GCG Feature: 'Katamari Damacy – A Critique: Part Two'

Author: by Beth A.

In part two of a three-part series on Keita Takahashi's whimsical, wonderful Katamari Damacy on sister site Game Career Guide, Vancouver Film School student Ryan Stancl talks about critical approaches to the game using Marxist, Structural, and Jungian forms of analysis. Stancl begins his piece on Marxism as follows: "In Katamari Damacy, there are two societal observations that run throughout the game that deserve a quick comment (and then a third, larger observation to follow). First, when the player presses the Start button to pause the game, a fact pops up on the screen that’s different every time. In the top left-hand corner of the screen is the size of the katamari, and next to it there is a comparison of how big it is to the size of a random object in the game – “Your katamari is as big as *a number* of *an object.*” This is making a comment on how everyone in today’s society is constantly comparing things: the prices of items, their bodies to others, their happiness to their friends, etc." You can now read the full Game Career Guide feature for insights on Marxist, Structural, and Jungian forms of analysis of Katamari Damacy (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).