Noby Noby Boy Reviews

Noby Noby Boy is a pretty hard game to review...Afterall, it doesn’t really have any challenge to it. There are no enemies or obstacles. All you do is stretch your character out...And that’s that. While this seems like it would be an absolute bore-fest, this charming creation of Keita Takahashi (who also created Katamari Damacy) has managed to make it a fun and worthwhile bargain-priced title.

The premise of Noby Noby Boy is that you are a character named ‘Boy’ and you can stretch. You need to stretch and then report to ‘Sun’ who then will use your stretchiness to help ‘Girl’ reach every planet in the solar system so that everyone can be connected and be happy with one another. So, that’s it. All you have to do is stretch enough and Girl will make it to each of the planets. The stretching mechanic itself is mildly amusing. Boy has four legs; two up front and two on his rear. Using the left analog pad for his front half and the right analog pad for his rear, you’ll have Boy’s two ends walk in separate directions in order to stretch. This is fun for a little bit, and all that’s really required in the game, but it grows old rather quickly.

Most of the fun in Noby Noby Boy lies within just goofing around. While the main goal is to stretch, Boy is also able to lift stuff, eat, and jump (or fly if you hit the jump button repeatedly). Just experimenting to see what you can do can easily amuse you for hours. Add the fact that every level is randomly generated, and you’re guaranteed to not have the same experience each time. One level may contain a windmill that you decide to try and get Boy knotted up in, the next may just be a forested area loaded with animals, the one after that may even contain a certain Prince along with a bundle of katamaris...

The neatest feature in the game, however, may be the massive amount of world-wide teamwork required to unlock things in Noby Noby Boy. Whenever you stretch Boy and report to Sun, you’re uploading the amount of stretching that you’ve done and adding it to the amount of stretching that everyone else around the world has done. As this combined total expands, everyone who owns the game gets closer and closer to the next planet and the next unlockable area. It’s a global team effort and everyone gets the spoils at the same time. It’s a very interesting and neat idea that really goes beyond the traditional view of ‘teamwork’ in video games.

As far as graphics go, if you’ve played the Katamari series, you know what to expect here. It’s the same visual style of very simplistic, colorful graphics. These graphics are just as charming in Noby Noby Boy as they were in Katamari Damacy a few years back and they work perfectly with the mood set in Noby Noby Boy. The music is just as charming. The melodies you’ll hear as you play are almost soothing, really making this a nice game to play when all you want to do is just sit back and relax.

Noby Noby Boy is an extremely unique game...It’s really unlike anything that anyone has played before. It’s by no means perfect, but for the five dollar price tag, it’s a very worthy download for any Playstation 3 owner. It may not have a challenge to it; in fact, you can’t even be bad at it, but it still manages to be fun. In Noby Noby Boy, there are no obstacles to overcome and no enemies to avoid; there’s absolutely nothing to challenge you in this game but your imagination...And that’s all the challenge you’ll need.