I feel bad for almost forgetting that Wattam, the new game from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator, Keita Takahashi, existed. Announced waaaay back in 2014, you could almost forgive me for having it slip my mind, despite coming from the same genius mind that concocted one of my favourite game series’.
You can be sure I definitely won’t forget now though, with the announcement at this week’s PlayStation State of Play that Wattam is still coming out, and it’s coming out soon! December, to be (somewhat) precise. While not shoring up an exact date, December is the current promise and that’s not far away at all!
What is Wattam, exactly? Well, it’s about some shape people, I think? And they hold hands and explode and stuff? Look, I don’t know. PlayStation Blog recently posted a very entertaining Q&A where they asked Takahashi-san about the game, and even that didn’t help. You should definitely check out the full article, but I’ve quoted some of my favourite answers right here:
PSB: In a brief way, can you describe how to play Wattam?
KT: Turn on the PS4 or PS4 Pro, grab the controller, buy/download Wattam (thanks) and hit button to start the game.
PSB: What has changed since you first shipped Katamari Damacy way back in 2004?
KT: I don’t think I have not been changing anything myself, besides that I have a family and also gaining weight, but this world has been changing a lot in bad way unfortunately. I’m sad, and thinking what the videogame can do for it…
PSB: The games you’ve released to date have embraced absurdity as a theme, but they always feel incredibly pure and welcoming. How do you make a game like Wattam weird without running the risk of alienating players?
KT: It’s a difficult question to answer correctly because I have never had that sense of the risk of alienating players in my game dev life, haha. Maybe I am a just selfish designer who doesn’t care about players. Sorry.
(All credit to PlayStation Blog for these excellent quotes)
