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They said it couldn't be done -- and for good reason, considering how difficult it must be for a creature to stretch its own body to a length of 576,682,810 miles. However, thanks to a little help from Namco Bandai, Noby Noby Boy's community-driven "Girl" has managed to extend her torso from Earth to Jupiter, unlocking a new playable planet for all of the game's inhabitants.

Make sure you check out the video after the jump to get a sense of what eating your own butt whilst aimlessly traversing a gas giant feels like. We can't believe we just had a reason to write that sentence. Thank you so, so much, Noby Noby Boy.

For the opening of last weekend's GameCity Squared event, design group Alaskan Military School took a bunch of popular games and boiled them down to the bare essence, creating shockingly recognizable 15-pixel animations representing Parappa the Rapper, Street Fighter II, Noby Noby Boy, and more.

This is the most abstract we've ever seen many of these games, but even without the audio, it would be easy to identify the sub-Meggy Jr. interpretations of our favorites. Although we were briefly confused by what we thought was supposed to be Gitaroo-Man -- until we realized it was Gitaroo-Man's "Legendary Theme" being played in Guitar Hero.

Now we can only hope that someone runs with the idea and delivers some playable versions of these games. HD is played out -- we're ready for Sub-Standard Definition.

Was Noby Noby Boy misunderstood by the gaming masses? Creator Keita Takahashi seems to think so, as he believes the game's limited resources didn't fully realize his vision. "Ultimately, with Noby Noby Boy, I wanted to break the barriers between toy and game," Takahashi explained to Develop. "But for me personally, a bit more could have been done to the game. I'm not completely satisfied with the game, in terms of quality, due to the restrictions on budgets."

Takahashi, famous for his work on the original Katamari Damacy, has been surprisingly forthcoming on Noby's budget (or lack thereof). Had Takahashi been given additional resources he believes the game would have reached a much larger audience. "I won't go in to what I wanted to add to the game, because that's a really long list of things, but as an overall assessment, I think the game could have been much more detailed and easier for everyone to understand."

It appears Noby's shortcomings won't stop Takahashi from working on an even crazier design. Already, he's thinking of a new project, one that "is even harder to explain than Noby Noby Boy." Fans of Takahashi's works wouldn't want it any other way -- but we wonder if publisher Namco Bandai will embrace an even more experimental game.

Namco Bandai revealed the first screen of the iPhone Noby Noby Boy game to GAME Watch today, which can be seen here. As you may expect from a Keita Takahashi product, we can't really figure anything out about it based on this one screen, except that it's got BOY in it, and there's a display at the top of BOY's length. The game is currently 60% done, and has no announced release date yet.

People still playing the PS3 game may not even care what the iPhone version is, as long as it helps them add all-important centimeters to GIRL. Also, the fact that it "might be like free" will no doubt influence people to pick it up regardless of whatever actually happens. At the very least, it already looks neat. Of course, this screen could be a trick, like this early trailer for the PS3 game.

This is one of those posts that's all about perception. If we were to tell you that Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi said the game had sold 100,000 units to date, for example, you might think "Oh, that's a small number, considering the 24 million-unit size of the PS3 install base."

You might say that. But then we'd turn right around and remind you: That means that there are 100,000 people on this beautiful planet who said "Oh, a game about a four-legged worm-like thing that eats things and poops as he collaborates with other worm-like things on interplanetary travel? That's definitely something I'd like to spend the money that I've earned on."

Honestly, it's enough to make us a tear up, just a little.

Fans of Noby Noby Boy have finally arrived at the next destination in their voyage across outer space, having only spent three months stretching to get there. Three months may sound like a long time to get to the next level of any game, but for anyone familiar with the oddity known as Noby Noby Boy, this was way (and we mean way) ahead of schedule.

When the mathematicians amongst the game's fans first brought out the calculators, it was determined that it would actually take several years before Mars would be reached. Apparently, Namco multiplied player's submitted lengths by 765, speeding up the process. Essentially, it cheated, though undeniably in a good way.

This, however, raises a good point: the next few planets are going to have an even greater distance between them. Does this mean we're going to see more multipliers? Can we expect to see a "double XP weekend," sort of deal? Or should Namco rearrange its measuring system or modify the gameplay?

The Noby Noby Boy website has a lot of DIY crafts, but the Noby sushi roll looks nommy and makes us hungry. Siliconera took note of the culinary concoction and we immediately put our interns to work making them -- then we realized we didn't have interns and went to the kitchen to learn it ourselves. Funny (sad) thing is our Japanese is tragic and we don't exactly recognize all the ingredients (image after the break), so please feel free to leave instructions in the comments below.

