I’m thinking ‘impressions’ is not the right word here, because I don’t think I can really tell what my impression is. Noby Noby Boy is a downloadable ‘game’ for the Playstation 3 developed by Keita Takahashi who also made Katamari Damacy. You ‘play’ the role of ‘Boy’ who needs to stretch his ‘body’ in order to feed ‘Girl’ with his stretched meters so that she can better entangle the planets in order to bring all life in the solar system together as friends. Look I could try to explain it… but how about you watch this instead and understand that an attempt at explanation is futile. Hell I can’t even really explain the footage you are about to see.
I know I’m doing what everyone has done, made a big deal about how it’s so weird and confusing and all so very Japanese. To be honest I do GET it so to speak. What Takahashi has done is thrown away most conventions of goal and challenge orientated gameplay and instead focused on user collaboration, exploration and the core idea of fun.
As each player stretches Boy out by entangling themselves in objects littered around the random worlds and eating and passing through most things, they can then submit their length by flying up to the sun which then feeds Girl who stretches further towards the next planet. When enough meters have been submitted by users, Girl will reach the next planet unlocking it for everyone as a new playground to stretch about. It’s kinda part tech demo, part sandbox and I’ve found it to be a really great game to relax, switch off and listen to a podcast with.
I have the perfect real life story to relate to my thoughts on Noby Noby Boy. There was an Asian grocery near my house and I would love going in and looking at all the strange and bizarre packaged foods, drinks and sweets. I came across the Choco Pie (which you may know already) and became curious of the bright packaging claiming “It’s NOW!” and the delicious looking picture. I bought 2 and took them home and ate them with Tea like it suggested. After finishing them I didn’t actually know what I thought. I was confused. They were dry yes… but soft. They did go great with tea, but would I rather just a plain biscuit? After much pondering I returned and bought a 12 pack. Upon finishing that I was still skeptical but I was starting to ‘get it’. Maybe it was in fact “It’s NOW!”? I can tell you I have eaten far too many choco pies since. Man just talking about them makes me want to find a late night Asian grocery. Delicious marshmallow inside with a lining of jam, sandwiched between soft airy spongey stuff with a strange rubbery chocolate coating.
So what I have been trying to say is… man… fuck Noby Noby Boy all I can think of is Choco Pies now.
Noby Noby Boy is cool, crazy, confusing, quirky and worth checking out. It’s pretty cheap too, at like $6 on the Playstation store (I don’t know if that is USD, lets assume it is). The controls and camera will also blow your mind (not in the good way).
I was also kinda terrified at how easy it was to purchase on the Playstation Store. It’s my second store purchase so all my details were already in there, so I basically clicked on the product and BAM purchased. The thing is it doesn’t JUST purchase the $6 product, it actually added $10 into my Store virtual Wallet which it then used to purchase my game. It basically said “Oh hold on a second. Gotta get some cash out… Oook I got $20 out for the movie, ticket was $8 (thank you student discount!) and now I have $12 to spend on popcorn or a $9 drink or whatever.” But in this case the guys working at the cinema did it for you. I dunno if I was just robbed or what.