Noby Noby Boy, Katamari Damacy, And The CRAZEH world of Keita Takahashi
Noby Noby Boy, the new game from Keita Takahashi, was just ported over to the iPhone so I think this is as good a time as any to discuss it’s creator and his work.
For anyone who doesn’t know: Keita Takahashi is the creator of the big culty hit Katamari Damacy. In Katamari you control a character with a magic ball that can roll things up. You start small but the more you roll the bigger the ball becomes, allowing you to pick up more shit. In the early levels you are tiny and only able to pick up thumbtacks and little birds but eventually you start to pick up bigger things like cats and pieces of houses. The first time you pick up a person is probably one of the most satisfying gaming moments around. Later on you’ll be able to pick up whole masses of land with the end goal of using all you’ve rolled up to roll up the solar system.
The game is just fucking crazy. You are the Prince of the Cosmos and take order from your father, the King of the Cosmos. Everything is in that crazy Japanese (!!!!!) style but you shouldn’t write it off as there is way more going on. The game has a couple of sequels the first of which was We Love Katamari. In We Love Katamari you do basically the same things as the original except this time everyone you take missions from FANS of you and your exploits from the first game. It is rather “meta” and hints at in the workings of it’s creator Keita Takahashi.
Now Keita is a strange dude. He is technically a videogame designer yet he has gone on record several times saying he HATES VIDEOGAMES and does not play them. He thinks games are stupid and has quit making them several times to work on other shit, like designing a playground for children AND adults(!) that promotes softness and fun. He has actually turned down money to work on more Katamari sequels just so he can do stuff like that.
Now that we are all caught up, back to Noby Noby Boy. The game is Takahashi’s first real follow up to Katamari and was years in the making. It was PS3 exclusive and people were just foaming at the dick to see what it was all about. It turns out it is barely a game at all! You control this weird long stretchy guy and you make him longer, then you eat things and get longer and just kind of run around eating things, and flying, and basically being a dick. There is no objective, no goal, no achievements…you just….play. After the video click for the rest of this amazing article!
The game did not exactly take over the world. People would buy it on the PSN network for like $10, play it for an hour and explode. One of the weirdest aspects of the game is that it records how much you are stretching out your “BOY”. The more all the players stretch, it will add up to how long “GIRL” is, and it will eventually unlock more levels to play on….culminating in the unlocking of the SUN level. Takahashi eventually sat down and spoke out about some of the issues with the game and was surprisingly honest and AMAZING about it. The full interview is HERE but I’ll quote some stuff:
Eurogamer: Many players say that they enjoyed Noby Noby Boy at first, but didn’t play it for long because they didn’t know what to do. Don’t you think that objectives help people to enjoy themselves?
Keita Takahashi: I don’t think that the problem comes form the game missing any objectives. I think that it is simply just not fun. I think we can make fun games without any objectives in it. So this all because of my lack of ability…
Eurogamer: As you said in your talk, GIRL’s progress through the solar system is going rather slowly. Do you regret implementing this feature the way you did?
Keita Takahashi: Yes, at the pace things are going now, it will take 820 years.
I have absolutely no regrets regarding the way we implemented the feature. I have been told to stop acting up and add some more “game-like” features. But I don’t want to create a game with a pre-determined ending and I think it is OK the way it is. I don’t think it is right to put an ending just for the sake of it. I believe that it is alright to create a stupid and irresponsible game, I really do.
Now this brings us to the new iPhone port of the Noby Noby Boy. I have not actually played this game but by the look of it…it just seems to be even less of a game and more of just batshit way to spend your time on the subway. He added all these weird features like taking a photo of yourself and having this dude in the game grab it and take it around everywhere. No, I don’t know what that means either. Thankfully, Takahashi didn’t just decide to make the game, he also decided to make the ads for it…and they are INCREDIBLE. In the 3 minute span of each of these videos, he is making fun of his own game, videogame developers in general, marketing teams, and yet somehow still selling a videogame. Watch them right now:
All I have to say is “iphone! iphone! ipod touch ipod touch!”.
- Dr. Dinosaur
February 19th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
We Love Katamari is one of the funnest video games ever created. HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended to anybody who isn’t a douche.