301st played so far
Genre: Action
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Namco Bandai
Publisher: Namco Bandai
So for our first game of the fifty, we go in for another off-beat game – not as indie this time, but certainly a different sort of thing.
We’ve played the game a bit before, but for some reason never got around to writing it up. What we did find out is that Noby Noby Boy is, well, different. Quite different indeed.
Our Thoughts
There’s a pretty neat concept in this game. Controlling two ends of a creature, you move around a (small) world, often decorated as a village or otherwise. You let your creature walk around it, wrapping it around things to stretch it as far as you can.
And that’s it. Just do your best to get as long as possible (using the available furniture), as the global score (total lengths) unlock new worlds as planets are reached from the length of the titular Noby Noby Boys. It’s an extended version of what One-Dot Enemies does, but where it’s a small addition to gameplay there, here it’s the whole point of the game. At the moment they are still waiting to get to Neptune from Uranus… and seeing how old this game is I don’t think there will be enough stretching to reach there any time soon.
While I’ve discussed it with others who got into it (hi James!), it just wasn’t enough to hold my attention for long, as growing and stretching just doesn’t lead much further.
While the game offers some nice graphics, on the whole it’s fairly simple. They’re set pieces, not creating something that looks great or works well, just to provide things to stretch around. It’s not the selling point you’d want it to be.
As much as you can expect download games to be limited, this goes a bit far in the wrong direction, providing a gimmick done better in other places simply because it isn’t the focus of the game. A waste of a potentially interesting concept.
Final Thoughts
The previous game we discussed provided what seemed like an interesting concept – a large number (if not unlimited) number of goals, provided by the game as well as what you want to add yourself – it’s the beauty of the sandbox genre. Noby Noby Boy, on the other hand, has a goal you’re barely involved in due to its global nature, while not providing you with the tools to find any other. It just doesn’t work.