[sparced]

YouTube - Noby Noby Boy gameplay video

What more is there to say? Out 19th February.

1UP Show Noby Noby Boy Video Preview PS3 Gameplay Trailer from GameVideos

[Caveman49]

I have absolutely no idea what that was all about !!!!

[BT@HOME]

I've just watched about 4 or 5 videos about this, and now I'm totally lost for words !!

[Sinzer]

That looks very disturbing!

Scares me more than any survival horror game, I have seen!

[Robothamster]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f9gdn9...lp-thread.html

This one is even more odd.

Not sure but it looks like the front and rear legs may be controlled independantly with the L & R analogue sticks. That could be how you stretch, by moving in opposite directions.

[BT@HOME]

Well if you thought that PAIN had enough innuendo then you should have a look at some of the Trophies available for this one too

[Robothamster]

Originally Posted by BT@HOME

Well if you thought that PAIN had enough innuendo then you should have a look at some of the Trophies available for this one too

Nice one.

[llama123]

awesome anyone played this yet? im downloading now!?

[Wamphyri]

Would be interested to hear some opinions on this seeing as it's pretty cheap

[Hurin]

I bought it, played it for about 5 minutes and haven't got a clue what is going on

[pboreham]

Bizzarely engrossing is how I would some it up.

In fact, here is the smiley equivalent of running this game...

[Tall_Paul]

Okaaaaaaaay then...

That is just... weird! Might be good after a few

[Tonks01]

hows the music? One of my fave bits of Katamari

[Resarf]

This game is weird I have no idea what I am supposed to do with it. It definitely tops Linger in Shadows and Flower in being the most surreal experience on PSN. Anyone figured out what you are supposed to do yet? I have spent ten minutes eating things but nothing has happened. I guess I must be doig something wrong.

[sparced]

Theres two half loops on either side of the map, when I wrapped myself inside out one of them I became multi coloured and long. Still only got that one trophy though. Even when you look them up they make no sense.

[Resarf]

I got three trophies in the brief time I Played it. One for doing the control 'questions', one for rotating the roof / house (no idea how I did this it just popped up and I got one for quitting the game (via the house). Apparently the gold trophy is very easy to get: by simply eating the words Noby Noby Boy in sequence in the manual. Will give that one a go tomorrow along with trying to figure out what I am actually supposed to be doing in the game

[Sinzer]

I think the whole point, is that there is no point

It is just one of the most weird experiences you can have on a gaming console for 3 quid.

For the money I would say it is a definate purchase, sure it is completely baffling, however it definately has a lot of charm, and made me laugh more than one time as ate things up, farted them out and generally became a stretchy nuisance to everyone in the neighbourhood.

I guess there is some aim, as everyone is working together to make Girl stretch out to other planets, you can then change the planet you are on, hopefully they will have different physics.

It definately is very cute, and space squirrel might just become the next mario esque mascot... lol

[Robothamster]

Was basically about to report exactly as Sinzer said.

Spent a couple of hours on this last night, tried about 10 different maps which all had different objects and creatures to the next. Some hilarious moments, mostly involving someone riding an animal thats sitting on your back, or eating something then aiming your bach side and farting that object at a target.

You have to play it really, sounds are great and in answer to Tonks question, the music is nice but doesn't change much from a relaxing guitar plucking kind of tune.

I have to say I like the idea of everyones accumalative 'lengths' being added so eventually girl will reach another planet and we can then play there. The leader board is excellent too, some Japanese guy is number 1 with 18k meters and has the body of a king, then a queen and the next few other important looking characters and the further down the line the odder it becomes. Cheerleaders, sailors, children all different types.

All in all, very good game and one I'll be playing in between frag fests to chill out to.

Also all the menus and especially the help manual are very polished, and using the sixaxis to control the camera is well implemented too.

[razor38]

This is sounding great. Will buy it tonight. Love Katamari games

[Jon Weaver]

I am still baffled by this, but am temted to see what the fuss is about, after all its only £3.

The previous comments mention "we" and "everyone" and this gets me thinking I have missed something.. Is this an 'online' game?

[Robothamster]

Originally Posted by Jon Weaver

I am still baffled by this, but am temted to see what the fuss is about, after all its only £3.

The previous comments mention "we" and "everyone" and this gets me thinking I have missed something.. Is this an 'online' game?

You play on your own but upload the length you've stretched to during your play time online. This is added to everyone in the world that has also uploaded so in time everyone will have reached the moon, a new planet or whatever.

Think last night when I stopped playing the accumalative total was something like 22 million metres, 4000 metres of which were mine!

