Ah February, a month of blossoming love, the promise of spring and a massive PlayStation Network sale from Namco Bandai Games! Starting tomorrow, Namco Bandai Games will be holding a four-week 50% off sale of selected digital games and downloadable content across the PlayStation family brand of systems.

If you’ve been holding off on riding the high seas with One Piece: Pirate Warriors, unlocking the mysteries of the past in Dark Souls: Atorias of the Abyss, rolling around town in Touch My Katamari or stretching to new worlds in Noby Noby Boy, now is your chance. The sale will start Tuesday, February 5th and run until Tuesday, March 5th. The following list features the games and downloadable content featured in this month’s sale.

PlayStation 3

• RIDGE RACER 7: 3D License Version – $9.99
• NAMCO MUSEUM ESSENTIALS – $4.99
• NOBY NOBY BOY – $2.49
• ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS – $24.99

PlayStation Vita

• RIDGE RACER – $12.49
• TOUCH MY KATAMARI – $12.49

PSP

• SOULCALIBUR: Broken Destiny – $19.99
• TEKKEN 6 – $19.99
• NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: Ultimate Ninja Impact – $19.99

DLC

• ACE COMBAT ASSAULT HORIZON DLC – prices vary from $1.99 to $7.49
• Dark Souls: Atorias of the Abyss – $7.49
• ONE PIECE: PIRATE WARRIORS DLC Pack – $7.49

Finally, the updated 1.1 version is ready (available now on PSN). Honestly, debugging it was hard for multiplayer as it was a hotbed for bugs. So, if you run into a bug or two, please laugh that off. Since there are more silly updates aside from multiplay, I hope everyone has fun with the game as a whole. By looking at the number of WEBWEBBOY, however, a lot of people don’t seem to have noticed the updates. They may be playing something else and not know about them. But I do wonder when GIRL will reach Mars.

So now FARTBOY is audible. As it says names of the excreted in Japanese and English in a random manner, it’s perfect for 2 to 3-year-olds to study languages. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have it encompass entire languages, like excreting with a certain button held lets it speak a German word, etc? This feature may not mean much, but I think it’ll be fun to perfect this spec.

Also, there is a hidden function in the game called SYNCHROBOY that people might not know about; it’s not even in the manual.

I expected that people would notice by now, but I feel like revealing at least a clue as no one has picked up on it yet. By holding a certain button while getting out of a house, the number of BOY increases. This can give you a multiplayer feel even during the single player mode. Please check it out!

See you soon!

I’d like to share a little bit more about Multiplayer. In Single player, the game allows BOY to eat another BOY as well as people and animals, etc. In Multiplayer though, eating everything has some funny consequences. For example, if the head of a 1P BOY eats the rear of a 2P BOY, the two players end up with a combined BOY.

Head: Player 1
Rear: Player 2

This could be very confusing because one BOY is controlled by two players. Moreover, the fact that the game is compatible for up to four players could bring even more chaotic situations. Doesn’t that sound fun?

We are almost there. Please be a little more patient.

But now that GDC is over, I’d like to thank everyone who came to see my panel. I was so relieved to see all of you because I had been so anxious thinking no one would want to hear my stories about the game. As I said in the last post, I didn’t have the time to put together what I’d say just as I was leaving Japan. Why do I need to know and prepare notes beforehand? Well, because I can’t speak English. In order to deliver my own message, it’s very important to have a prep meeting with the interpreter. As it’s sometimes difficult to convey myself to even Japanese native speakers, it shouldn’t be hard to imagine the difficulty for the interpreter of doing it in English.

After I spent sometime preparing for my speech during the flight, I thought I’d better take advantage of at least one free movie, so I watched a Japanese film called “Yureru.” Well, the movie was good but it made me feel depressed afterward and I wasn’t unable to sleep at all during the flight. Our plane arrived at the San Francisco airport around noon. I got on BART for the first time, got off at the Powell Station, and managed to get to my hotel. As you can imagine, the notes for my speech weren’t ready at the time, but I thought it’d be OK since my panel would be the following day.

After checking in, I headed out to the GDC venue to check my e-mails even though I wanted to take a breather. When I was there I found an e-mail asking me to share my speech draft with the interpreter, hopefully, by 5:00 pm. Well, it was already 5:00 pm. I said to myself, “Oh no! Sorry. I can’t do it. I’m too sleepy. I’m so sorry…” and headed back to the hotel and went to bed immediately.

Surprisingly, I woke up around 1:00 am. Isn’t this what they call “Jet Lag”? But I took it as my conscience telling me to stay up and complete a draft of my speech. So I did. In the morning, I met the interpreter at GDC, made some revisions, and finally we were ready. When I felt we were on the same page, I wanted to go back to bed, but I forced myself to get a decent meal.

With regard to my panel, all the articles say it all. I was happy that people seemed to understand and enjoy it. In fact, Noby Noby Boy for the iPhone was revealed for the first time there, and the only people who knew about it were our project staff. I heard that my supervisor was stunned. Isn’t that funny?

