Wattam

Joyful and strange, Wattam’s a hard game to explain, but not a difficult one to play. Once it wraps you in its welcoming arms you won’t want to let go. Until you end up kaboomed, that is. [Issue#171, p.90]

Refreshingly light-hearted, brief, and full of good vibes, Wattam is the kind of game that everyone can easily settle down with. It’s a magical experience centered on friendships and connection, finding out how each unique skill can help everybody out, despite all being different sizes, shapes, and colors. There’s a simple joy that comes from playing Wattam, a feeling that many other games just can’t match. Wattam is a delightful, fun, and uplifting game filled with laughter, teamwork, and all the things that make your heart feel warm and fuzzy.

I'm not sure if Takahashi will ever be able to top Katamari Damacy – for my money, it's one of the greatest video games ever made – but Wattam captures that sense of whimsy and magic in its own way. The care-free music and gosh-darn-huggable character designs make this a must-play for fans.

If you have even a sliver of child-like wonder left in your heart then playing Wattam is a must. Uncovering its exceptionally imaginative world as you interact with a diverse collection of oddities makes for one captivating and hilarious adventure.

Wattam flaunts the same absurd, childlike humor that Katamari Damacy did, setting the bases of its design in the logic of the playground, but this time Takahashi offers a different game - a miniature sandbox in which the rhythm is dictated by the player, with a fine story and dozens of lovely characters.

A wonderful soundtrack and a visual style which is simple but appealing finish setting the tone for Wattam. While it’s a simple, direct game, during my time with it, I almost constantly had a huge grin on my face. Takahashi's brand of weird works for me and even all these years after Katamari, that's still the case. If his style works for you, I think you'll have a great time with Wattam. It may not last you long but it's a time that will stay with you which is worth celebrating.

Spend a few hours winding down with its carefree sandbox or just listen to the ever catchy folksy music, and it’s just the antidote you need after a bad day, a bad year, or hell, a bad decade.

As a game, Wattam is a scatterbrained assembly of goofball logic and cumbersome mechanics. As an experience, it's an earnest expression of love, affinity, and forgiveness shared by all of its moving pieces. The product is a game that elicits joy without the videogame-y demand for precooked gratification. Wattam feels like a birthday party where all of your friends actually show up.

When it's all said and done, all laughed and cried, Wattam really is a game apart from the pack - a clear continuation of the creative mindset of its maker, given what he's done before now, but also quite, quite different. It follows its own playful logic, offering clear instructions and never giving into surrealness for the sake of it, and is absolutely a more meaningful experience than meets the eye.

Completely mental, colourful, funny and an entertaining multiplayer experience, Wattam constantly surprised me with its surreal characters and insane gameplay. It will not be everyone's cup of tea but I think a lot of people will appreciate it for what it is. A bright, cheery experience that will leave you confused, baffled but smiling and laughing at the same time.

Wattam communicates a poignant, refreshing, and all-too-necessary joy in the face of adversity.

Some significant technical issues manage to do little to hold back the charm and wit of Wattam. It's a game that's great fun for both kids and adults, with slapstick humor and a sweet message of understanding people, despite your differences, at its center. It's made with today's toxic climate in mind, boiling the world's issues into something that doesn't feel cloying, but instead feels positive and welcoming. That, to me, is an achievement.