Katamari Damacy is a unique videogame, an absurd aberration that emerged from Namco’s Keita Takahashi mind, an iconic litmus test that threw every game design rulebook out of the window; a game in which the player steered a sticky ball that increased in size as you rolled over items scattered around - may they be nails, pens, screaming cows, houses, which conferred the game with a rapturous knack for physical comedy.
Advertising was quick to embrace this circular logic. Travelers Insurance’s “Snowball†pictured a strikingly reminiscent phagocytising ball bouncing down San Francisco’s hills, while Médecins Sans Frontières’s “Human Ball†used it as a metaphor to depict the morose ineluctability of Aids’ impact on Africa.
Shameless rip-off? Flattering homage? The everlasting thinnest line of all prevails. Once again.
Katamari Damacy – Rolling Yoshida
Travelers Insurance - Snowball
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) – Human Ball
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