Noby Noby Boy

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a game by Bandai Namco Games
Platform: Playstation 3 (2009)
Editor Rating: 7/10, based on 2 reviews
User Rating: 9.5/10 - 4 votes
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See also: Action Adventure Games, Action Games, Ragdoll Physics Games, Physics Puzzle Games
Noby Noby Boy
Noby Noby Boy
Noby Noby Boy
Noby Noby Boy

Noby Noby Boy is one of those games that comes once in a lifetime. This unique interactive experience comes from the creative genius of Keita Takahashi, who envisioned a game where players around the globe could collaborate to achieve a common goal. What's that goal, you might ask? Well, in true Keita Takahashi fashion, it involves lots and lots of spinning.

Perhaps better known for his Katamari Damacy series, this unique experience has a lot in common with its predecessor. From the whimsical designs to the unconventional gameplay, Noby Noby Boy is the kind of game that always takes you by surprise.

Stretching the Limits

You control Boy, a worm-like creature who navigates various environments by stretching his body to extreme lengths. With simple but intuitive controls, Noby Noby Boy serves up a delightfully bizarre gameplay experience.

While the story is bare bones, Noby Noby Boy's gameplay provides a phenomenal sense of flow. Controlling both ends of Boy's body feels very intuitive, and stretching across gaps or reaching platforms provides satisfying physics-based challenges.

Of course, much like the aforementioned Katamari Damacy series, puzzles, and complex action sequences, are nowhere to be seen in this game. All you have to do is focus on stretching Boy as much as you can, all so you can get closer to the elusive Girl.

Quirky and Colorful

The visuals in Noby Noby Boy are as strange and wonderful as the gameplay itself. You're thrust into a colorful world filled with bizarre creatures and objects that wouldn't feel out of place in one of Takahashi's Katamari Damacy games.

The whimsical art style focuses on playful and surreal designs. The environments you explore are diverse and interesting, from mundane suburban streets to the vastness of outer space.

There's a veritable sense of accomplishment as you see your character grow ever longer, and that's multiplied tenfold when you realize Noby Noby Boy is actually an online, massively-multiplayer effort.

A Communal Journey

The online framework injects Noby Noby Boy with a real sense of community. Your individual stretching contributes to Girl's interstellar voyage, while the planetary-level themes provide visual benchmarks of collective progress.

As Girl stretches farther out, players unlock increasingly imaginative environments for Boy to explore. From a lunar landscape to the rings of Saturn, Noby Noby Boy's communal journey fosters a real sense of togetherness among players.

This is not just another marketing scheme like what happened with Godus – Noby Noby Boy feels like a real labor of love, created by one of the most creative visionaries in the industry. Whether you're a Katamari fan or just enjoy weird little games like Patapon and LocoRoco, Noby Noby Boy is precisely the type of gameplay experience that knows exactly what its fanbase wants.

7

As creative as it is, Noby Noby Boy might feel a bit barebones to most players. While the ideas are entertaining, the repetitive gameplay might be a tough sell for some.

Pros

  • Great visual design
  • Entertaining gameplay in short bursts
  • Amazingly quirky soundtrack

Cons

  • Shallow gameplay
  • Uninteresting plot
  • The online component provides little incentive for continued play

Download Noby Noby Boy

Playstation 3

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

There are very few games that act as both a fun pastime and a social experiment, but Noby Noby Boy might be among the first that could have just as easily failed as it did succeed. Released in 2009, the game was ahead of its time with regards to communal multiplayer found in later titles such as 2012’s Journey or a decade later with 2019’s Death Stranding. However, before the social experiment and what it might have inspired, Noby Noby Boy is just a weird, zany, colorful game from the creator of Katamari Damacy that sees BOY try to reunite with GIRL.

No Direction, Just Stretch

In the same simple style as Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy has the player play as a snake-like creature named BOY. With some difficult, odd control choices that see multiple inputs for one button, BOY is released on each level to ‘stretch.’ To eat, release, and get tangled in the colorful world of varied planets.

As BOY continues to progress, he grows longer until the level is complete. The gameplay is simple, but as casual games go, it’s a great one. It will never get more difficult, only more varied. That can make for a relaxing, and sometimes giggly gaming experience.

Reach for the Stars

The real draw of Noby Noby Boy comes from the idea of it, summarized by GIRL in a farewell letter from the developers: “I wonder if stretching, could bring the world closer together.” With every level the player completes as BOY, the length he has accumulated will be sent to GIRL who, in 2009, was deep in outer space. Each person who played the game stretched BOY through beating levels and unlocked new playable planets as a community because GIRL stretched closer to BOY. And, after six years, or 2,489 days the community of dedicated gamers reunited the two.

Growing, Together

In years since Noby Noby Boy, other games have been released with a similar angle where a community of people work together. Most notably, 2019’s Death Stranding by Hideo Kojima. In that game, instead of a colorful world trying to connect, you have a disparate world trying to do the same. The game batters the player with difficult controls as you navigate a treacherous map—but eventually, past a certain point, the community of other players can do things together. With shared resources they can build highways, ziplines, roads—big things that no one player could do alone, but a society can do together. That idea, in some ways, could have been influenced by the same group of people that tried to make sure GIRL reached BOY.

Noby Noby Boy was an important stepping stone in gaming, but it also came with an expiration date. After the six years it took to ‘complete’ the game, the game was mostly over. In fact, other than pulling a PS3 out of the closet and owning the game previously, there’s no way to access it.

7

However, that doesn’t diminish the quiet landmark it is for communal gaming. The idea where cooperative play, across our world, can make a collective difference in the game world. And so, if you have access to the game, it’s a relic worth revisiting—if only to see the colorful characters, connect the BOY to the GIRL, and relax.

Pros

  • Beautiful, original, artistic design
  • Amazing social experiment
  • Thoughtful, long term gameplay and adamant community

Cons

  • The game has already been ‘beaten’
  • The game is very hard to get a hold of anymore
  • Overuse of single buttons for multiple inputs

Snapshots and Media

Playstation 3 Screenshots

See Also

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