Talk about a cheap game! When Katamari Damacy came out on the PS2 back in 2004, it had the low retail price tag of $19.99. It was almost too cheap to be true! In fact it was so cheap that it was actually pretty hard to find at first.

Between its low starting price and the rumor that it was fun, this game was rolling off the shelves. Nowadays it is somewhat rare, so the price hasn’t really changed much. Still, for a bit under $20 used this qualifies as a cheap game today.

Katamari Damacy definitely had some characteristics of what anyone would call a cheap game. It had graphics from some previous generation of consoles, extremely basic controls, and a rather poorly edited storyline. I’m not so sure the storyline was edited at all. Moreover, the various game modes were all basically the same thing: roll a ball around to pick up stuff.

That’s not to say Katamari Damacy was a bad game. It was quite the opposite. Too many games these days (and back then) focus around flashy graphics and complex objectives to attract players. This was of no concern in Katamari Damacy. The whole point of the game was to take a very simple concept and make it ridiculously fun.

Who would have thought it possible that simply rolling around picking up pretty much any object in your environment to create a growing ball called a Katamari would be such a good time? Well it is!

The Katamari is controlled in a rather unique fashion by using both analog sticks on the controller. If you want to roll forward, press both sticks forward. Likewise if you want to roll sideways or backwards. If you want to turn, you adjust the sticks away from each other. For example, pointing one stick forward and the other backward makes you rotate while not moving in any direction. It’s not the easiest system to explain, but it’s extremely simple to understand when you try it.

In a typical level, you start out with a small Katamari. You roll around the environment and pick up objects that are smaller than your Katamari, and as a result your Katamari grows. As it grows, you pick up larger objects. In the beginning, you can only pick up very small things, like little bits of paper or small food. As you move through the levels, you get to pick up much larger things: people, cows, trees, cars, and so on.

If you just give this game a try, you’ll find yourself cracking up at the various weird things you can pick up. It’s surprisingly satisfying when you get to roll over and absorb your first living creature. The levels do get fairly difficult, and you’ll soon discover that the time limit really does matter. But whether you stick it out and build up the skills to beat the game so you can unlock the “country” mini game (where you get to pick up countries!), or you just play until it gets to hard like I sometimes do, you will surely find that Katamari Damacy gets you plenty of bang for the buck.

Cheap Game Reviews gives this game 8 out of 10