Let’s get one thing out of the way first. Noby Noby Boy is NOT a game. I share that with you up front, because if I had realized that at first, it probably would have saved me a lot of frustration.
   
Noby Noby Boy (‘Noby’ loosely translates as ‘stretch’) is the latest product from Namco Bandai and designer, Keita Takahashi, of Katamari Damacy fame. NNB shares a lot of the same aesthetics and the same sense of bizarre giddiness that made Katamari a sleeper hit but without all of the goals and gameplay mucking up the works. At its core, NNB allows you to control ‘Boy’, a worm-like creature whose front and rear sections are independently controllable with the left and right analog sticks, respectively. Each map is a flat plane decorated with houses, playground and sports equipment, animals, flowers, cars, and other detritus that looks like it came out of an overturned toy box. There are also people and animals that Boy can interact with, and will hop on his back and ride around the environment with him.
   
NNB opens with a tutorial ‘quiz’ which explains the basic mechanics and encourages the player to simply relax and play and to not worry about scoring points or beating timers. Oh, if only I had listened. I started off trying to accomplish goals and make specific things happen. I had become so embroiled in ‘beating the game’ that I think I had forgotten just how to play. NNB is no more a game than a ball of Play-Doh or a wad of Silly Putty and offers just as much freedom of expression and creativity.

When I first started playing I was so concerned with doing it ‘right’ that I had worked myself into a frustrated frenzy, ready to grab my Noby Noby Boy around what I presumed to be his neck and squeeze until he was a Noby Noby Corpse. I kept thinking that I didn’t ‘get it.’ That this was some sort of trick. This was the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ of gaming and I was the only one who saw it naked. So, I stepped back, took a deep breath, and started again.

Letting go of gaming conventions, using NNB as a toy to enjoy instead of a challenge to beat, freed me from the conventions I had boxed myself into and allowed me to simply... play.  Running Boy across the world maps becomes a question of ‘What can I do next?’ while crawling around, over, and through the objects provided for you. Should you give the dog in the space helmet a ride around the map or gobble him up? Why not do both? Can you stretch your Boy long enough and still maintain enough control to weave him through the bars of a jungle gym? What happens if you wrap Boy around the base of a tree and try to uproot it?

Changing maps is simply a matter of entering a house on the map (which can also be used to propel Boy skyward, through the chimney) and choosing to switch. Maps are never finished; objects get replenished as you eat, destroy, or fling them into space, and can be changed on a whim with no reward or penalty for doing so. Speaking of eating, you can consume most non-structure objects and the longer your Boy is stretched, the more you can consume. Consumption is never permanent, objects eaten will find their way out of Boy one way or another and back onto the play surface. The maps are colorful, day-glo playgrounds that look like an Eric Carle book on mescaline. Each is a flat, square plane floating in space, and trying to maintain control of Boy as he becomes longer and longer and more and more unwieldy without sliding off the edge into nothingness can be a challenge. Fear not, because falling into the void simply means restarting in your house a few moments later.

Now, just because NNB is not technically a game doesn’t mean it’s without some kind of purpose to the play. It’s just that playing enough allows you to play more.