According to Wiki answers the nearest point to the moon is 363,104,000 metres, guess there's some way to go yet!

[Jon Weaver]

"length you have stretch".... "reached the moon".. No.. I am am lost.. i still don't get it...

Do you think he was on something when he concieved this idea?

I might just have to buy it, just out of curiosity!

[Robothamster]

Yeah, definately on something or simply just mental. Either way is a funny little game, well worth £3 of anyones money.

From EuroGamer:

Noby Noby Boy to get DLC soon News

News by Oli Welsh

Wednesday
Speaking to Eurogamer in an interview published today, Namco's Keita Takahashi has revealed that his new PSN game, Noby Noby Boy, will get a substantial downloadable update in the near future.
"We will make a big update approximately two months after the release. I think we will be able to present the content pretty soon," He said.
Takahashi added that he would like to develop the game even further, but whether that happens will depend on how successful it is.
"Without having a lot of people playing the game, I don't think that the decison-makers at the company will allow another update," he said. "So I want many people to play the game. Please allow me to keep updating the game!"
Keita Takahashi is the creator of Namco's cult PS2 hit Katamari Damacy, which went on to get a sequel and versions for the PSP, Xbox 360 and iPhone.
Noby Noby Boy, which will cost just GBP 3.19 / EUR 3.99 when it's released exclusively for PS3 tomorrow, is a virtual playground in which players control both ends of the titular BOY, who can be stretched to incredible lengths.
It doesn't have a conventional game structure or objectives - but although this worried Takahashi's bosses at Namco, he shrugged it off.
"As my hierarchy only complains and only talks about the so-called "right things" to do when creating a game, I just tried not to care about what I was being told. To be honest, I don't really remember," he said.
For more of the eccentric game designer's thoughts, be sure to check out the full interview, and look out for a review of Noby Noby Boy very soon.

[Robothamster]

Also Eurogamer review here: Noby Noby Boy Review - Page 1 // PS3 /// Eurogamer - Games Reviews, News and More

They gave it 9/10!

[Tall_Paul]

Originally Posted by Jon Weaver

I might just have to buy it, just out of curiosity!

I'm thinking the same

[Jon Weaver]

Originally Posted by Robothamster

Also Eurogamer review here: Noby Noby Boy Review - Page 1 // PS3 /// Eurogamer - Games Reviews, News and More

They gave it 9/10!

Sold..

[Robothamster]

Posted for ease of finger clicks:

Noby Noby Boy



Review by Oli Welsh

When artistically-inclined creators set out to do something different in the videogame "space" - like thatgamecompany's Flower, to take a recent and excellent example - they often start with the subject matter, the atmosphere, the style. They might create something that has the bones of a game, but the looks of a painting and the heart of a song - something that creates a different mood in the player.

Noby Noby Boy, released today for PS3 on the PlayStation Network, isn't like those other experiments. It's deeper, wilder, more unhinged, more radical - and more brilliant. It disposes with even the bones of gaming, reducing it down to its very core - the simple notion of play - and then elevating that to an art form. It doesn't just change your mood; it changes your whole frame of mind.
Noby Noby, or nobinobi, is a Japanese term meaning to stretch, to relax, to be yourself, to take your time, to be late. In Noby Noby Boy, you control BOY, a cheerful little quadruped whose body can stretch to almost infinite length. You control his front and rear end independently, one with each analogue stick. Pull them away from each other and he stretches like rubber, straining for a second, before popping out into a rainbow-striped, floppy snake. Keep pulling and he keeps stretching, and growing, and stretching, and growing. And growing. And growing some more.
Like the snowballing Katamari Damacy - the previous product of designer and artist Keita Takahashi's playful mind - Noby Noby Boy is an exercise in exploring a tactile twin-stick control scheme. Like Katamari, its wild and inertia-heavy physics often get the better of you. The longer BOY grows, the more unpredictable and unmanageable are his tottering, skidding, twisting, flopping and flapping.

Much of the level furniture is designed with tangles in mind.

