History VideoGame / KatamariDamacy

* GameMod: The [=PC=] version of ''[=REROLL=]'' has one that [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1586689748 restores the English Dubbed cutscenes]], for those who would prefer the dub over the sub.

In September of 2012, a short-lived {{Webcomic|s}} based on the series was launched on ''Website/ShiftyLook'', titled simply ''Webcomic/{{Katamari}}'', which was later made available in a physical paperback collection. In 2018, a remaster of the first game, titled ''Katamari Damacy Reroll'', was released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and Steam, with a 2020 release on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne. On February 8, 2023, a remaster of the first sequel titled ''We ♥ Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie'' was announced, set to release later in the summer on June 2nd.

* GuideDangIt: None of the tutorials or hints let you know that the katamari can climb walls. Using this, depending on your current size, can let you take shortcuts and access walled areas early. Further, if a wall has a ladder or steps on it, you can climb it indefinitely, which is the only way to get certain objects and presents. The trouble is that the game's physics consider touching the wall under any circumstances to be a collision, which is something you ''don't'' want. The game almost seems to be ''discouraging'' trying this - no matter how slowly you roll up to the wall, so much as bumping it will cause a crash and likely a few objects knocked loose, making rolling forward against the wall feel counter-intuitive.

* ''Touch My Katamari'' (UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita, 2011): The King becomes distraught after overhearing a family discuss his decreasing coolness, so he recruits the Prince and his cousins to roll up Katamaris for him to eat so he can get back in shape. In addition to supporting the Vita's front touchscreen for touch rolling, the back touchscreen can be used to squash and stretch the Katamari for various purposes.

The KingOfAllCosmos gets drunk one night and accidentally destroys all the stars in the Great Cosmos. The following morning, he assigns his son, the Prince, to make new stars by collecting random objects from the Earth to be turned into stars. The Prince, who had been treated rather badly by his father up to now, does this by running the objects over with a big sticky ball that makes bigger and bigger clumps of objects as it collects them. The Prince starts by collecting ants and thumbtacks, and eventually moves on to whales, jumbo jets, office towers, and sports stadiums... and so begins the first ''Katamari Damacy''.

-->-- '''[[KingOfAllCosmos The King of All Cosmos]]

One of the most well-known oddball video games, this item-collecting PuzzleGame franchise was created with one idea at the core: series creator Keita Takahashi wanted to bring silly, colorful, and simple fun back into gaming at a time when the industry trend was to be mature and serious. And the games certainly live up to this idea, the horrified screams of the countless people you're rolling up to eventually ignite into a star notwithstanding. It's great at a party, with recreational drugs being optional... and, really, [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs they'd be redundant]].

-->'''King of All Cosmos''': Students? At Earth schools? Noooooooooooooooo!!!

-->'''King of All Cosmos''': What? Sweets? Sweets?? You want to eat sweets?? Ooo, We want to eat them too. Really and honestly, a good idea. Now, let's go eat.

* LevelOneMusicRepresents: [[http://youtu.be/ekOqgknkVN4 "Katamari On The Rocks"]] is possibly the best-known song of the franchise, appearing in all games either in original form or as a RecurringRiff in other songs.

** The famous riff from "Katamari On the Rocks" reappears in many other songs on the soundtrack.

--> '''King of all Cosmos''': [[WellDoneSonGuy We can believe in you for 3 minutes in Earth time.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: The cops will do absolutely nothing as you roll up animals and citizens right in front of them. And when your katamari is finally big enough to roll ''them'' up, they'll start shooting at you - the only attack in the game that does ''no'' damage to your katamari.

* PutOnABus: Out of all the many Cousins, only a handful made it into ''Touch My Katamari'', only one found in each level. [[note]]Specifically, Ace, Dipp, Foomin, Fujio, Ichigo, June, Lalala, Marcy, Miso, Odeko, Opeo, Peso, Velvet and the Prince.[[/note]] The King's official Twitter explained the others were on vacation.

