A Boy and his Blob originally released on the NES back in 1989. In 2009 however, WayForward released a re-imagination of the game exclusively on Wii. Those who’ve played it will always remember it as an incredible cute platformer with difficult puzzles. Now, years after the original, the game lands on modern consoles and PC. Things haven’t changed that much so it’s still
The hug button
The story of A Boy and his Blob isn’t that special. It starts with a nameless boy running into a small blob that came from space. This blob just escaped an evil army and crashed on Earth. The moment the boy and the blob unite, it’s the start of their big adventure. The goal of the game is to defeat the evil empire that landed on Earth to take down the Blob. Most of the battles are fought on Earth, but later on you’ll need to take the Blob to his home planet to win the fight ones and for all. It’s a rather straightforward story but the presentation of it all makes it so much fun.
Everything in the game is hand drawn, which results in great graphics for this game. Both the Boy and his Blob look adorable and the bond between them is strong. The Blob will constantly follow the Boy but when he wanders off too far, the Boy can call him back to his side with a push of the button. It’s adorable to see the chemistry between the human child and the mysterious alien. There’s even a hug button that allows the Boy to hug the Blob at any time he wants. It doesn’t really serves a purpose or gives you any advantages; it just enforces the bond between the two characters. As said before, this is a very adorable game for sure!
The power of the jelly-bean
The Blob is a curious little creature that seems to enjoy the love that the boy is giving him. When the boy gave the creature jelly-beans, he learned that the Blob is a very interesting creature indeed. Depending on the color of the jelly-bean, the Blob can transform into several objects. It can transform into a hole in the ground, a ladder, a trampoline, a canon, bowling ball and more. You’ll need to use the right color of jelly-bean in order to get passed the many obstacles that are facing you. In fact, A Boy and his Blob is the perfect example of a platformer combined with a puzzle game.
A cute platform/puzzle game
You’ll really need to depend on your Blob in order to survive. The boy is rather weak; he can’t fall down from high places and can’t touch an enemy. If he touches an enemy or falls down, he’ll instantly die. It’s up to the player to use the Blob to the boy’s advantage in order to stay alive. The Blob can shield the boy from deadly spikes or it can help defend the little boy against enemies. It sounds rather hard but thanks to the multiple checkpoints, you’ll never need to replay that much if you die.
The platform segments aren’t that hard to conquer, you’ll rarely need to jump with ninja precision and the game is rather forgiving towards mistakes. The puzzles on the other hand form the game’ true challenge.
Learn to think as a Blob
At first, the puzzles aren’t that much of a problem. The game always shows you which transformation you could best use to get passed a certain point in the game. This happens for every new transformation you learn until you’ve learned them all. After you learned them all, the game stops holding your hand and stops giving visual hints on how to solve the problem. This means you’ll need to solve the puzzles on your own. Some of those aren’t that easy to solve since you’ll need a combination of certain transformations to advance. It’s not always that easy and you’ll certainly need to think outside the box more often but once you solve the problem, you’ll get a satisfying feeling for sure. This is what makes the game so enjoyable. It offers enough challenges without ever becoming impossible or extremely hard.
The same goes for the boss battles. At the end of every four chapters, you’ll need to defeat a boss. This is without a doubt the hardest challenge of them all. If you know that you die the moment the boss makes one hit, you’ll really need to come up with a good strategy to take it down. Just like in ‘The Legend of Zelda’ series, it’s advised to check which transformations you’ve learned in the previous four chapters. Defeating the boss will most likely acquire some of those transformations. Learning the weakness and pattern of the bosses is a lot of fun. It’s challenging but never frustrating.
Great levels
The game has a great amount of levels and they all have their own unique look. Thanks to the graphics, it’s a lot of fun to wander around in the levels. The home planet of the Blob offers some very artistic levels for example. Every level is also filled with hidden chests for those who like to complete the game and find every little secret. Although the levels are fun and great to play, the replay value is rather low. If you’ve played them once, you’ll rarely feel the need to start replaying them.
The HD port
So this is the first true high definition version of the game and it certainly looks good. The developers made sure the characters and environments looked as sharp as possible and they certainly succeeded in their goal. The only thing that bothered us was the lack of detail. Unlike modern cartoony games such as Ori and the Blind Forest, this game is rather plain and boring. The environments look rather dull and there’s not that much happening in the background. The characters on the other hand look as sharp as they can but lack the same love for details. It’s best compared to a high definition version of a classic cartoon show. It looks good but there’re certain important elements missing. Don’t expect to see the same beauty as in modern cartoony games. That being said, this version has some reduced loading times so you can get into the next level even faster.
A Boy and his Blob still is a very enjoyable and cute game. It combines platform elements with puzzles in the best way possible. The game is rather challenging but never frustrating, if you can think outside the box, you’ll have no trouble to conquer the challenges the game throws at you. The modern port is done nicely but doesn’t differ that much from the original Wii version. Sure, the loading times are reduced and the game looks a little sharper but we missed some details we’re used to see in games nowadays. That being said, if you’re looking for an adorable adventure that combines platforming with puzzling, this is the one you need to get.
