IT’S A STRETCH: EXPLAINING KATAMARI CREATOR’S NEW NOBY NOBY BOY
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi is nothing if not one of gaming’s most endearingly (and deliberately mischievously) unorthodox figures, and today’s first look at his next near-finished PS3 downloadable creation Noby Noby Boy is proof positive.
At last year’s GameCity event, he took to the stage (sans shoes, and accompanied by an ambient soundtrack of rustling trees and crickets), and laid out succinctly where his mind is at on games as a whole: “About Katamari Damacy: I’m sick of it,” his hand-typed FAQ read. “What is the future of video games: I haven’t got a clue. What do video games bring us: It depends on what you’re after. What are video games: Who knows.”
With the opening of o–o, the game’s comically and annoyingly oversized website (and the url cutely modeled on the snakelike Noby Boy himself), we get similarly dismissive (and somewhat ‘King’ like) disclaimers: “This content cannot be classified as a so-called ‘game.’ It’s hard to explain in detail so we’ll skip it here. We don’t answer any question[s] about this content. No complaint will be accepted after you purchase this content.”
Just what Noby is is hard to explain, but the fundamentals are simple: you control a Noby “BOY” with both analog sticks: one for the head, one for the tail, flexing, stretching, and eventually tying yourself in knots, in a playground world that’s otherwise devoid of goals. And, as 1UP’s preview points out, a Noby “GIRL”, suspended in the heavens, is similarly stretchy, but only as a progress-bar reflection of the combined total of collective Noby Noby Boy player progress. As everyone plays, in other words, she grows, reaching new interstellar objects, which will in turn unlock new stages for all players (a brilliantly viral mechanic). (more…)
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POPCAP’S PEGGLE EXTREME NOW FREE ON STEAM
There shouldn’t be, but probably is, at least one amongst us who hasn’t yet known the delirious joy of an EXTREME FEVER or soared along to the Ode of Joy. For you, then, I’ll note that Valve has reduced the price of PopCap’s Peggle Extreme to nothing on Steam.
Extreme is the Half-Life-themed bonus version of the game first given away with the Orange Box, and therefore a very comfortable way to dip your toe into the experience, if you’re (inexplicably) the type that needs your unicorns to be head-crabbed, and your bug-eyed beavers to be flash-fried by a Team Fortress 2 Pyro.
Peggle Extreme [Steam]
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PIXELJUNK EDEN PATCH PROMISES MERCY
Still in my very top tier of downloadable releases this year, Q-Games’ PS3 art/platformer PixelJunk Eden also gets the award for the game I’ve sworn at most profusely and most profanely. Those shouts (apart from scaring the dog) have apparently been heard ’round the world: Q has just announced that a new patch will be available very soon that’ll bring a continue system, more time, and, most intriguingly, an undetailed “new control system” — one of Eden‘s main attractions being its indirect control.
PixelJunk Eden patch [via TheBBPS]
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LLAMASOFT’S SPACE GIRAFFE RELEASED FOR PC
That collective whinny you heard earlier this morning was the sound of a thousand Llamasoft fans discovering that the PC version of Jeff Minter’s Space Giraffe had finally been released for PC, alongside a demo version you can grab here [.exe]. As mentioned before, after the resounding and baffled silence following its Xbox Live Arcade release, the ‘softies have been working overtime to make the PC version a more accessible experience.
On top of toning down the psychotropia of the Tempest-esque strategic shooter with 100 new “NUXX” levels (alongside the XBLA version’s original “acid mix” levels), over the past quarter Minter and co. have been hard at work preparing a safe-place of video walkthroughs and tutorials to help coach you into the madness.
Minter also says the PC version adds “the capability for us to make available further level packs – which can be completely new levels rather than simply remixes – should there be sufficient interest,” including “chillout level packs, ultra-intense packs, shorter game packs (maybe 20 levels instead of 100 for those who want a shorter game), special themed packs to celebrate Christmas or L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday.”
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MYST MMO URU GOING OPEN SOURCE, FAN-OPERATED
At the latest Austin Game Developer’s conference, Turner VP Blake Lewin made a prescient observation when he noted that URU, the beleaguered MMO based on Cyan Worlds’ franchise Myst, “lasts longer when the fans run it than when publishers do.”
Dropped quickly and unceremoniously by Ubisoft on its 2003 release after a beta that drew some 10-40,000 users, fans kept an unofficial server live for two years before being re-released by Turner’s GameTap service in 2006. After just a year in operation, though, it was shuttered again — Lewin noting that while successful for the service, the cost of operation was too much to maintain.
So, according to a note sent out by Cyan CEO Tony Fryman, the company is going to put the game back in the hands of its dedicated base for operation and expansions, and hope for the best. Said Fryman on the release:
Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.
This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we’ve poured so much into UruLive, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for UruLive and/or work on the next UruLive.
This is also a bit scary for the fans. We realize that this could turn UruLive into the “wild west” and lead to many fractured and diverse MystOnline servers. But it is our hope that with the help of dedicated core fans (if you are reading this, it probably means you) that a safe and secure MystOnline server set (many servers from around the world working together as one) can be created that will let people explore and live in UruLive.
