari game, in my personal, always correct opinion. Hopefully, we'll see much more of the game at the September Tokyo Game Show.

What is Namco Bandai Games Nobi Nobi Boy!!? [Famitsu]

1. Finish Super Paper Mario. Seriously need to get this done. Ouendan 2 ships next week—went for the expensive shipping—with Odin Sphere arriving the following Wednesday. Gotta get the rest of those Pure Hearts and quick-like.

2. Find out where the hell my Katamari Damacy t-shirts are. I ordered three of those dudes from the folks at Panic weeks ago.

3. Sell some stuff on eBay. I've got that Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess preview cart for the Nintendo DS that was given away at E3 '06 and some sweet LocoRoco merch just rotting on my shelf.

4. Put together a contest for some swag giveaways. Some L-sized Kotaku reader surely wants this stuff.

5. Call mom. Oh yeah! Just remembered she's in Italy. Easiest Mother's Day ever!

Looks like finishing Super Paper Mario is going to take up most of my free time. You? What are you playing this weekend? Hit the comments! Michael McWhertor

So, what don't we know? Well, apart from the obsessive rolling around (and up) with the Katamari ball, and the occassional run in with that mal-contented King of the Cosmos, we can also expect a few more added bonuses to the new game. One of them includes an added mess of 3,500 more objects to roll up from the previous game, making the total number of objects able to stick to just one Katamari a massive five thousand. Let's see the King be disappointed now.

Also for the first time, Katamari will be going online with a whole new versus mode where you can play/crash/roll up to three different friends. No more of that two player mumbo-jumbo, it's time to create total chaos. Totally beautiful chaos. Kim Phu

Beautiful Katamari Details Roll In [Xboxic]

With all the excitement of the new Beautiful Katamari coming out as well as all the new artwork from the game, it's nice to know that one smart Flickr member had the brains to download the wallpapers from the original Katamari Damacy site so we can enjoy them before the real frenzy begins.

Kraftaku ways to use the wallpapers? Upload the images on your cellphone (therefore breaking it when you realize you should have downsized the file), use them as wrapping paper, laminate the larger sizes for use as place mats, and, of course, make 1,000 paper cranes out them so you can wish that Beautiful Katamari would come out sooner. Kim Phu

llshibata's Flickr [Flickr via Game Set Watch]

David Murray, an artist who creates custom t-shirts on his website, Seibei Industries, has gotten into quite the Katamari art competition with his friend Amy. It all started with a cross-stitch of Royal Cousin Kuro by Amy which was then answered by David with a great multi-media collage of Royal Cousin Opeo rolling a giant Katamari through a vibrant pink and green landscape. Not to be outdone, Amy shot back with the above Katamari sculpture made from what looks like Fimo and actually works using a system of magnets.

The big question now is, how will David respond to this latest challenge and who will eventually come out on top in the Great Katamari Craft-Off of 2007? Flynn De Marco

the Katamari Craft-Off continues... [Seibei Industries]
[via Boingboing]

We're sure that both rental outfits Blockbuster and Gamefly will soon be asked to remove their three listings for Beautiful Katamari and that the United States Patent and Trademark Office will also soon comply.

Then we can all go back to hoping that "more Katamari Damacy games are coming" as Panic's Cabel told us following his recent visit to Bandai Namco Games in Japan and put this whole Beautiful Katamari mess behind us. Michael McWhertor

I let my mind wander with this one. I wanted a romantic shirt, and as a result, I think the shirt turned out wonderful. Gold foil on black... I like this combination of gorgeousness and romance. Also, it's a castle, and it's gold, so I really want Hollywood celebrities to wear this shirt. That said, I'm fully expecting this shirt will turn out to be the most unpopular... to my regret.

Panic Goods Katamari Shirts [Product page, via Joystiq]

Netsu Chu! Baseball 2007 [Impress Game Watch]

Moontasticmel loves Katamari Damacy. Loves it so much in fact that she has decided to get a half sleeve Katamari themed tattoo! She has posted a bunch of photos of the piece in progress on her Livejournal page and I gotta say, it looks pretty great. As you can see from the photo, it's not quite finished yet, but judging by the portion that's already done, the completed piece is going to be a beauty. LOVE the donuts. Nice work! Flynn De Marco

Moontasticmel's Katamari Tattoo Gallery [Livejournal - Thanks, Redeyegirl]

It's currently undecided if the game will be available in Japan or elsewhere.

In development as of last November and scheduled to hit before the end of the year, the game looks to focus on the versus mode from the sequels as well as community features including a "pet system" and "house system" consisting of an island users can fill with in-game rolled-up items.

Not familiar with WindySoft? Well, do the titles PunkyOn, Ludy-Pang and Kunio Online ring any bells? No? Same here. Guess I'll have to get up to speed with my South Korean casual game developers now. Michael McWhertor

WindySoft Announces Katamari Damacy Online [4Gamer]

Erickson put it bluntly just before the new year:

Total crap - not happening.