This is Takahashi.

Too many boys… uh…gross, aren’t they? Well, this is Takahashi.

I was filled with emotion when that happened because I was wondering if a lot of people were playing the game. And I am truly grateful for all those who have. Thank you all very much. Some of our own staff was also touched more than they had expected. With that said, the next goal, Mars, is still far away. It would take all the current players a while to reach Mars, so more people have to join in on the fun.

There have been many reviews/criticisms since Noby Noby Boy released. I totally understand as this is such a unique game and I expected those reactions. I don’t mean to make any excuses. That being said, I do get depressed from time to time as I want users to enjoy the game as much as possible. But at the same time, this is what I wanted to create.

In the hopes that more people can enjoy the game, we are currently working on an update.

A featured addition to the update is going to be offline multiplayer. Some may say, “Offline!?” But it’ll still be fun. Please check it out.

Well, it’s going to be quite a long journey to Mars. Please be patient. This is Takahashi.

Anyway, has anyone looked at the Pac-Man and Noby Noby Boy commemorative banner that released today on the PlayStation Store? Those who have already played the game may have seen it. This photo was taken on January 1st when I came in to work to fix bugs.

As you can easily imagine, there was no one in the office that day except for the security guards. I had a lot of fun freely taking pictures with Boy! I remember carrying him to the main entrance laughing and taking pictures of Boy wrapped around the Pac-Man statue. When I was planning on using this photo for the banner, I was told that Pac-Man stood out more and the picture made it look like it was a Pac-Man game. I just answered back saying, “Players may buy the game by mistaking it for a Pac-Man game! Wouldn’t it be nice?”

Anyway, I was very lucky to be a part of such a miraculous collaboration. I tried to have Boy in various poses to make for interesting pictures, even with a Daruma doll. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out well so I gave up.

Daruma dolls are actually Japanese wish dolls. When your wish is fulfilled, you’re supposed to fill in the right eye, so we wished Noby Noby Boy would be released on the 19th. Speaking of the 19th, it was also the release date for Noby Noby Boy T-shirts. They were created by Panic Inc, the same vendor who did the Katamari ones. There will be four different designs with two variations for a total of eight types.

Above is one of the T-shirts. It’s an obvious Boy design, isn’t it? It would look cute on kids, but unfortunately there are no kid-sizes…maybe you could make a request to Panic Inc?

I didn’t talk anything about the game this time. Well, I’ll update sometime soon. Bye for now.

Come to think of it, Noby Noby Boy will be released on Feb 19th, tomorrow! Well, my apologies for the delay to those who have waited the game. Matching the release date with other territories was tougher than we thought, but the good thing is that I could have some interesting experiences in the game.

With Noby Noby Boy, you can send a message to other players while playing without going to the XMB, and the received messages are displayed on the body of Boy. Checking the game spec, I sent a message requesting approval to add a friend and my request was accepted instantly, and I received a message. Below is an image of the message shown on Boy’s body.

Surprise! It says, “welcome to paradise.” It’s such a worn-out cliché, but I like it! Exchanging messages with people via online games has become nothing special, while I don’t play games much, let alone online, receiving this message really delighted me. It was even somewhat impressive because I didn’t expect it and of course it proved that the messaging function was working.

Oh, I almost forgot about the game. Yes, the concept is to stretch Boy. But with that said, there are many other ways to enjoy this game and they are totally up to you. Again, that is where the difficulty of describing the game lies. This game may let you run into something totally beyond your imagination or may not at all. You may totally hate the unexpected or you may love it as I did. I hope the players can find those unexpected elements fun. Now, let me show you a video that will help you understand the game a little better, lest you are getting more confused with the ambiguity.

This is Takahashi. Talk to you later.

Basically players can control and stretch Boy, the main character of the game. As players stretch Boy, the lengths to which he grows are uploaded to a persistent character known as Girl, who grows at the same rate as the combined length of all the players in the world. Girl starts at Earth and expands around the solar system. When Girl reaches a new milestone in the solar system, new areas are unlocked as playable stages for everyone around the world.

Well, that’s the best that I can do to explain the game, but I know people will still go, “Hmm…”

How come it’s hard to explain, you ask? It’s because I wanted to make a game that cannot be expressed by words in the first place. By making an undefined and ambitious game, I want the player’s reaction to be something like, “I don’t know why, but it’s somehow interesting. I can’t stop playing.” In that way, I would feel I have succeeded at creating what I wanted, that is, creating something that’s not easily describable. Anyway, it’s been a fun experience working on Noby Noby Boy.

One big question most people have asked is, “Why did you want to make such a game?” Seriously, I don’t know. When I figure it out, I’ll share it on this blog. In the meantime, please take a moment to watch this video.

As I mentioned earlier, this game is indescribable, and some people may say, “This isn’t a game!” But, what is a game? Should there be a definition for a game? That’s the way I feel.