He's even capable of flight - tapping a trigger makes that end jump and do a sort of low-gravity glide, while repeatedly tapping them sends him pinwheeling into the sky. Ripples and switchbacks travel along his body, jerking the ambulatory ends to and fro. Bringing his entire length under harmonious control will be a mighty, long-term challenge - but in the short term, you can just choose to surrender to and enjoy the chaotic slapstick. In any event, there are factors other than BOY at play, factors that really are beyond your control.
Noby Noby Boy is played on "maps", little square chunks of land floating in space (well, not quite in space - more on that later). These are randomly generated by the game, and populated with some combination of animals, humans, surreal bipedal humanoids that defy explanation, simple toybox architecture, cars and fork-lifts scooting about, giant mechanical sculptures, goalposts, hoops, elasticated trees, flying saucers with hook attachments, clouds shaped like donuts, and more.
(Some examples of the environments Noby Noby Boy conjured up in our half-day playtest, direct from our notes: "world of the frog kings"; "forest of the walking moons"; "city of sea lions, mariachis and centurions"; "ballerina plain".)
All of these things are there to be interacted with. BOY can wind himself around posts, thread himself through hoops and windows, herd animals within the living fence of his body, topple piles of cardboard boxes. People and animals might choose to take a ride on BOY's back, gather in a crowd to see what he's up to, or flee from his antics in terror. Sports cars can have their passengers twanged out of their seats by his body - or they can slice him in two, in which case he'll have to eat his own rear to reconstitute himself.

The people of PSN march to the moon atop GIRL.

Holding down the left trigger makes the BOY eat stuff with his front end, gulping down the bulge like a boa; holding down the right makes him, um, propel the same stuff out of his rear with violent force (try this in mid-air to discover the power of poo propulsion). You can also shrink him from either end by clicking down on the sticks, although doing this with more force from one end than the other might leave you with lopsided results.
All of this serves the ultimate and noble purpose of... absolutely nothing at all. Noby Noby Boy is the purest form of gaming sandbox. It has no goals, no structure. You don't need to reach a certain length, fetch and carry anything, defeat any monsters, or overcome any obstacles. There is no work. There is only play.
You might think that, without objectives or rewards and with no sense of progress, time spent with Noby Noby Boy would soon become aimless and boring. You would - wonderfully, surprisingly - be wrong. By giving you such limitless possibilities, such an improbable plaything and such an anarchistic playground, Noby Noby Boy inspires creativity, curiosity and simple, careless glee.
Playing, I found myself content to noodle around with the game for hours, deep in its ridiculous world. I made my own games, set my own challenges. How many things can I eat relative to how long I am? How many people can I persuade to ride my back? Can I topple that superstructure? Can I turn myself and a couple of trees into a catapult? Can I thread myself through every hole in that giant frame? Can I string myself around skyscrapers like a washing line? Can I lasso the clouds?
And in any case, it's wrong to say that there are no rewards, because Noby Noby Boy is not as simple as it appears, even if it is every bit as mad. It is riddled with secrets and mysteries and unexpected cause-and-effect consequences in the behaviour of BOY and the world around him that you will feel compelled to seek out, and limits you can't help but try to push. The scientific joy in discovering something new about this insane pocket universe is reward aplenty.
It's also unfair to say there are no objectives - although they are hidden ones. Noby Noby Boy offers 13 Trophies, all of them question-mark-obscured mysteries. We won't spoil them here; you can probably guess a couple, although not necessarily the extent of them. Combined with the random mapping, hunting some down will be a voyage of discovery that could last weeks, or months.
It's not the only journey to be had in Noby Noby Boy, either, despite its lack of shape or story, and its tiny, randomised maps. Pull the camera back - and back, and back, and back - and you see the whole map at once; and then it starts to dwindle, and you see that it's actually inside the Earth; and above it is the Sun, who is actually a cartoon lion, looking down through a hole in the top of the world. And then, even bigger, you see the GIRL, a giant, cosmos-spanning, pink-bows-and-love-hearts version of BOY, winding off into space.

You can always reset by holding down triangle, which will send BOY spilling out of the BOY House chimney.

Using the Sun as an intermediary, you can report the total number of metres you've stretched BOY to GIRL, who will grow by the same amount. It won't get her far - but everyone else playing the game is doing so too, and it's the cumulative amount of stretching done in Noby Noby Boy by PS3 users across the world that drives GIRL's voyage into the stars.
Eventually - Takahashi reckons it will take players a couple of weeks - she'll link Earth to the Moon, and then Mars. (Who knows if more planets in the solar system could be added at a later date?) Once she's got that far, these celestial bodies can be visited, bringing new sets of maps with even crazier toys and even stranger inhabitants. GIRL also serves as a global high-score table, ranking every player by the amount they've contributed to her solar-system-spanning stretch. Every ranked player gets their own procedurally-generated, yet unmistakably Takahashi-designed, avatar perched on GIRL's back, and there's a plethora of stats and records to browse. You can take video footage and upload it directly to YouTube, too.
Noby Noby Boy is much, much more than the simple, silly, pointless diversion it unassumingly presents itself as. It's actually an incredibly forward-thinking and progressive piece of game design, incorporating community metagame, achievement-driven treasure hunt, emergent play and some remarkable feats of simulation programming (the physics engine and crowd AI is worked so hard by the game's free-form anarchy at times that it suffers slowdown). Takahashi might have his head in the (donut) clouds, but he's got his finger on the pulse too, you can be sure of that.

