A Boy and His Blob

10 Review to this product

• 

  K. Gray
  October 14th, 2009 on 6:46 pm

  Rating

  The Wii has become the welcoming home for a series of wonderful 2D games lately, from Muramasa: The Demon Blade to World of Goo, and the forthcoming New Super Mario Bros Wii (worst…title…ever). Add to this list A Boy and His Blob, which is an ultra-charming reimagining of the NES “classic.” I say “classic” because, like Battletoads, it’s one of those old games that people remember fondly until they try to play it again and realize just how crazy hard the game is.

  The Wii version is much easier than the NES game in some ways, although it offers up plenty of challenge in its own right. The boy now has an unlimited number of jellybeans to feed the blob, which means that you can now focus on the puzzle at hand rather than worrying about rationing and backtracking. Further, there really is no backtracking anymore since the Wii version does not contain an open world; the game is split up into self-contained levels in four unique worlds. There is a final goal to reach in each level, but there are also three treasure chests hidden in each one. Get all three chests and you open a whole new challenge level at your treehouse “hub.” Beat the challenge and you’re rewarded with behind-the-scenes footage of the game in progress, including sketches and artwork. It’s a great system that’s easy to understand and really boosts the replay value of the game.

  The game is beautiful. It’s hand-drawn and the level of detail is astounding, in a subtle kind of way. Stop for a while and appreciate the light swaying of trees in the background, the animated frogs jumping at your feet, and the very nice lighting effects, especially during the night stages. Like a Miyazaki film, you can feel the love that was poured into this game. Heck, the animators even went so far as to include a feature where you can hug and scold your blob, for no other reason than “because you can.” These elements also greatly add to the charm. The music is also subtle but quite nice. Chances are you won’t be humming the tunes later, but the music fits well with the visual style.

  Controls are tight, for the most part. Some sticky points can come in when you’re trying to direct the trajectory of your jellybeans, which requires a very light touch on the analog stick. Also, flying can feel too loose and the screen gets kind of jerky, which leads to quite a few accidental deaths. Luckily, there are a wealth of save points within each level so you’re never sent too far back after a death. My biggest beef with the game is that only one player can save a game at a time. My fiancee and I are both big puzzle fans and it’s annoying that we can’t each have our own game going at the same time.

  Long story short, buy this game if you’re a fan of puzzle games. The pace is not fast, but you’ll love the animation and the challenging levels that build in the latter half of the game. Support 2D games, let the developers know that there’s still a market out there for them.
• 

  Adora
  October 16th, 2009 on 7:50 pm

  Rating

  I was one of the (I imagine fairly few) people who was extremely excited to learn about the release of this game. I actually dug out my copies of both the 8bit game and the old Game Boy game and happily explained to anyone who would listen that someone actually remade it~!

  I usually hesitate to buy games new as I prefer the option of returning a game if I don’t like it, but I didn’t hesitate with this one and am extremely glad I didn’t wait. What a wonderful remake!! The game is absolutely beautifully animated~ While the first world didn’t strike much resemblance to the original games in either graphics or difficulty (which in no way is to say it wasn’t wonderful), the second world is presenting a very nostalgic town layout – exactly what you would expect a modern “boy and his blob” to look like.

  I have only two minor gripes. One; the jellybean and transformation results were always, and generally remain, so cleverly named – yet you never actually see the jellybean names in game, merely their color and an animation of their effect. It’s not as fun to use the “apple jack” when you don’t actually see that is what you are using. ^^;

  My other, admittedly more important, gripe is that you are only able to have one save game at a time. This just seems unfair and wrong for people that have more than one person who play at home. However, for anyone interested in this game either as a remake, a puzzle game, a 2-D “platformmer,” or a cute, fun way to kill some time I recommend that you not let that flaw deter you from the game. It is very well made and very fun in spite of that limitation.

  My fear is that far too many people will be unaware of the original of this game and look right past it on the shelf, writing it off as a kids game based on it’s extremely cute presentation. It’s no more tailored for kids than any other puzzle game, and it’s unmistakable how much work went into the graphic presentation of the game – something that can’t be said for a lot of puzzle games. While it does not make use of the Wii sensors, it remains one of my favorite games that has been released on the system.

