The Digital Matrix: A Boy and His Blob - Trouble on Blobonia

Somewhere in space, there resides the world of Blobonia. The king of Blobonia is kind of mad with power, and a sole blob (Blobert) has fled the planet in the hopes of finding a hero. That’s where you come in. Unfortunately, in order to fight the evil in Blobonia, you need vitamins, and vitamins cost money you just don’t have. Good thing the blob has special powers that will let you explore under the city and find buried treasure!

Note: This game is for the original Nintendo Entertainment System and the Wii Virtual Console. You can find the actual game on ebay, or just download it to your Wii.

A Boy and His Blob is a 2D platformer. However, there are no ‘stages’ to defeat, there are only goals: First, go spelunking using the blob’s abilities to collect treasure underground, then use this treasure to load up on ammunition at the local drug store. Then give the blob a root beer jellybean so he turns into a rocket, and fly off to Blobonia. Give the blob an orange jellybean to become a ‘Vitablaster’ and shoot the crap out of everything that moves on this planet with vitamins. The free-roaming nature of the game and many powers of the blob set this game far apart from the rest of the pack back in 1989.

Let's get to it!

1. Graphics [Good] The graphics in A Boy and His Blob are crusty from old age, but still manage to have a surprising amount of detail and variety, especially when you get to Blobonia. The animation and visual flourishes found within are entertaining. For instance, if you chuck a jellybean so the blob can’t catch it, his ever-present spastic smile turns into a sad face. If you slide off the side of a cliff, you might defy gravity cartoon style until the boy looks down. Even cooler, you might be able to scramble back onto the cliff (again, cartoon style) before gravity takes hold. The blob has a special animation for every transformation, too.

Unfortunately, the monsters you run into look straight out of a much older game, with no real animation. The most common enemy you’ll run into are fire snakes (suspiciously similar to the much more dynamic bouncing fire snakes from the desert world in Super Mario Bros. 3…), and that’s about the flashiest the game gets with its monsters. Even the final boss character just sort of sits there like a lump, no animation whatsoever.

A super-gigantic ear of corn on Blobonia.

2. Game Play [Meh] The crux of A Boy and His Blob‘s gameplay is the jellybean mechanic – you toss a jellybean, the blob eats it, and its shape morphs into something useful. As the boy can’t jump (he can only toss jellybeans & whistle to get the blob to either come or go back to normal shape), you’ll need to rely on these beans to navigate the platforms. The jellybeans don’t say what they do; thankfully, remembering what the beans do is usually pretty easy due to their flavor.

• Licorice = Ladder (used to climb up through floors)
• Punch = Hole (needed to drop down through floors)
• Tangerine = Trampoline (used to jump super high)
• Coconut = Coconut (throw the blob in this form; the camera will follow him, so you can see what’s ahead)
• Strawberry = Bridge (used to cross gaps)
• Cola = Bubble (lets you go underwater, fall slowly & blocks falling rocks; you move very slowly, though)
• Vanilla = Umbrella (fall slowly & block falling rocks)
• Honey = Hummingbird (for when the blob is far below you and can’t get to you)
• Ketchup = Catch-Up (summons the blob wherever you throw the bean, for when the blob is hopelessly lost)
• Orange = Vitablaster (used to kill candy aliens!)

Those are the most commonly used beans. There are some others that you’ll only need to use once or twice (Apple, Cinnamon, Root Beer, Lime). This brings me to my first complaint – for all the blob has in versatility, the primary three beans you’ll be using throughout the entire game is Licorice, Punch & Tangerine. One of those rare cases where the player has lots of power at his fingertips, but the adventure is so limited that the range of powers is kind of wasted. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll have no problem at all getting through the game without running out of jellybeans. That said, there is a strict limit on the number of beans you have. Two of the treasure pickups contain bonus jellybeans, including the rare and necessary Lime beans; you only get two of these in the entire game. You waste em, and you can’t beat the game!

You start the game with five lives, but if you touch anything that moves, touch water, burst your cola bubble while underwater, or fall too far, you die instantly. This is supremely frustrating, as the boy often kind of slides around if you have him moving fast. Quite often you’ll time something just right, but not account for the boy’s tendency to slide and still end up dying. On Blobonia there are star peppermints scattered around; grab five of them and you gain an extra life. This is good, because the gameplay changes enough that extra lives are kind of necessary. The enemies in Blobonia move ridiculously fast, and it can be tough to get used to the fact you can actually shoot them.

This game is a good contender for the internet term ‘Nintendo Hard.’ You’ll almost positively need to either have an excellent memory or have a pencil & paper handy to map out the underworld. Beyond that, dying while initially exploring is unavoidable; in the very first part of the game, you need to guess which screen (and where on said screen) would be a safe place to create a hole to drop down. And for those of you actually mapping the game out – the designers kind of messed up, so one ‘screen’ doesn’t actually exist.

Hint: This screen (and the next to the right) are safe for putting down a Punch Hole.

Finally, although there are twenty-two treasures to find underground (I recommend skipping the one underwater surrounded by spikes, it’s just not worth it), you probably only need to pick up a few of them to get enough vitamin ammunition. With my recent play-through, I only picked up half the treasures and ended up using just a fraction of the vitamins that got me.

3. Grab-Factor [Good] The base concept of having a blob companion that can change into all sorts of useful shapes is a very good one. The setting for the game is pretty neat as well, starting off in a realistic looking modern city and then rocketing you off across space to an alien planet. The actual menace of the monsters in Blobonia are totally lame and have no unifying theme (bouncing marshmallows, exploding cherries, and teeth that try to crush you are a few examples). It feels like they were going for a ‘destroy the junk food’ theme, but realized halfway in that the only way you save the world is by giving the blob mouthfuls of jellybeans. The boy in the game is sort of a blank slate, a generic kid with a backpack full of jellybeans; this approach might make it easier for kids to associate with their avatar, as opposed to the typical game protagonist who just can’t shut up.

Here's the teeth that try to kill you. I still don't know why!

4. Soundtrack [Meh] There are only three background themes in this game, the title theme that initially has sort of an ‘Indiana Jones’ feel to it, the music that plays while you explore Earth, and the slightly different music that plays during Blobonia. Sound effects are very minimal. I’d say the only really interesting thing the game does audibly is when the blob is in a big shape (like a ladder) and has to revert – the music pauses as a little string of descending notes plays while the blob shrinks back to his normal self. Hard to explain, but it’s kind of a goofy and fun effect.

5. Replay Value [Meh] Well….after you’ve beaten the game and gotten your one-screen ‘Game Over’ reward, I guess you could try again to get all the treasures. It’s not really worth doing, though.

Yep, this is your reward for beating the game.

Overall Game Rating: 1.75/5 [Meh] If this game interests you, pick up the Wii remake A Boy and His Blob; it’s much better than this relic from the past.

Puzzle / Platformer             By:  Absolute Entertainment           System: Nintendo Entertainment System