Highlights
- Fans of the Katamari Damacy series will be delighted to discover hidden gems that offer the same chaos, humor, and adorable characters.
- Pikuniku and Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy are just a few games that capture the whimsical silliness and collecting aspect of Katamari Damacy, providing players with hours of fun and laughter.
- Everything, The Wonderful End Of The World, and Porcuball offer unique gameplay experiences that resemble Katamari, allowing players to explore, absorb objects, and solve puzzles in their own quirky way.
If someone loves the Katamari Damacy series, then they probably love chaos, humor, bright colors, and adorable characters. The game's plot and designs look like something crafted off of a fever dream, and fans love it for that. The series had its first game come out for the PS2 in 2004 and its most recent game is a remake of its first in 2018 for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox One.
Many gamers would admit it is hard to find other games like Katamari. However, there are actually some hidden gems out there that are comparable to the insane ball-rolling series. It is possible Katamari partly inspired such games, and hopefully even more will come in the future for fans.
Updated August 2, 2023, by Terrence Smith: The Katamari Damacy series is experiencing a small Renaissance. Not only was a remaster of the original released in 2018 but so has a remaster of its sequel, We Love Katamari, this past June. To increase the hype, the series' original creator, Keita Takahashi, is working on a new game called To A T, where players control a character in a perpetual T-pose. Given the new fervor for the series, fans will be looking for more games like Katamari to satisfy their urges to collect as much stuff as possible, as well as to create total chaos. Here are just a few titles to make Katamari Damacy fans sing with joy.
12 Donut County
This indie game came out in 2018 and was partly inspired by Katamari. In fact, it is thought of as a “reverse Katamari” game. While in Katamari Damacy, players roll a ball as it collects objects. Donut County has players use a hole to swallow whatever they can, and it continually expands. The story is pretty wild as well, with the main characters being both a human girl and her raccoon friend who works in a donut shop.
While it is available on many consoles, Donut County is also a mobile game and won the “Mobile Game of the Year” award at the SXSW Gaming Awards.
11 Noby Noby Boy
Released in 2009 for the PS3, Noby Noby Boy has players take the role of a worm character named Boy who can stretch out his body to incredible lengths. In terms of controls, one analog stick moves Boy's upper body, while the other analog stick moves the back. The players want to stretch as much as possible, as that is how they get more points.
Many of the designs do look like something straight out of a Katamari game as well.
10 Supermarket Shriek
Katamari Damacy is weird and whimsical. Ultimately, though, it is a game of pure chaos. A cosmic entity is rolling a ball of utter destruction across the land, consuming everything in its wake, and continually expanding until it can roll up even entire countries.
The co-op game Supermarket Shriek is not on the same scale of destruction, but it offers its own brand of mayhem. A man and a goat, both in a shopping cart, must be navigated across a gauntlet of convenience store challenges. These include collecting a set list of items, knocking down towers of cans, and getting through the stores as quickly as possible. The twist is that they propel their cart with their screams, either via buttons or the navigator’s microphone. It is worth playing for the absurdity of the premise alone.
9 Pikuniku
Pikuniku is part puzzle and part adventure game, released in 2019. It has a resemblance to Katamari in its absurdity and playfulness. The animation is fluid, and the worlds are colorful and playful, like something out of a five-year-old's imagination. Players of the game have noted on Steam reviews that the game made them laugh a lot.
While everything is funny and adorably designed, the plot does also take place in a dystopia. The village in the game is “graced” by a robot that drops money in exchange for the village's corn, then takes random residents to their layer in a volcano. The game takes about three hours to beat, but it can be worth replaying for the local co-op modes with friends.
8 Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
Blast Works, developed by Budcat Creations and published by Majesco Entertainment, is a side-scrolling shooter that has players blasting enemies and dodging projectiles. The twist is that the piloted ship can collect the debris of enemy crafts, building its own mass, as well as use its blasters on other enemies.
Fans of Katamari Damacy will find it satisfying to collect as much material as possible, creating a massive killing machine. There is also enough challenge here for veterans and newcomers to the genre alike. Blast Works also had a robust content editor that players could use to share creations online.
7 The Munchables
The Munchables is what a hybrid of Katamari Damacy and Pac-Man would look like. The titular Munchable, either a red monster or a cute pink dog, goes on an eating rampage against an invading armada of vegetable space pirates.
Katamari fans will be very familiar with the premise here. As the creatures munch on aliens, they increase in size, allowing them to eat larger aliens. The cutscenes and art style also have the kind of whimsical silliness that those who have played Katamari Damacy will fully embrace.
6 Anarcute
This game is chaotic riot meets adorable animals. The player does not control a single character, but an entire mob at once. These animals all live in a dystopia created by evil corporations and decide that now is the time to riot.
The players' goal is to make the mob bigger, wreak havoc in the city, fight the brainwashed military, and make the animals' revolution spread across the world throughout major cities. While it has obvious comparisons with Katamari, players have also called it Pikmin meets Rampage.
5 Everything
Everything is called Everything because it allows anyone to be everything. Players can literally take control of anything in the environment with the push of a button. This includes deer, trees, ladybugs, bacteria, and planets. The sense of scale in this game rivals even that of Katamari's ever-growing sticky ball. Everything is also like Katamari in its oddity and graphics. What really strikes the game as odd is how all the animals roll around instead of walking.
What sets it apart from Katamari is that it's a simulation game with no real story or goal. It is much more of a meditative experience than anything. The closest thing players have to a goal is to explore until they have become everything at least once. The game also includes quotes from philosopher Alan Watts that can be collected, which provide his insight into the nature of reality.
4 The Wonderful End Of The World
This game is known as a Katamari replica in terms of its gameplay. The PC game came out in 2008, and its story involves a demon about to destroy the world. Players take the role of a puppet that can absorb anything it comes into contact with. So the goal is to absorb as much as possible.
Players can only absorb small objects at first, but slowly grow in size through these objects and are able to collect larger things. So it is just like Katamari but with a different story. Also, one makes a doll shape instead of a ball.
3 Porcuball
Porcuball is a smaller-scale take on Katamari’s premise of rolling a ball and collecting items on it. Replacing the ball is a rolling porcupine, who snatches up objects with his quills.
Another key difference is while Katamari focuses primarily on gathering as much stuff as possible, Porcuball takes a more puzzle-focused approach to gameplay. Certain objects must be used to overcome obstacles. A torch can be used to burn down barriers, an axe can be used to pole vault to a flight of stairs like in Getting Over It, and a frog’s powerful legs can allow the porcupine to jump to higher platforms.
2 De Blob
De Blob started life as a Wii-exclusive title published by THQ and developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment. It follows a blob with the ability to absorb different-colored ink as it navigates a series of challenges, whereby it restores color to Chroma City, sucked dry by the totalitarian I.N.K.T Corporation.
Fans of the Katamari games will love the characters and the vibrant colors that De Blob spreads throughout the city. The game also shares Katamari’s spirit of chaos. The titular blob and his friends drive the I.N.K.T officers crazy, as well as ferment rebellion against the Corporation.
1 Spore
Spore received a great deal of hype before its release, being that it was a new project from Will Wright and The Sims developer Maxis. While it did not quite meet expectations, it was still a fun adventure, which saw players guide an alien species through its evolution.
Like the Katamari games, Spore has an impressive sense of scale. Creatures start off as a microbe in a primordial soup, getting bigger as it consumes either plant or animal life. Soon, it is able to explore dry land, and either befriend or attack other species. The created species will eventually develop sentience, and even start exploring other planets.