  A world of thanks to the people involved with the development of this game. It wins in all categories for me, it is nostalgic; beautiful; easy to control; and most importantly FUN. The best game I’ve gotten my hands on in awhile~
• 

  ggPacheco
  October 26th, 2009 on 4:24 am

  Rating

  The look and feel of this game is similar to Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro”. The story of a boy and his blob is hooks you into game. I’ve only played two hours of this game and it’s hard to put it down because you feel like you are watching a movie at the same time. This is a great game for the whole family.
  
  Someone mentioned this being a 2D game. If all games had this look and feel then I’d play 2D all the time.
• 

  Randy Hayashi
  October 30th, 2009 on 2:05 am

  Rating

  This is a great game for my 6 year old! It is entertaining and at the same time nurtures problem solving skills. Definitely better than watching television.

  My 4 year old watches my 6 year old play and learns from it too.

  I highly recommend this game over all other titles that I own for a 6 year old.
• 

  Michael Christofield
  November 11th, 2009 on 10:05 am

  Rating

  The gist of this game is that it’s a side-scrolling 2D puzzler. The aim is to collect 3 chests on each of 10 stages on 4 separate worlds. In addition, there are 10 challenge stages on each world, making for a total of 80 levels. At the end of the 10th stage on each world, you must defeat a boss, for a total of 4 bosses. As the boy, you give out jelly beans to your blob. Each jelly bean transmogrifies your blob into a different tool, such as a ladder, a cannon, a bouncy ball, a hole in the ground, etc. You have to figure out how to use your blob’s abilities to get from point A to point B while collecting the chests (collect all three to unlock the bonus challenge stage) along the way. Thus, the basic concept is fairly straightforward and simple, and so is the presentation. There’s almost no voice work, except a couple of lines that the boy says to call the blob toward him. The music is completely unobtrusive, and there is not much animation except for the boy, the blob, and variously shaped black blobs (some look a little like frogs or bulls). The backgrounds are basically 2D paintings.

  While this game does not do a lot, what it does it does very, very well. It’s one of the most visually pleasing games I’ve ever seen for any console. The mechanics are pretty much perfect. The puzzles can be challenging, but not too challenging. And this game has charm up the wazoo. Like most games, you can “die”. However, this is the first game I’ve ever played in which I didn’t want to die not because it’s a hassle (it’s actually not that big of a hassle because you have an infinite number of lives, and you aren’t forced to restart the entire stage if you do die) but because I didn’t want to see the character on screen die. If you are a parent, especially one with a small child, it will break your heart every time the boy dies. This is particularly so for me because my two-year-old son, who loves watching me play this game (he’s always asking for “boy and ghost”), looks a lot like the boy. By the way, the box-cover art doesn’t really look like the in-game images of the boy and the blob. Maybe it’s just me, but every time the boy falls down a pit, screaming on the way down, I feel bad. Every time the boy drops to the ground and lies there lifeless, I feel bad. That emotional element is not something I’ve gotten from a Mario or Zelda game, though those are fantastic games.

  One of the few negatives about this game, though, is that you can only have 1 save at a time. Therefore, you and your buddy can’t each have a game going. And once you beat the game, there probably isn’t a tremendous amount of replayability. With that being said, it’s a fun game, a very well done game, will connect with many of you emotionally, and is beautiful to look at. If you like to have a variety of games, this is really worth picking up. You can play it in small chunks or all at once. I highly recommend.
• 

  Christopher Stewart
  November 12th, 2009 on 7:27 pm

  Rating

  A excellent puzzle/platformer. Rich graphics and tons of levels. The challenge is high but not impossible. A wonderfull experience.
• 

  Elvick
  November 19th, 2009 on 8:02 am

  Rating

  Don’t be fooled by the cute cover art, this game is not easy. It’s pretty challenging at times. Especially the bosses. I think many children would probably need to have help to play this game. Especially if they’re used to a platformer being like Mario. A Boy and His Blob is a more of a puzzle game than a full on platformer.

  There are 40 story levels and within each story level are 3 hidden chests. When you find all 3 chests in a level you unlock a challenge level. So there are a total of 80 levels. When you complete the challenge levels you unlock extras. Which are things like videos, artwork and other things.

  The visuals are fantastic. Great animation, the music is great as well. There is also a button for hugging the Blob. Very important for keeping your Blob happy. The Blob gets frustrated and turns red if he gets stuck or overworked. He’ll get distracted by frogs and other small critters and is just too cute.
• 

  Masha
  December 31st, 2009 on 6:23 pm

  Rating

  Written by my teenaged son, read and approved by me:

  Unlike several minimalist games, “A Boy and His Blob” proves to be a successful, heartwarming reimagining of an only average NES title with Ghibli-esque graphics and a touching tale of friendship, heroes, and… jelly beans.