** In ''Touch My Katamari'', the King tasks you with rolling up Katamaris for him to eat to trim the fat off of the royal belly. Naturally, this means that he'll eat Katamaris made out of whatever junk you find lying around and somehow create a star (tastefully mind you, no ToiletHumor involved here) in the process of doing so.
%%* {{Fanservice}}: What the plot of ''We ♥ Katamari'' basically amounts to -- The King of All Cosmos & co. have gained a huge amount of fans ([[HundredPercentAdorationRating the entire world]], actually) since the events of the first game, and all the stages after the tutorial involve fulfilling their requests.

* PanderingToTheBase: ''We ♥ Katamari'', literally, which involves fulfilling requests from in-universe Katamari fans. The plot is even based around how oddly popular the first game was.

** ''Katamari Damacy Reroll'' (PC and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, 2018): An HD remake of the first game. The Switch version allows you to use two separated Joy-Cons to roll the Katamari with motion controls, and features HD Rumble support and multiplayer with single Joy-Cons.
* ''We ♥ Katamari''/''We Love Katamari'' [[note]]''Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy'' ("Everyone Loves Katamari Damacy") in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, 2005): Mixing in a bit of meta-commentary, the success of ''Katamari Damacy'' has led to the King gaining a massive fanbase with their own requests for him, which the King fulfills by sending the Prince (or his cousins, who are now playable in single-player) to roll up more Katamaris. This time, the Katamaris are transformed into planets or satellites to fill the (still fairly empty) Great Cosmos; the ultimate goal is to make enough planets to fulfill one fan's request of making a Katamari big enough to roll up the Sun. This time, the cutscenes focus on the King's life growing up with his own strict father, and how he met the Queen of All Cosmos. Levels tend to be based around specific themes this time, with a wider range of goals besides size and object count.
** ''We ♥ Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie'' (2023): An HD remake of the second game with additional content.
* ''Me & My Katamari'' [[note]]''Boku no Watashi no Katamari Damacy'' ("My My Katamari Damacy") in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, 2005): A pleasant Earth vacation for the royal family goes sour when the King once again causes unnecessary destruction, this time destroying an entire island full of animals with a tornado. As usual, he sends the Prince out to roll up new Katamaris to form into new islands for the now-homeless wildlife. The first game in the series to not feature any involvement from Keita Takahashi.

* ''Katamari Forever'' [[note]]''Katamari Tribute'' in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, 2009): After the King gets knocked out cold by a bonk from a meteor, the Prince and his cousins build a robotic replica for him in the form of [=RoboKing=], who goes on a star-destroying rampage after being activated (and, unlike the real King, feels extremely guilty about it). The game alternates between restoring the King's lost memories to wake him up and helping [=RoboKing=] repair the Great Cosmos. Introduces the Prince Jump to the rolling moveset and adds special heart items that attract objects to the Katamari. Additionally, [[MegamixGame nearly every level in the game is taken from previous installments]].

In September of 2012, a short-lived {{Webcomic|s}} based on the series was launched on ''Website/ShiftyLook'', titled simply ''Webcomic/{{Katamari}}'', which was later made available in a physical paperback collection. In 2018, a remaster of the first game, titled ''Katamari Damacy Reroll'', was released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and Steam, with a 2020 release on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne. On February 8, 2023, a remaster of the first sequel titled ''We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie'' was announced, set to release later in the summer on June 2nd.

* EverythingIsAnInstrument: "Sun-baked Savannah" from ''We Love Katamari'' is a medley of songs from the first game done with animal noises.
* EvolvingTitleScreen: ''We Love Katamari'' has a title screen that changes if you manage to [[MarathonLevel roll up one million roses]] in a bonus level.

%%* {{Fanservice}}: What the plot of ''We Love Katamari'' basically amounts to--The King of All Cosmos & co. have gained a huge amount of fans ([[HundredPercentAdorationRating the entire world]], actually) since the events of the first game, and all the stages after the tutorial involve fulfilling their requests.
* FlashbackBPlot: ''We Love Katamari'' has the main plot of the Prince and his cousins rolling Katamaris for their fans on Earth, but all of the cutscenes involve flashbacks to the King's troubled childhood.

