Many of you may be familiar with the Katamari Damacy franchise of video games. In this series, the player assumes control of the son of the King of All Cosmos, who has accidentally destroyed all of the stars in the sky. It's up to the Prince to recreate the stars by rolling a sticky ball to pick up pieces of junk, people, and buildings from Earth's surface. These games are full of charm and quirkiness. Their creator, Keita Takahashi, has more recently completed a PS3 game, Noby Noby Boy, that retains all of the entertaining bizarreness of Katamari while defying numerous gaming conventions.
In Noby Noby Boy, the player takes control of a long, caterpillar-like creature known only as BOY. The story revolves around his counterpart GIRL, who is trying to connect all of the planets in the solar system by stretching across the vast reaches of space in order to promote understanding between the inhabitants of the different planets. When BOY stretches out within the game's levels, he helps GIRL to also stretch out. The major gimmick of the game is that everyone playing the game worldwide is contributing to GIRL's stretching. So, for example, if you stretch BOY to 50 meters then submit your score, GIRL grows by that much. When GIRL stretches far enough, she unlocks the other planets as in-game levels. The first level unlocked was the moon, which happened on February 23, 2009 -- just four days after the game was released.
The Specs
Platform: PS3 download only
ESRB rating: E (Everyone)
Pricing: $5
Multiplayer: Up to four players on the same screen
The Good
Players can write messages on their character or their friends'.
This can only be described as a sandbox game -- that is, a game without a linear narrative or levels. Since the only long-term objective is to stretch out, the player is free to experiment in the world. Each area is a floating square plot of land that is randomly generated every time you play. There are all kinds of strange people and animals in each area, and they can be interacted with in many ways. For example, if you stretch out really far and just sit there, people will hop onto BOY and take a ride, but if you press the "eat" button, you can eat them and other objects, and the rest will run away in fear. The engine lets you play around with physics, too, so you can tie BOY in a knot around two trees across a road and watch as a vehicle swerves to avoid you.
The game also contains a number of other features, such as the ability to record video in-game and either save it or upload it directly to YouTube. You can also take individual screenshots and play music you have saved on your hard drive while playing the game. However, since the game has dozens of entertaining selectable music tracks included (including a few Katamari remixes, I might add) you won't need to use this feature very often.
The Bad
Wait, why am I flying? I was trying to eat something!
Unfortunately, Noby Noby Boy's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The freedom provided by the format also means that the player has little real purpose other than to stretch, since interacting with the characters doesn't provide any concrete rewards (aside from earning PSN trophies). This means that some people top the leaderboards simply by taping down the controller and leaving for a few hours. There is also a way to cheat by using save files, although it's obviously discouraged.
The camera is also somewhat hard to use, since both analog sticks are used for character movement. The L2 trigger makes BOY eat, fly, and hold onto things, so you have to be good at pressing it just the right way for the different actions.
Overall
Elves or something taking a ride.
This game is a very good value at $5, and since more levels will eventually be unlocked, it can only get better. The last update (in April) added a lot of new content, including a multiplayer mode and more music, so if future updates follow this pattern, you'll have a good reason to play it and find new things every once in a while.
Author's Note: Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noby_Noby_Boy
Screencaps taken with my PS3