That sounds pretty damned definite to me. And maybe it's for the best. How many more times can we play Katamari Damacy? Michael McWhertor

Katamari Damacy coming to XBLA [via BBPS]
Rumor: Katamari Coming To Wii, XBLA? [Kotaku]

You may not care that Line Rider is coming to the Nintendo DS and Wii, but you gotta show a little respect for the skills necessary to put together this clip titled "Urban Run." Plus, whomever had the good sense to tack on some Katamari tunes deserves a hair-tussle and a "nice job." Seeing this just makes me want the DS version that much more. Michael McWhertor

Line Rider Coming To DS, Wii [Kotaku]

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

You Can, Uh, Make This [ThirtyKnitter via Boing Boing]

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

Homemade King & Queen of All Cosmos Katamari Damacy costumes [MAKE]

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

Admit, It Kinda Looks Like Kutaragi [WGS]

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

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.

As an ancillary note, I have a question: I've only played a bit of the first Katamari. Do any of the levels allow you to build a Katamari so big that you eventually manage to roll-up the planet you're on, then continue to build your katamari until you make a star of all creation, sucking up black holes and galaxies? Eventually, you get so big that you realize that the entire universe is but one small molecule in an infinitely recursive cosmos, and you can actually continue to expand your universe throughout infinity? That really does seem like the natural conclusion of the concept. Florian Eckhardt

I have a rather unfortunate confession to make: my bedroom closet is stuffed with sad button-eyed stuffed animals.

I'm not a furry, I swear. But every birthday or Christmas, my mother pushes a stuffed animal into my hands, a long-running gift tradition that has rather awkwardly crept into my late twenties. At first, I tried to fly home by "forgetting" them, only to have my mother confront me with the rejected stuffed toy at the airport, her face smeared with ashes, her dress rent in sadness. What can I do? I suavely walk onto the airplane lugging a teddy bear along with me. The stewardesses eye me with cold contempt.

Once at a home, I have no idea what to do with these toys. I would throw them away, but I have never quite gotten over my Velveteen Rabbit belief that stuffed animals are secretly alive. Guilt consumes me even locking them in the closet. And there is an awkward moment of reckoning every time a new girlfriend crab walks her way naked from my bed to grab a spare t-shirt from my closet, only to be confronted with a massive pile of idiot man-child playthings.

Nevertheless, I would cuddle this crochet Katamari. You can buy the pattern for five bucks from Etsy. Florian Eckhardt

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 Here [Across-the-Board] Thanks, Jonathan!

Well, this looks lovely: a game in which you appear to play a gigantic fat baby covered in paint who must roll through a drab, monotone city and infuse magical color into the world. It's The Blob, a heavily Katamari inspired project from some clever Dutch students:

The game was a school project for an outside client. The station area of the city of Utrecht in The Netherlands is getting a thorough face-lift, as the station and many buildings around it are being rebuilt. Our task was to make a game that plays in the station area as it will be ten years from now, so that while playing, the audience is informed about what is going to happen. The game was to be played in a centre with information about the changes, but also be downloadable for players at home. This means the main target audience will walk by, play for a few minutes, and then walk on, but it should also be fun for people who download the game.

It's a beautiful little game and we'd love to see this expanded into a full project. Check out more over at TIGSource. Florian Eckhardt

De Blob [TIGSource]

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

There's Actually Another One [Siliconera]

I was in Berlin for the world cup a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't resist rolling that giant Katamari.

And there's Chris, exerting himself with Sisyphean toil against the Prince of All Cosmos' plaything. Way to go, Chris!

For the record, this ain't no Katamari, or it'd have more cows stuck to it. Berlin's full of impressive, wonderful art works like this. Walk around Berlin sometime and you'll notice 6's spray painted everywhere. It's all the act of a single man, whom I once quizzed about the significance of 6. Like most artists, he simply rambled incoherently for thirty minutes, then wandered off with a dazed look... as did I. Florian Eckhardt

Chris Rolls Katamari! [Flickr]
Previously: Katamari Sculpture Stuck in Berlin

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 Here [BaLtiMoRe RoLL] Danke, Jason!

We really need to stop posting Katamari stuff, because posting anything about the game now requires a ten hour search through Google to see if we ever posted it before. Anyway, our omniscient readers know their place: if we double post, a thousand of you will immediately flood our comments section, pointing out the original link. Thanks for that, by the way... if only we had a direct umbilical to your collective memory before we wrote the post.

Anyway, it's Memorial Day, and we're all a little drunk. Yet this Japanese Katamari Damacy commercial is oddly soothing. Even if you've seen it before, we can't imagine you'll mind too much seeing it again. FLORIAN ECKHARDT

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.

Although Keita Takahashi is off to grander hippy-dippy gaming adventures, he recently told Gamasutra that he expects Namco will probably continue the Katamari games.

That's comforting, although perhaps inevitable. Have you ever known a publisher not to milk a successful franchise into a dusty slab of pitifully lowing beef?FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Katamari Series Not Necessarily Over [1UP]

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

San Francisco Katamari March Photos [Kodak Gallery]

katamari damacy embroidered patch [Flickr]

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!

Alice has more Etsy goodness at the link below, including Mario mushroom keychains and Counterstrike clocks. Disentrench your credit cards from their leathery sarcophagi.

Its Etsy Time [Wonderland]