Basically, it's a Tom Baker's Scarf Simulator.

It's not perfect - of course it isn't. The bloody-minded insistence that BOY should be fully controllable at all times has led to some fantastically awkward (if full-featured) camera controls that involve holding down various combinations of buttons while tilting the controller. It's frustrating mastering these, especially with BOY frequently getting far too long to fit comfortably on the screen. The inhabitant and physics behaviour can be shaky at times, too.
As you'd expect from the creator of Katamari Damacy, there are a hundred whimsical touches to make up for occasional clumsiness: the wistful acoustic soundtrack, the 2D "cursor BOY" who scatters the letters of the in-game manual (while the game ambles on uninterrupted in the background), the wobbling "BOY House" and its chimney-smoke menu, the eternally disappointed Fairy and the clip-art parrot who, for no good reason, indicated the state of your PSN connection.
But you don't even need to succumb to Noby Noby Boy's many surface charms to appreciate its genius. By some combination of cunning and magic, it makes you a child again. It helps you rediscover the bottomless fascination and joy you had in discovering the properties of string, or sand, or animals, or Newtonian physics for the very first time. It makes you free to play, and happy to make your own entertainment, for hours on end.
And in case you're still unsure if it's for you - in case you were thinking of denying yourself a chance to feel like that again - let me say one more thing: it costs less than lunch.
9/10

[Robothamster]

Interview

Noby Noby Boy's Keita Takahashi Interview

Interview by Oli Welsh

Wednesday

Thursday sees the PSN release - for a mere GBP 3.19 / EUR 3.99 - of Noby Noby Boy, the new game by Katamari Damacy's creator Keita Takahashi.
Noby Noby Boy is an interactive playground where players control both ends of a stretchy character called BOY and just fool around, interacting with the structures and bizarre inhabitants of randomly-generated maps. All the BOY-stretching done collectively by all players across the PlayStation Network is reported to a GIRL in space, who grows in turn, connecting the Earth to the Moon and Mars, and opening up new environments to explore.
It's not an easy game to explain - so we're pleased to present five exclusive videos and a chat with Takahashi that will, hopefully, shed some light on Noby Noby Boy's strange and wonderful world.
Eurogamer: I was in the audience when you showed Noby Noby Boy at Nottingham GameCity a little over a year ago. Back then, it was just a grey world, a BOY, and a pig - but it was still fun to play with. What have you added since then?
Keita Takahashi: Were you at the event? Well, that's kind of embarrassing for me... The version shown at GameCity was not completed at all. There were 3 BOYs shown back then, and the structure of BOY wasn't finished - like the way collisions between BOY or the pig and the environments worked. The game as it is now is a totally different game. In short, the game sequences were not finished and I was working until the very morning of my departure from Japan to make the game as polished as possible, even though it was clearly impossible to show something completed.
So, one year later, I am here with this game hoping that people will enjoy it!

The parrot in the bottom left tells you if you're connected to PSN.

Eurogamer: Tell us about the relationship between the BOY and the GIRL. What does the GIRL do? Is she the BOY's GIRLfriend?
Keita Takahashi: When BOY grows, he informs GIRL about it and her body grows accordingly. GIRL lives in space and is trying to link all the planets of the solar system. I think that she is trying to link all the planets of the solar system together to make all the people living there understand each other, and have a good relationship with each other.
As earthlings are not getting along with each other very well, that's where things should start. However, I believe that if the whole solar system gets along better, then earth will get better too. Well, maybe with this will and energy people on Earth will get along better!
Regarding the fact that BOY and GIRL might be more than friends, I can't answer this question, as it is a private matter.

Eurogamer: Why did you choose to have all the players on the PlayStation Network work together to unlock everything in the game, rather than have each one do it on his or her own?
Keita Takahashi: Right now the trend for online gaming is online co-op. However, with BOY's body growing as it does, and with the engine managing the physics of the moving objects, it would have needed a huge server to manage everything at the same time. We met this issue at the beginning of the development, so we came up with this idea of a network mode which is not a multiplayer mode. We had a lot of other ideas, but we ran out of time and could not implement them in the game.
Apart from the technical reasons, we wanted to show players how it feels to achieve something when everybody shares the same goal. I think that it will be fun - but I think that there is something more to it.
I am really looking forward to seeing the players' reactions, as this is something that I cannot do or even imagine before the game's released.
Eurogamer: Are there any techniques or secrets to being able to stretch your BOY super long?

