We Love Katamari PAL Box Art Appreciation Post (with Giveaway!)

We Love Katamari is the sequel to one of the most unique games on the PlayStation 2 and among my favorite titles for the system, but the garish North American box art did not do it any favors. Apparently I wasn’t the only one offended by MS Paint-esque art style and atrocious purple and green color scheme, either. Little did I know until just the other day, however, that PAL regions lucked out and actually got a very fun cover befitting of the game’s quirky style!

A recent trip to my local second hand shop netted me this near perfect copy of the Australian version of We Heart Katamari! Back in 2005 I didn’t usually go out of my way to look at game box art on the internet, so I had no idea the PAL box was so nice until I saw this in person. 

The back is equally fun, too, aside from that giant Australian PEGI rating sticker in the middle. At least they matched up the green with the green of everyone’s favorite other worldly-prince.

The manual is virtually the same as We Heart Katamari‘s North American counterpart aside from the lack of text, but the disc art sports a bunch of animals and princes instead of the King of All Cosmos. I really like the crayon art style, and the decision to use it on both the front and back cover of the box as well as the disc makes it so much more cohesive than the North American version!

I imagine the contents of the manual are pretty similar between versions, but just in case you haven’t seen it before, here are a couple of my favorite pages. Just flipping through this makes me wistful for when games always came with some kind of manual to look at…

Even a guitar can roll a katamari!

The Katamari games all have such great art! Now I want to go dig up one of my games and roll up some innocent children…

Oh, wait! Before I do that, I’d like to share with you some exciting news: this month’s Chic Pixel supporter-exclusive giveaway is going to be this PAL copy of We Love Katamari! All you have to do is donate $5 or more by clicking the Paypal donate button at my supporter page to be in the running. Not only do you have the chance to win a super cool game, but your donation goes a long way to help expand the content on Chic Pixel! Giveaway closes on November 30th at 10 pm EST.

Next month I’ll be back at the ranch (which is in no way an actual ranch, but that seems like a pretty cool way to refer to the house I grew up in), and I need to go through a lot of games, anime, manga, and more that I haven’t had the chance to bring over to Australia. I’m planning on getting rid of a lot of things through giveaways and quick-fire auctions on Twitter to help raise money for the site, so please keep an eye out for that if you’re interested!

About Anne Lee

Also known as apricotsushi. Anne can be written with the kanji for apricot (杏), and sushi was the most quintessentially Japanese thing I could think of when I was 13, resulting in my goofy, albeit memorable, nickname.