Deathmatch Round of 16

Game, /gām/, noun. An activity providing entertainment or amusement

Why do we play games? Is it for a challenge? Is it to experience great cutting-edge art? Or is it to travel to another world? We play video games for all these reasons. But mostly we play for fun.

We Love Katamari is the purest, most instantly loveable video game ever made. There has never been a game so wonderfully determined to allow the player to have a good time. It is a game that cannot fail to put a smile on your face, unless you are some sort of manic bastard who hates the Earth and every thing (living or otherwise) on it (examples: Hitler, Joseph Kony, average youtube commenter).

It begins with a sugar rush: an explosion of colour, energy and insanity otherwise known as the opening video. It sets the tone for what is to come: a vivid, mischievous, nonsensical and endlessly compelling ball-rolling simulator. Almost entirely controlled using the analogue sticks, We Love Katamari achieves a poetic simplicity from the off. This is, vitally, not just a game for the hardcore, the enthusiast or the weeaboo: it is a game for all, a game that rejects the turgid, outdated mechanics that have proven an insurmountable barrier of entry to our hobby for others. We Love Katamari does not discriminate: it wants you and everyone around you to love it, and it's an enthusiasm that radiates from every single frame of this glorious piece of software.

Not that there aren't quote gamey unquote elements to it, speaking in a 'traditional' sense. It has a playful high score system, ironic yet loving, that rates your Katamari in terms of items you have collected. 'Your Katamari is mostly plants', the King of All Cosmos informs you (taking the role of his little green son, the Prince of All Cosmos) from his throne, and how can one fail to smile? He constantly nudges you to roll ever larger Katamaris through sarcastic witticisms and adorably disguised fatherly motivation. The level design is majestic. It has not only a surprising amount of variety for a game that is solely about rolling a giant round yoke around the place (a campfire level is a highlight) but is constantly upping the scale and breadth of the game. And always within short but perfectly sweet periods of time.

The sense of fun even extends to the story. Usually an afterthought, video sequences here are a reward, particularly the consistently hilarious flashback scenes. We Love Katamari also features an inspired meta-script that revels in the inherent silliness and redundancy of sequels: how apt, then, that as soon as series creator Keita Takahashi signed off on the series with this transcendent game the franchise transformed into a succession of dull, by-the-number sequels, ports and re-imaginings. Oh, how the creatively stunted likes of Beautiful Katamari contrast with the fiendish playfulness and satirical sincerity of the second game in the series!

Presentation wise, it's also nigh on impossible to fault. Not only are the colour-spectrum obsessed graphical stylings hypnotic 'til the end, the soundscape is also a joyous thing. The rare snippets of voice recording - Save the Pandas! - are always a cause for chuckles. Yet I've gotten this far without mentioning what, for many, is the selling point of the game: an extraordinary and eccentric soundtrack that provides constant aural pleasures alongside the plethora of other sensory delights to be wrangled from this particular disc. Na na na na na na na na Katamari Damacy: anyone who has played the game cannot fail to hum along.

Perhaps, for me, the appeal of the game is summed up in the second main level of the game. You, the Prince, are rolling a Katamari through a beautiful meadow of rainbow-hued flowers. It is an endlessly relaxing experience, a tremendous three minutes where all the elements (sound, graphics, controls) come together to achieve something special and unique: something, dare I suggest, perfect.

Heck, even the menus and level select screens are inventive and a source of great joy.

I have never met anyone who simply 'likes' We Love Katamari, and I have never heard a negative word uttered against it. It is, instead, a game spoken about in awe by all who have experienced it. It can be considered a shared bonding experience: friendships can be instantly forged through a mutual appreciation of the Prince's misadventures. The descriptions can only be laced with superlatives: this is a joyous artistic achievement you simply have to fall deeply in love with. We Love Katamari is a game that whisks you away to another world, and never ever fails to entertain and amuse. And, in that humble achievement, it makes a compelling case to be labelled the best videogame that has ever been made.

Sing it with me, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: OK MR. SUNSHINE!