9 Amazing Video Game Features You'll NEVER See In Anything Else

6. The Mass-Collecting Ball - Katamari Damacy

The Katamari franchise is all about one elegantly simple idea - rolling the titular magical, ultra-adhesive ball around and collecting as many objects as humanly possible until the katamari becomes big enough to become a star. Yup.

That's such a brilliantly singular idea that you can't really blame Namco for wanting to patent it - unlike that whole loading screen mini-game debacle.

The filing also covers the more specific technical aspects of how objects attach to the katamari and it all maintains traction.

The patent was filed in September 2003, a few months before the game's release, and currently isn't set to expire until 2026, protecting the game's unique gameplay conceit from being co-opted by other developers.

Given that the franchise has basically averaged a new game release every year - a total of 18 since 2004 - you can reasonably expect that patent to get renewed five years from now.