NOBY NOBY BOY STRETCHES FURTHER INTO FEBRUARY
As you can see from the awesomely hastily scribbled out and corrected dates on Noby Noby Boy‘s official site o–o, the arrival of the game, which was previously due in just one week from today (which would have explained the involuntary heart palpitations that’d been growing over the past few days) has now been pushed back by three weeks to just after Valentine’s Day: Thursday, February 19th.
The reason, Namco Bandai politely explained, is simply “in order to provide better quality.”
Still confused as to what Katamari creator Keita Takahashi is trying to accomplish with his PS3 downloadable game and non-game? Have a look at my first writeup from mid-December, where I tried to weave all the loose threads Takahashi laid down in 2007 at the game’s first live debut at Nottingham’s GameCity festival — I think, bolstered by subsequent video footage and details that have been released since, that I might’ve been onto something.
Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) – Offworld
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OFFWORLD (FEAT. KEITA TAKAHASHI)
Before the site goes any darker and the posting gets even lighter for the remainder of the week, I just wanted to drop off one last little gift, drawn exclusively for all of you Offworldians by (obviously) Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi.
Hope everyone’s having a happy holiday, and thanks for all the smart comments and well wishes we’ve received over our first month here.
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ANOTHER NEW LOOK AT NOBY NOBY BOY
Ending today where we did yesterday, 1UP has continued its look at Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi’s upcoming PS3 downloadable Noby Noby Boy with a new ‘gameplay’ video, showing its central stretch and dual-control mechanic (as well as the workings of Noby’s intestinal tract), and the general lazy playfulness of its world (just, not yet, the underlying bits of its multiplayer play and the ‘GIRL’ in the sky).
As was said in the GameCity demo I mentioned yesterday when a koala inexplicably mounted the Noby for a ride: “no one is sure why this is funny.”
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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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