Now then, onto the basic premise of the game. You play as the boy and you travel with your blob friend (Real name Blobert, no....really!). The game is split into two sections, Earth and Blobert's home planet, Blobonia. On Earth you have to travel around some catacombs that are conveniently located right below the boys house. You go through these collecting treasure until you can make your way back out to set off to Blobonia. Once there its then a case of making it through to defeat the evil emperor.
For a game with basically only two sections, I found A Boy and His Blob suprisingly deep when I went back to it. It wasnt just collecting the treasure that I remembered from my childhood but actually quite a puzzle game. As the boy you have to feed the blob jellybeans to get him changing into different items. For example the Strawberry bean will turn him into a bridge. With this you had to choose the correct beans for each situation. Sometimes you may have to make it past a cliff, survive rocks falling at you etc.
The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag. The backgrounds seem good enough for a NES game but the characters themselves are a bit weak. The boy himself is very pixelated. The soundtrack brings back a lot of memories for me. Id say thats a sign that its done its job.
In 1990 there was a sequel released on the GameBoy titled "The Rescue of Princess Blobette", unfortunately I never played this. Only actually realising it existed after doing research for this very feature! There was another title announced for the Nintendo DS but unfortunately nothing ever came from it.
The game certainly hasnt aged well in some areas rather than others but as a whole I still see "A Boy and His Blob" as a nice game to sit with for a while and work your way through. Yes its not the greatest graphics but as you get to know me more you'll realise I place very little on how good graphics are in a game. I found with the game as long as you have patients its not too difficult. When I was a kid however I would just run off cliffs without thinking or get bored waiting for the correct time to pass a monster.
I dont think A Boy and His Blob will be for everyone but if you are a fan of old NES games and have some spare time then I definately recommend giving it a play.
Second Opinion - goaferboyI certainly agree that a boy and his blob isn't for everyone. I personally don't get the appeal at all. A lot of it is just trial and error, especially when moving to the next screen. One example is where there is weird bouncing enemies. Run onto that screen too fast and you can't stop the boy from running into them for love nor money. Also I know the NES was limited graphically, but there are certain screens of the level which feature no enemies or obstacles, just a flat walkway. All in all there are far worse games out there and its certainly a good idea for a game, but I really can't see the appeal. Sorry Happenstance!
The next game we plan to feature on the retro column will be Toy Commander on the DC. Please comment on this article or join up to the forums so we can get some good conversations on these games!