TXT: Cyan makes it official: “Myst” now in the hands of its fans
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KATAMARI ROLLS ONTO IPHONE
Namco Bandai, it seems, is keen on wholly unannounced surprises. Like the sudden re-emergence of the entirely obscure Mr. Driller spinoff Star Trigon for the iPod, the publisher has quietly released a tilt-sensitive port of Katamari Damacy for the iPhone.
I Love Katamari is necessarily downsized from its console and handheld big brothers, but fully 3D (as opposed to the isometric mobile version) and every bit as warmly familiar. Each of the game’s five stages is split into four separate modes: a story mode in which the King requests a single item to be rolled (which unlocks subsequent levels), a time attack to roll as much as you can within the limit, an exact size mode to roll to a perfect fit, and an eternal mode which lets you freely roll however you’d like.
It’s safe to say, though, that the iPhone struggles mightily under the weight of your pile of collections, though a reboot and a quick switch to Airplane mode seemed to bring it a bit more under control. And, even moreso than Sega’s Super Monkey Ball, there’s a very pronounced acclimation period before your dual-analog brain lets go of that need for precision and lets your hands do the work (even still, there were moments when my whole body contorted hoping to squeeze just an ounce more torque out of the device).
But what it does do right is recapture the harrowing anxiety of the originals. I’ve yet to finish a level with more than 25 or 30 seconds on the clock, which leads me to believe that all my backward bends are exactly to design. Creator Keita Takahashi may have put the series behind him years ago, but there’s still a part of me very happy to have it in my hands again.
I Love Katamari [iTunes link]
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TEN MINUTES OF THE WII’S GHOSTBUSTERS
Swedish outlet Gamereactor has uploaded a ten minute walkthrough of the opening scenes of Red Fly’s Wii version of the Ghostbusters game, which, as becomes immediately apparent, has wisely been designed from the start as a unique experience from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
The stars have been caricatured to more cartoony forms, the clip shows off a number of the unique gadgets that you’ll utilize, and also shows that, 25 years later, you’ll finally be able to capture the first film’s librarian-ghost and bring some semblance of closure to the trauma of a childhood’s worth of screaming nightmares (for me, at least).
ATARI: Ghostbusters Wii presentation [Gamereactor TV, via Red Fly]
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WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME? NETWORKING EDITION
It’s been a bit too long since we’ve done one of these, but let’s make it a bit different this time. We’re all on different pages this weekend, Rob having just put Fallout 3 to bed as Joel just now re-emerges from the vault, John looking for groups on Left 4 Dead (via XBL name ‘drcrypt’ — mention Offworld in your request, please!), and me honestly still not sure where the weekend’s going to take me (I’ve been having a desperately hard time lately escaping Banjo Kazooie‘s Xbox Live Arcade remade paw/claw grip, and am looking forward to sinking in further to XBLA’s Meteos Wars).
So, this seems as good a time as any to launch our official Facebook presence, where I’ve kicked off a thread with our Steam/Xbox Live/PSN/Wii/etc. information, and encourage anyone interested to do the same. Hopefully, while we still fiddle with coming up with something a bit more official, we’ll have something more stable than our comments to keep us all together.
As usual, you can also join our Boing Boing Steam group and while I’m passing out our various web presences, I might as well mention that our Offworld Twitter feed is in its neophyte stages and will begin in full soon.
See more posts about: facebook, Offworld Originals
CULT KOREAN RHYTHM GAME DJ MAX TECHNIKA COMING TO DS/IPHONE
With the American arcade version still yet not made it to a location near me, I’m still not entirely convinced by the idea of PM Studios’ touch-screen rhythm game DJ Max Technika, its gameplay (which you can see here) on beat, but so seemingly divorced from the music itself.
It quickly conjures up happy memories of iNiS’s Nintendo DS underdog favorite Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan, but it’s not entirely clear how compelling the game will be played so straight, without the peripheral connection of your actions to comic vignettes that give EBA its vitality.
It might be sooner than we think to find out, though, in a new interview with Siliconera, PM Studios producer Michael Yum says the company is at work bringing Technika not only to the DS (with ‘secret’ DSi features), but to the iPhone as well, a device it looks almost tailor-made for.
PM Studios Discuss DJ Max Technika, DS Port, And Pentavision’s Elusive Xbox 360 Game [Siliconera]
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WEEKEND WATCHING: REX CROWLE’S GRIP WRENCH
Working for a little weekend watching? Motion graphics designer and illustrator Rex Crowle has just unveiled the site for Grip Wrench, his 10-part animated series for MTV Italy’s QOOB. Crowle, on top of doing fantastic ad work like Orange’s GoodThingsShouldNeverEnd website, is also the man behind much of LittleBigPlanet‘s striking visual design: you’ll instantly recognize his style in every little CMYK flourish you noticed around the game’s various worlds.
In this episode of Grip Wrench, the titular star (described as “Hollywood hard man, troubled veteran, reckless patriot”) “attempts to atone for previous disasters by taking part in a road safety film. But his easily distracted childlike mind chooses to focus more on playing videogames than saving lives, and as the bodycount rises so does the mayhem.”
It’s just ever so cutely on the NSFW side, but my favorite of the bunch and obviously a good fit for the Offworld crew, and it’s very likely you’re going to be seeing more of Crowle around the site in the near future.
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