Stop the presses! Noby Noby Boy patch 1.1 is now live and it gives you the all-important ability to change the volume of your farts. We thought you'd like to know.

Oh, but that's not all. The update will also give you access to a number of new musical options, 29 in all. Want to play with the sounds of the ocarina? Go ahead. Or, you can go for the congo or cello. You can see all the options over at Offworld.

If this breaking news isn't exciting enough for you, you'll also be able to see a thoroughly wacky trailer of Noby Noby Boy version 1.1 after the break.

We almost don't want to summarize this Eurogamer interview with Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi, and instead just tell you to go read the whole thing. Takahashi's disregard for video game convention and complete openness always make for an entertaining read. There are a few items of note that are worth pulling out, which are worthwhile even out of the context of "weird stuff Keita Takahashi said."

For example, he reveals that Trophies won't be included in the new multiplayer update. "As this a free update, we can't add any." He also classifies the upcoming iPhone version of Noby Noby Boy as "bait:"

"We used too much time and money to develop Noby Noby Boy, and there won't be any major updates in the future. However, I am trying to use the iPhone version in order to get more money from our top executives in order to keep updating the PS3 version."

He hopes that the iPhone and PS3 versions will help GIRL grow faster, but Takahashi doesn't think he made her progress too slow. He told Eurogamer, "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."

Think you're done with Keita Takahashi's Noby Noby Boy? Nope, there's still more to come. The upcoming multiplayer patch for the PSN sandbox "toy" will allow players to control their own stretchy BOYs. However, if one BOY eats another, you'll get a combined BOY where one player controls the head and the other controls the poo-poo side. The PlayStation Blog mentions four-player support, but Takahashi admits that the experience may be quite "chaotic." We're not sure how four-player support will be implemented, but we're certain Takahashi's team will figure it out ... even without the help of drugs.

It appears thatgamecompany has yet another hit on its hands. Flower, the PSN-exclusive follow up to flOw, has remained atop the PSN sales charts for a second month in a row. We're glad to see gamers embrace the innovative downloadable game and its 200 thousand blades of grass. The full list:

1. Flower
2. Wheel of Fortune
   
3. Noby Noby Boy
4. Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
5. Mortal Kombat II
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
7. 3 on 3 NHL Arcade
8. Red Baron Arcade
9. Age of Booty
10. Linger in Shadows

Wheel of Fortune's brand name gave it a great debut (although the game itself is rubbish). Noby Noby Boy continues to confuse gamers, and Quest for Booty's discount price gave it a rather sizable sales boost. GamerBytes rightfully points out the absence of Watchmen: The End is Nigh from the list. Looks like poor reviews and a $20 price tag shunned gamers from the high-profile beat-em-up.

A photo says a thousand words, right? We think this Noby Noby Boy sneaker (sent to Kotaku) speaks for itself, turning the now-iconic BOY into a very lengthy shoelace. The concept is easy to understand, and the execution is simple and stylish. It's a reader creation, though, so don't expect to see this at a store near you.

Although it's hard to believe that the ideas for Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy weren't birthed from some serious drug use, Keita Takahashi stated at GDC that he's completely straight-edge when it comes to partaking in the chemical vices of man. In the same session where he revealed Noby Noby Boy for iPhone, he also claimed, "I don't use drugs at all, I don't drink at all. Please don't worry about me."

Hmmmmmmm .... okay.

Speaking at GDC, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi revealed that the PSN title Noby Noby Boy was developed on the Xbox 360. As to why it was then released exclusively on the PSN, Takahashi said that he dislikes seeing so many people staring down at handheld games on the subway. He joked, "Maybe it's not such a good thing if a game sells a lot of copies. So we put it on the PS3 as a download only title so it wouldn't sell as many." On a more serious note, Takahashi said that he likes that the analogue sticks on the PS3 controller are aligned horizontally, as opposed to the asymmetrical setup on the Xbox 360 controller. Feel free to consult his diagram above if you're confused.

Don't get your hopes up just yet, 360 owners, Takahashi didn't drop any hints that Noby Noby Boy would be twisting its way to 360. In fact, he pretty much crushed any hopes it might, saying, "Well, this game is not being sold well, so I can't support Xbox at all."

During Keita Takahashi's adorably quirky GDC panel, the Katamari Damacy creator revealed an upcoming iPhone version of the currently PSN-only Noby Noby Boy. It's good news for Noby fans, even those without iPhones: the iPhone game will interface with the PlayStation 3 version to help contribute to the ongoing growth of Girl into the entirety of the solar system -- a task that, according to Takahashi, would take 820 years at the current rate.

As for price and release date: "In terms of iPhone, we just started doing this a week ago. Price-wise might be like free."