Keita Takahashi: There is a super technique, which consists of leaving the game on and not touching it! When you don't control BOY, he wanders around freely by himself. So if you leave the game on during the night, he might have grown when you wake up in the morning.
Eurogamer: There are a lot of love hearts in the screenshots. What do these mean? Can you make friends with the people and animals?
Keita Takahashi: Sorry, there is no special meaning except that he is happy! It is just an effect that pops out when BOY is walking. Usually in games we use an effect with dust flying in the air, but I think it's boring. So I wanted to use something that would make me happy if I were walking in the real world. That's why I decided to use hearts
Even without the flashy hearts displaying, you will notice that in Noby Noby Boy's world, people are already on good terms with animals too, so not only they will ride on BOY's back, they will also ride on animals' backs sometimes.

Eurogamer: You can eat things, and also poo them out. What's the purpose of this? Does it change the way the BOY behaves if he has eaten a lot?
Keita Takahashi: I just thought that changing the shape of BOY was funny. There is no real aim... If you keep eating, a change that you can easily imagine will happen, but I would like you to check it out yourself by playing the game.
Eurogamer: What will happen when you leave the Earth and get to other planets?
Keita Takahashi: You can then play in the planets that you've reached, and that's pretty much about it!
Eurogamer: Do you have any plans to extend the game with more downloads in future? Perhaps new levels, objects, planets, or modes?
Keita Takahashi: Yes, we will make a big update approximately two months after the release. I think we will be able to present the content pretty soon.
At first I wanted to make more updates, but the development got longer, and I want to keep the price low. Without having a lot of people playing the game, I don't think that the decision-makers at the company will allow another update. So I want many people to play the game.
Please allow me to keep updating the game!
Eurogamer: Did your bosses at Namco complain when you said you didn't want the game to have objectives?

Keita Takahashi: As my hierarchy only complains and only talks about the so-called "right things" to do when creating a game, I just tried not to care about what I was being told. To be honest, I don't really remember. But I was told something like "make it look more like a game", "make it easier to understand", "make it more accessible" I think.
Eurogamer: How do you want players to feel when they're playing Noby Noby Boy?
Keita Takahashi: I want them to relax. It is OK to fall asleep while playing it, too.
Eurogamer: What does Noby Noby mean?
Keita Takahashi: It is about being laid back and free. It means having no restrictions to your actions, being who you are, feeling easy.
It also means postponing things, being late and taking a long time to finish something.
I love both meanings, even though one of them is bad, but it sums up my situation with this game perfectly.
Eurogamer: Can a simple game like Noby Noby Boy have a bigger meaning? Or is it just for fun?

Keita Takahashi: Though a gorgeous game is not only for fun, and is often said to have "a meaning", "significance" or "merit", I wonder if this is really relevant. As I don't really understand the true meaning of the word "meaning", I can't really give you a good answer on this. Sorry...
Eurogamer: In Katamari, you could roll up almost everything you see into a ball, to make the ball bigger. In Noby Noby Boy, you can eat almost everything you see, and stretch longer and longer. Why are your games so concerned with consuming things and growing? Are you hungry?
Keita Takahashi: Exactly, I am hungry! Even though I am a 33-year-old guy, I believe that I still need to eat in order to grow up.
When it comes to games, there are obviously some things I like and some things I don't like. But for foods, I like everything. All foods are delicious.
Eurogamer: Have you seen Flower, also on the PlayStation Network? That's a game you might like. You play as a petal, caught on the wind - it's very relaxing. Is it easier to make different kinds of games now that you can sell them for download?
Keita Takahashi: Yes, Flower is a fun game. It's the first PS3 game ever that I've played from the beginning to the end. For download-only releases, developers have the opportunity to control the retail price, which may make things easier. I also think that this makes the challenge easier for most of the games.

Takahashi-san drew this just for you.

Getting some visibility in stores for games that aren't famous, or that forecasts are bad for, can be a problem. Download-only releases definitely solve this problem. I would like to see a lot of stupid games being released, just like during the PS1 days.
Eurogamer: Apart from making Noby Noby Boy, what else have you been up to lately?
Keita Takahashi: Well, I am not doing the job that a producer is supposed to do, I participate in the actual creation of the game. As I am the only project lead, I unfortunately don't have time to get involved in other projects.
Apart from the game, I will make a speech at the GDC in March, so I started preparing that. I am also making Noby Noby Boy t-shirts.

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Basically, it's a Tom Baker's Scarf Simulator

I think this comment has me sold

[Tall_Paul]

Originally Posted by Robothamster

Posted for ease of finger clicks:

Sold

Sound good fun, I'll get this tonight