It’s amazing how games have evolved these past 25 years.  What was amusing and simple back then is seemed as cheap and boring today.  Noby Noby Boy takes a lot from the fun things we found in the games of yesteryear’s by making a game with a simple and funny concept.

Those familiar with Katamari Damacy will be familiar with the kind of game Noby Noby Boy looks like. After all, the same guy behind the former is behind Boy’s first adventure.

But the first time I saw a trailer for this game, I was clueless about what kind of game it was supposed to be. After all, Keita Takahashi himself didn’t know what was the goal in the game, one or two months prior to its release. So when I finally got around Noby Noby Boy, which was surprisingly cheap even for a PSN game at $4,99, I started playing not knowing what to expect.

What did I think about the game? Find out after the jump!

Presentation

The game’s graphics are some of the worst you’ll find in this generation, but it’s ok in this case, as this is definitely an artistic choice.  A lazy artistic choice, but who cares, really.  The rest of the game’s presentation is actually pretty good.  When you first start the game, you’re briefed through a tutorial.  After that you’re more or less on your own.  you walk around using both sticks, one controlling the front, one the behind.  It takes a lot of time to really get used to what you’re doing, and you’ll always feel like the camera isn’t really where you want it to be.  There’s a zoom feature that will let you zoom out from where you are to all the way out in space.

The sound in-game is also as silly as the rest, so you really can’t take the game too seriously, and that’s what it wants too.

Story

All the Boy in the world works together to help Girl reach new planets so that Boy can visit them too. That’s all.

Gameplay

Like mentioned, you walk around in an awkward way.  But there’s more to that, you start out short, but as you go along, you can eat stuff around and stretch to reach new lengths.  You can end up being really long, and when you eat stuff, you end up needing at one point to fart it out.  Yes, fart it out.  Sometimes the stuff you hate (people, balls, random objects, fruits, etc.) will mix together to make weird things like a dude with a fruit head or something.  You can also jump out in space to reach to go see Girl, report your length and do a few things like see where Girl is at in space.

You see, the whole game is a collective effort to make Girl reach planets in the solar system.  When I first started, she already had reached the moon, but that’s all.  By now, I’m not sure if she did reach Mars, but she most likely did.  The game really feel more like a social experiment then a game.

But then, you remember that it’s a game, simply because while there’s no tangible goal, you somehow have a heck of a fun time doing random things, like breaking into pieces and eating your own butt.

Overall

That’s all there is to it.  Really, saying more seems pointless at this point, other then I’m looking forward to better games using the kind of concept that was spawned from this.  A complete collective effort, and a darn big one added to other types of games.  Some MMO games should really take from this.

Should you buy it? It’s really hard to say.  Depends on how much $5 means to you.   It’s cheaper then 2 beers in a bar, and it’ll feel like an acid trip at least for an hour or two.

Screenshots I took myself in-game

Is that a sumo convention?

Boy from a bit more up-close

A weird mode when you go in the pause menu every third times

Boy ate a bit too much credits.  He should fart some out.  He’d feel so much better I bet.

 

David A. Console, Games, Review