Contributed Review by: Evan Zinser
Noby Noby Boy earns my prestigious award as the first disappointing PS3 exclusive of the year. I must admit I am a bit spoiled after playing Flower a couple of weeks ago, but the overall quality of this game is lacking severely.
In this game you play as BOY and your objective is to stretch to desired lengths to help GIRL grow. When you are done each session you simply report your length to GIRL and it adds your length to GIRL’S overall length. This is the cool part. GIRL’S length is an accumulation of every users reported length. GIRL starts on Earth and the added meters from each user helps her reach planets. As of now, GIRL has reached the Moon and is on her way to Mars. It is a great concept, however stretching to help GIRL grow is boring and repetitive and most will not play it for much more than an hour for this exact reason.
In the game you can stretch to insane lengths, eat inhabitants and consequently digest them, give rides to the same inhabitants, and tangle yourself into any of the objects placed in the maps. That’s really all there is to it as far as core gameplay is concerned. The camera was a big issue for me when playing this game because it seemed that when I was stretched out that the camera would tend to automatically zoom in away from BOY’S head, which I would then have to manually fix. It made playing this game even more frustrating. I love the idea of visiting different planets, however it is still not enough to urge me into playing it anymore.
The graphics are nothing special, far from it actually. They have the same style that the Katamari games use. The best looking thing in this game would have to be the rope physics of BOY. You can tangle yourself in any way possible and if you enjoy doing that, it may add a few more minutes to how long you may want to play this game. I would recommend muting your TV while playing this game. The opening song as the game loads is horror to the ears along with many of the repetitive animal noises, especially that darn owl.
You should only buy Noby Noby Boy if you want to obtain the twelve easiest trophies of your career. The trophies are so easy that they can be obtained in about an hour with little effort. Once you have obtained them all, there is little point of playing this game. The system in which BOY helps GIRL grow is brilliant but they didn’t include a desirable game play mechanic to keep me playing. The way things look and are presented in this game sometimes makes me wonder if someone slipped acid into my last meal. To top it off you will be barraged by repetitive sound effects and an annoying soundtrack. I suggest you save your $5.00 and put it towards Flower.
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