  Story: 9.5/10 – You really don’t need to elaborate on friendship, which is what this game is all about. Instead of focusing its attention on convoluted storylines (which I don’t actually dislike), it turns its attention to a simple tale about a blob who, trying to save his home planet of Blobonia from a dark emperor, meets a young 8-year-old boy, who steadily develops a bond with him. The hug button further elaborates on this.

  Gameplay: 10/10 – So what if the boy can’t fight? His best friend, the blob, has over 17 transformations to access via several jelly beans that the boy has on hand. These transformations are used to solve environmental puzzles, attack enemies, and help the boy get around the world when he can’t do it on his own. Plus, several transformations (the Doppelganger and the robot) are very interesting to use.

  Characters: 10/10 – Although there are only two main characters, they convey the message, and although they can seem flat at times, their friendship with each other more than makes up for it.

  Fun: 10/10 – An excellent puzzle/platformer, with interesting jelly bean-based gameplay mechanics and excellent graphical designs to boot. Plus, it provides replay value with over 40 bonus levels to explore.

  Overall: 39.5/40 – Only slightly shy of a perfect, the only thing that would make this heartwarming piece any better would be to get the villain’s side of the story, and maybe elaborate on the evil emperor. Other than that, it’s an excellent game with a heartwarming story (albeit minimal).
• 

  Patrick Perdu
  January 24th, 2010 on 7:31 pm

  Rating

  I got this one for my kids for Christmas, together with a few others.
  
  We found out that this was the one the kids played most.
  
  The look and feel is gorgeous, the puzzles are of a reasonable difficulty and the violence is relatively limited – something I pay great attention to when it comes to my kids. Essentially as far as I have seen (we did not complete the game yet) it is limited to the death of the hero when he falls in water or from too high, or when he touches one of the big bad black blobs. In any case there are lots of restore points – the only problem I see with that is the classic issue of teaching the kids that death is not that important and that you have another chance anyway – but here is not the place to discuss that matter.
  
  One thing that would have been nice would have been to be able to save several games so that the members of the family could progress each at his own speed.
  
  It would also be nice to have a multiplayer mode but this is not practical with the nature of the game. Oh well.
  
  One good unadvertised surprised was the availability of the game in French and Spanish except for the voice (not a big deal considering the game). This may not be very important for most of the US customers but my kids speak both French and Spanish but little English.
  
  All in all one of the best games we have for our Wii.
• 

  Nightmare
  March 24th, 2010 on 5:17 pm

  Rating

  A Boy and His Blob may look like a game meant for kids, but don’t be fooled by the cartoon artwork. This title is a polished puzzle-platformer that’s great for casual and hardcore gamers alike. There are plenty of levels that offer a wide variety of challenges. Many have stumped me for a while, and some are challenging even when you know what to do.

  The gameplay is unique and charming. You go through each stage feeding the Blob jelly beans that transform it into various items (ladder, trampoline, parachute, anvil, etc.) that help you traverse the current level. There are enemies, pitfalls, and spikes that can end your adventure prematurely so it’s best to keep a watch out and prepare to solve some inventive puzzles (fortunately, there are plenty of checkpoints so you don’t have to redo much if you do die). Some are easy while some are very challenging. Regardless of the challenge, the charm of this game will keep you coming back for more.

  Not only are the graphics absolutely beautiful, but the animations/sounds/voices are perfect. You can even give the Blob a hug just for the fun of it. Every time I play it the charming nature of the entire package just amazes me.

  The only real gripe I have about this game is that loading times between levels can be longer than expected. They’re probably about 10 seconds (fortunately they don’t happen extremely often) which I think is too much for this kind of game. The load times should be virtually non-existant, in my opinion. However, this is a small issue that fails to taint a marvelous masterpiece that all Wii owners should definitely experience.

  One issue that might be important to others is that there is only one save file, so multiple people can’t have their own save slot. However, you can replay any level as many times as you want so it’s not like others can’t experience the same levels in order from start to finish (although they won’t be able to find the hidden chests that unlock concept art and videos if you have already found them).

  Overall, this game is simply to wonderful to miss. My wife thought this game looked like a joke, but now she imitates the Boy and loves how cute it is. Anybody can enjoy this game so I really advise you to give it a shot.