%%* FranchiseZombie: Keita Takahashi only reluctantly agreed to help with ''We Love Katamari'', and had nothing to with any of the other games past it.

* LuckyCharmsTitle: ''[[HeartSymbol We]] ♥ [[HeartSymbol Katamari]]'', read as ''We Love Katamari''.

** PlayedForLaughs in ''We Love Katamari'', when it's revealed early on that the stars made in the first game are nowhere near enough to replace all the immeasurable number of stars in the entire universe.

* YouBreakItYouProfit: One level in We Love Katamari is scored by the monetary value of rolled-up objects instead of total size. This level takes place in a posh mansion and is filled with coins, jewelry, and lots of gold. The King says that life is priceless, so any people or animals you roll up are worth zero.

In September of 2012, a short-lived {{Webcomic|s}} based on the series was launched on ''Website/ShiftyLook'', titled simply ''Webcomic/{{Katamari}}'', which was later made available in a physical paperback collection. In 2018, a remaster of the first game, titled ''Katamari Damacy Reroll'', was released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and Steam. On February 8, 2023, a remaster of the first sequel titled ''We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie'' was announced, set to release later in the summer on June 2nd.

In September of 2012, a short-lived {{Webcomic|s}} based on the series was launched on ''Website/ShiftyLook'', titled simply ''Webcomic/{{Katamari}}'', which was later made available in a physical paperback collection. In 2018, a remaster of the first game, titled ''Katamari Damacy Reroll'', was released on UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and Steam.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Played with in ''Katamari Forever'' with [=RoboKing=]. He goes on a star-destroying rampage when activated, but he regrets it afterwards and works to restore space with help from the Prince. Aside from being a nervous wreck, he's generally nicer than the King of All Cosmos.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Ironically, given how brightly he dresses, the King has grey skin. Cousin Opeo, meanwhile, has [[BlueWithShock blue skin]]. The colorful clothes everyone wears also invokes this, mainly since that's the easiest way to tell most of them apart aside from shape

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: How the Charge & Roll technique, well, charges up.

* UpToEleven: Katamari Race is a level that has the Katamari Auto-Rolling at high speeds. Katamari Drive is a mode where everything moves at higher speed including the Katamari, and it auto-rolls too. The Katamari Race - Katamari Drive Mode ''combines'' them.

** The King is rather stingy with praise throughout the entire series. In ''Katamari Forever'', he will only congratulate you for getting a score of 100/100 [[UpToEleven (or 120, if you do everything perfectly)]]. A score of 99 or lower is treated as mediocre.

* SickeninglySweet: "This is the happiest game I've ever played."

** Played for laugns in ''We Love Katamari'', when it's revealed early on that the stars made in the first game are nowhere near enough to replace all the immeasurable number of stars in the entire universe.

%%* TheTetrisEffect: Play too long and you'll start calculating in your head how to roll up your surroundings. ''[[http://xkcd.com/161/ Na na na na na na na na...]]''

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Each game introduces several new Cousins/Second Cousins/Distant Cousins. From ''We ♥ Katamari'' on, all of the cousins are playable after you've collected them, letting you give the Prince a break (and subsequently roll ''him'' up). And then there are the countless people, animals, and creatures you can roll up in the levels, which literally number in the ''thousands''. Though that's somewhat downplayed since the games consider them "objects".

* {{Mondegreen}}: A song from the first game, "Que Sera Sera", is sung entirely in English. A verse from the song, "I wanna wad you up into my life" is often misheard as "I wanna ''roll'' you up into my life". It becomes clearer when you hear that the singer pronounces "wad" and "roll" in different ways.

* ConnectedAllAlong: The ''Go! Jumbomen!'' cutscenes from ''Forever'' seem to be a ridiculous and nonsensical story about the titular Jumbomen, but the finale reveals [[spoiler:They were accidentally the cause of the spiky object that caused the King to fall into a coma.]]