BACK TO THE INDEX. Sarah Speaks Up Kata-What? -By Sarah Tomase- -Presented by DMG Ice.com- -May contain balls and rolling- -Presented February 24/2005-

When I first heard about the game, Katamari Damacy, I didn’t know what to think. At first glance I was bouncing between feet, curiously looking at the oddly designed box, trying to figure out what the store clerk meant. Usually I write that kind of stuff off, but I heard the phrase “twenty dollars”. Still, all I saw was cows. Every time I march into that particular gaming store the clerk (always male) is at my heels. I don’t know if he wanted a date or works on commission, but, God, will they talk your ear off. And then as soon as you find something of interest, they pounce. The questions bug me. Back off, alright. I am sure every female gamer know what I am talking about. I was in the store looking for a fresh copy of Bubble Bobble Old & New for my GBA. I’d been anxiously waiting to get that game in my hands for over a year, and was a week or two late in hearing the news that it was finally released. So after a class or work or something, I don’t remember what, I stopped by – and I won’t say the name of the store – Oh Heck. EB Games (granted I don’t like EB Games, but the nearest Game Stop was 15 minutes away and this was on my way home). They didn’t even have it. So obviously, I snooped around the store looking for cracks in their wall, anything, for this game. After frantically glaring up and down the game boy advance wall racks, and after brushing off the store clerk, I checked out everything else. No NES games. It really cheeses me that I can’t find a decent old school truly classic game on any rack anywhere. I looked at a few games in a bin near the register and the other store clerk recommended Katamari Damacy. I didn’t tell him I was looking for Bubble Bobble. I think that’d just reinforce his notion that, yes, I am a girl. I mean girly game, no? Cute little dinosaurs shooting nothing but bubbles at their opponents: the kind of thing only so popular in the 1980s. These kids these days would show no appreciation. Steering back on course (I do that a lot so get used to it), I had notion to believe, judging by the vibrant cows on the cover (they mooed at me, I swear!), that Katamari Damacy was a girly game. What other new PS2 game can you get for a Jackson? So this must have been early September. Because, Bubble Bobble had just come out a week or two before (low key, because it was practically snuck into the States) and the game, as I take it, had just come out. I left EB games and sped on over to Game Stop, because I needed my fix on Bubble Bobble. I know what you’re thinking: “Why is this girl so obsessed with that stupid game?!” And I promise I (will try to) not mention them in the next Sarah Speaks Up. Sure enough, it was there. And I told the clerk at Game Stop (who I had a rather nice conversation with about Europe) “what the hell” and purchased a copy of Katamari Damacy as well. More addictive than cigarettes, and regretfully short, this game is so worth what you pay for it it’s even less funny than Bob Saget. Buy it. Get addicted to it. Come back six months later and play it again. Unlock everything. Beat your old records. Show your friends. Don’t be ashamed of the whole silly concept, which is, if you don’t know: rolling an oddly shaped ball or “katamari” around Earth to make an even bigger katamari which will just be made into a star. And we want big stars, yes we do. Today I went back and popped the game in. I think I’ve scratched up my own copy to it, which causes pure sadness to my heart. It is fickle. Someone fix it. Please? Sarah Tomase -Editorial by Sarah Tomase- -Property of dmgice.com-