Why Noby Noby Boy Is One of The Greatest Games of All Time

Noby Noby Boy is a peculiar experiment in emergent gameplay through a limited rule-set. Mimicking the structure found in Conway’s mathematical paradigm known as the Game of Life, Noby Noby Boy challenges players with nothing more than the existence of random objects and living creatures, smattered across a pre-ordained landscape.

This reliance on player input and emergent mechanics gives rise to one of the best games of this and perhaps any generation; realising the potential for games to create a story without the game’s developer actually telling it.

The game does have a few achievements to aim toward, with a befuddling set of mechanics designed to coagulate the gameplay, which entail reporting the stretched length of BOY to GIRL in a quest (undertaken by all of Noby Noby Boy’s community) to stretch itself across the solar system.

Although these coatings end up becoming perfunctory to the game itself and it should be noted that they confide in a sense of collectivism as opposed to reaching a plateau atop a leaderboard. Knowing that you’re helping GIRL reach a new planet by stretching BOY isn’t a principal reason to play the game (at least for the majority) but it serves as a reminder of the games crude communal aspect.

This reliance on gameplay and setting to reinforce meaning isn’t particularly new, as I’ve explored in an article dealing with games as art, there are plenty of games that try to reinforce something through interpretation (Braid, Flower or PixelJunk Eden). However, many games fall into the trap of coining faux-challenges or needless advancement, in order to merit the games existence.

This trapping is one which many releases fall into; often superseding the requirement for meaning in favour of easy empowerment or “fun”. As an example, the use of constant streams of “street brawls” in Yakuza 3 breaks up the fundamental principals held in the game, absorbing the atmosphere of a rowdy Tokyo ward. It would be amusing to note that the challenge is often what drives us in games, like the “street brawls” or mini-games in Yakuza 3, as opposed to the context or setting and its imposed reality.

Noby Noby Boy reverses this almost over-used paradigm by wading through the needless sea of achievements, trophies (of which the game quasi-has, amusingly hypocritical as that is) and challenges found in game, requiring the player to playfully exist within the randomly generated environments instead of aiming for the inhabitants heads with bullets.

Although Sandbox games such as Grand Theft Auto or Saint’s Row try to replicate that notion, they too are bogged down in the sloppy combat and advancement systems of other games, often curtailing the enjoyment found wholesale in Noby Noby Boy.

Another facet of this comes from the seeming illusory layer of interaction found in these sandbox games. An example would be the circular pathfinding of cars et al in GTA IV or the static NPC’s of many role-playing games. Although the illusion and pretence is a necessary sacrifice for developers to maintain a budget and time-frame, its ever noticeable nature in games like Mafia or GTA IV is something Noby Noby Boy alleviates within its framework.