A Boy & His Blob

A Boy & His Blob – Trouble on Blobolonia

VonChris

NES Game Review #21 – A Boy & His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

A Boy & His Blob is a flawed game but somehow its charm and originality manages to just about paper over the cracks for an enjoyable ride.

Simply put, there’s a boy and his friend, a Blob! His Blobbyness comes in useful. He can mould into just about anything! You control the boy and feed Blob a range different flavoured jelly-babies. Blob morphs his shaped accordingly. Many flavour/morph combinations make logical sense such as Punch = Hole, Apple = Jack, others however leave more to the imagination: Cinnamon = Blowtorch? Vanilla = Umbrella? Paring aside, it’s necessary to learn early on what each does what and how it can be used.

You start out on a quiet empty street, you can find a Health Food store, but you cant buy anything. There’s a subway you can enter but no train comes. Eventually I work out how to make a Hole, and drop to the lower platform, what now?

I run around transforming blob into all kinds of unhelpful items to no prevail. Eventually a rocket shoots me off to another planet (Blobolonia). I soon discover the game is incredibly difficult! I mean they expect you to dodge through tiny gaps left by falling white dots that kill! Boy leaps back and forth like he has a wasp in his pants. He is incapable of delicate movement its a bloody nightmare! Make it past here and the cherry bombs end you. I mean it!

Many restarts later, back in the subway I realise you can punch a hole in the lower platform as well. What a merry-go-round. I hope that explains what this game is like cos it doesn’t get any easier! Many perils await in the subterranean landscape. You’ll need to utilize all of Blobs arsenal. When you eventually make it back to the street, you use treasure to purchase vitamins and finally head back to Blobolonia. Armed with the vitamin gun you can dispatch the cherry bombs and make some progress. Why are you allowed to come here in the beginning? It just adds confusion to an already very confusing intro!

Overall this is a truly rewarding adventure with some of the most creative mechanics on the NES. It’s a shame its let down by buggy gameplay, clunky control and wild crypticness.

A Boy & His Blob Ending 1
A Boy & His Blob Ending 2
image-slider-with-thumbnail1.jpeg
image-slider-with-thumbnail2.jpeg
PlayPause
previous arrow
next arrow
image-slider-with-thumbnail1.jpeg
image-slider-with-thumbnail2.jpeg
previous arrow
next arrow
Played 15 times, 2 visit(s) today

Ähnliche Beiträge

NES Zelda 2

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

VonChris

Perhaps the biggest change to Zelda 2 was the inclusion of an EXP system, similar to other Japanese RPG’s of the time. I think any kind of stats appearing in a Zelda game immediately got lot of fans backs up, though its hardly the most tactical system ever used, simply Life, Magic and Sword. The key to the game is the SKIP function, allowing to skip an upgrade in favour of storing the EXP for more expensive upgrades. This allows you to upgrade the sword earlier which is essential. As a kid I literally had no idea what these stats meant. No wonder I never managed to complete this!

WWF Wrestlemania

WWF Wrestlemania

VonChris

Acclaims name is on the boxset, but Rare of all people programmed WWF Wrestlemania, Thank goodness, I guess we can expect another Rare Triumph then right?
Wrong! WWF Wrestlemania for the NES is broken! A rush job, produced by the WWF purely as a cash cow to milk something more from their audience. What can you expect from a company that tries to sue a wildlife charity?

Wild Gunman NES

Wild Gunman

VonChris

CRT televisions have many advantage over modern displays when it comes to retro gaming, but the ability to play light-gun based games is perhaps the most obvious. Light guns work by manipulating the scan-rate of a CRT tele. Wild Gunman has a target on screen. When you press the trigger, you cause the screen to flash briefly. If your aim is true you’ll hit the marker. There is no scan-rate for a flat-screen tv, so the game is unable to know where you’ve aimed at the screen, ergo you’ll always miss.

Ultimate Air Combat (USA)

Ultimate Air Combat

VonChris

Your mission is to put an end to the usual tyrannical dictator. Each level is broken into two sections. First you’ll have to survive a ‘dog-fight’, ie air combat against enemy fighter jets (I assume MiGs). As levels progress, the number of bogeys increases. By the final stages you’ll have to take down 9 jets before you can move on. These fights are initially where you’ll struggle most. You have a cockpit perspective.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Abonnieren
Benachrichtige mich bei
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments