Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game that was published and developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 in 2004.

Its eclectic composition featured elements of traditional electronic video game music, as well as heavy jazz and samba influences.

Many of the tracks feature vocals from popular J-pop singers such as Yui Asaka and anime voice actors such as Nobue Matsubara and Ado Mizumori.

[1] Miyake has stated that they chose the artists by looking for "Japanese singers who were well-known in Japan but nobody had heard from in awhile [sic] for whatever reason".

[3] They were also chosen to create a "pretty silly, goofy selection of singers" that would appeal to "a broad spectrum of people from different generations".

Once the lyrics and singers had been chosen, the music was written specifically for each artist with the intention of creating songs that were "familiar" but not "trendy" so that they would not seem dated in the future.

[8] In GameSpot's review of the game, they described the soundtrack as based around a "singular, extremely catchy theme" that appeared as pop, jazz, and humming throughout the "insidiously infectious" music.

Like the previous soundtrack, it also features a plethora of Japanese artists, including DOKAKA, Illreme, Arisa, KIRINJI, YOU, Karie Kahimi, Maki Nomiya and Shigeru Matsuzaki.

[13] The music has been described as covering styles ranging from swing and techno to J-pop and "other kooky sounds".

[14] Sound director Yuu Miyake has stated that he wanted to use only non-Japanese musicians in contrast to the first game using only Japanese artists, but was unable due to a "lack of foreign friends and ability to negotiate".

[2] He has stated that his goal for the soundtrack was to take what his team had done for the first game and raise the quality, creating a "more grown-up feeling".

He originally wanted to additionally take the music "far beyond imagination" and fans' expectations, but was stymied by a lack of resources.

The album was published by Columbia Music Entertainment on July 20, 2005 with the catalog number COCX-33273; its 18 tracks span a duration of 1:19:45.

Its soundtrack was primarily composed of tracks from the previous two games, and has been described as "ranging from smoky lounge music to bleepy Japanese pop songs".

They additionally felt that the second disc did not add much to the album, and that on the whole the new Me & My Katamari tracks were not strong or numerous enough to make the purchase worthwhile.

[23] The music for Beautiful Katamari has been described as "the same sort of mix of J-pop, techno-infused jazz, and ambient electro" as that of the original game.

Unlike Me & My Katamari, the majority of the music for the game was original, though a few tracks from earlier in the series were remixed.

[29] GameSpot, in their review of the game, said that Katamari Forever "carries on the series' tradition of wildly catchy soundtracks" and said that the remixes of the older songs "sound terrific".

[30] The album was received warmly by reviewers such as Square Enix Music Online, who said that it was full of "fresh, diverse, and often downright weird remixes".

As has become commonplace for the series, its music was composed by a large number of composers: a large team headed by Taku Inoue[33] included series veteran Yuu Miyake, Ken Inaoka, BAKUBAKU DOKIN, Akitaka Tohyama, Hiroyuki Kawada, Yoshihito Yano, Yuichi Nakamura, Hiroshi Okubo, and Trine.

Christopher Huynh of Video Game Music Online (formerly Square Enix Music Online), in their review of Katamori Damacy, felt that the soundtrack had the energy of the first few soundtracks in the series, while providing a more cohesive experience by not including "filler" tracks like previous albums.