Giant Katamari Controller

I have noticed a recent trend in video games that gets the player into the game with some kind of accessory. For example, Tony Hawk: Ride uses a plank for a controller for all kinds of skateboarding action. Considering that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have been very successful games with peripherals, it was about time someone developed a large trackball accessory for the Katamari series.

For those of you who are not familiar with Katamari, it is an odd little game that originated in Japan. The object is to rebuild heavenly bodies by rolling a sticky ball called the katamari that gets bigger with every object the player rolls over. Of course, the ball rolls quite awkwardly with all the incongruously non-round stuff attached to it.

A blogger by the name of Kellbot has created a way to make the Katamari game much more interactive by connecting an ordinary PS2 controller to a large ball. You can see a video of it after the jump to see how well it works.

Originally, Kellbot wanted to put this control on a yoga ball, but she found that the rubbery surface didn’t really work to well. Too bad, because that would have created a very unique video gaming experience.

If you would like to try this out, Kellbot has a schematic of her creation on her blog. If you ask me, someone needs to seriously mass-market this thing. Katamari people, get on this ball!

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