Well, ClackyJ, sparklepony and I all just got back from a weeklong trip to Tokyo with five other people, which was excellent. We have plenty of game-related stuff to blog about. Our group came back with 2 Nintendo DSes (one red, one pink), 3 GBA games (all Japan-only Famicom Mini titles), 4 DS games, 3 game soundtrack albums, and 2 PSP games. I’ll let Joe tell you about Osu! Tatake! Ouendan (Go! Fight! Cheer Squad) and Jump Superstars. And I’m sure one of us will write about Akihabara and the arcades and The Typing of the Dead. And I know I have some choice words for the Nintendo Game Front on Odabai (the Island of Lies). But for now, I want to report on our encounters with Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy.

On Saturday our group visited the Ginza district around lunchtime, and made a stop at the Sony building. The building has a winding showroom for their higher-end electronics, spanning several stories. One of those stories is devoted to new & upcoming Playstation 2 and PSP games, and it is there that sparklepony (hey Kim; you need a profile) and I got to try out Everybody Loves Katamari Damacy.

We played a 2-player co-op level set in one hallway of a school. The controls for two take a moment to adjust to, but we found it remarkably easy to learn and to intuitively know which way we were moving our Katamari. From time to time we had to verbally coordinate our movements, like “let’s get turned around and go back,” or “make a left at the front of the room” or “ooh, we’re taking walls down now — let’s clean out the next room.” The goal is 5m, and we reached that quickly, more quickly than I expected. The level was pretty small, and wraps: if you go out the doors at one end of the hall, you come in the other. There was a side hallway too, but it was blocked by buffalo that we weren’t big enough to get past.

Anyway, it was bitchin’ fun, and it looks like the game will feature more of what made the first one great. Joe and I picked up the soundtrack as well — more on that later.