are the stars out tonight?

a period of distraction precipitated by my purchasing the truly awesome we ♥ katamari has resulted in my not quite managing to find time to post. this is mostly due to the fact that i now regard time not spent playing katamari as completely wasted. and yes that includes work.

it's actually the sequel to another game, katamari damacy, which was never released in this country (grrr etc). and the basic premise is this, you play prince (not that prince), and you have to push around a big sticky ball called a katamari, picking up the things you roll over. you can only pick up things that are smaller than your katamari. so to begin with, you pick up stamps and matches, as you pick thigs up, your katamari gets bigger and bigger and you can start collecting bigger items like chopsticks, biscuits, and eventually dogs, geckos and people. and then buildings. and so on.

i have played it to such an extent recently that i'm having to take a break, because my thumbs are starting to hurt, and i occasionally look at a table, or my desk and begin wondering how i would go about picking everything up with my katamari.it's exactly the sort of game i enjoy. brightly coloured, non-linear, cute, no fighting or violence, or scaryness, and the music is engagingly weird. above all, it's very japanese.

this, of course, means it's been a cult hit among geeks, and the gamerati. there are katamari cakes, costumes, paper models, hats, and more hats, crocheted katamari, felt prince dolls... people have even tried to do it in real life

there's a cute little 2d katamari game on the official japanese site, if you feel like having a taste. it's not quite as good as the real deal, but even if you think you're pathelogically averse to gaming, give it a go. it's fun!

feather boa 4:50 pm

yes, i do speak solely in three letter acronyms these days, i'm a busy girl, it saves me a good .25 seconds not saying the entire phrase. maybe.

i'm very excited today, because one of my favourite webcomics, questionable content has a belle and sebastian reference. and even better, it's about fighting belle and sebastian. though i think poor marten would struggle to beat ex-boxer struan, and dora might be a bit optimistic in thinking that she can take the rest of the band... sarah in particular looks pretty tough to me. so yeah, that's my idea of fun now, imagining comic characters fighting indiepop stars.

i don't get out much.

of course, b&s themselves are making a comic, or rather a comic has been made featuring their songs. i would love to link to the post on sinister, by a guy who partially organised it, but the archive is down. of course, you heard it here first. maybe.

edited 03-02-06 9.51 - because acb linked to a post on 'the other place'in the comments, which quoted the two sinister posts in full: here, and here. i think both posts are interesting about the reasons behind the comic, and about the actual content.

feather boa 9:50 am