A Boy and His Blob: Hands-on Impressions
Written November 7, 2009
The Ballad of Gay Tony has made some strange artistic choices.
Yet another nugget of pure unadulterated gold that made itself available at iDEF. WayForward have created what they call a “re-imagining” of the classic NES title, A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, with A Boy and His Blob for Wii. WayForward’s director, Sean Velasco, felt that it was “a title whose time had come to be re-imagined.” Alright, we get it, re-imagined not remade!
For those of you that missed out on this 1989 gem, here’s a basic rundown of the story. The world of Blobolonia is under threat by an evil emperor who has nothing but bad intentions. The blob then makes a quick sojourn to earth to get the boy to help. You play as the boy and, using various jellybeans, dictate the shape that the blob takes in order to help you with puzzles. The blob can take on the form of a trampoline, ladder, parachute etc. Working your way through each level you then fight a boss and advance all the way up. Pretty standard.
The 2009 version uses the exact same story as the original. I have to give props to WayForward for not messing with a winning formula. There was the potential for them to go crazy and make it 3D with the blob having a french accent and Greedo shooting first, but they didn’t. They stuck with a classic 2D puzzle platformer and it has paid dividends!
The first thing that strikes you when playing is that the artistic style is very cute. The art team decided to change the boy to be smaller and the blob to be more pet-like. Their relationship is one of the main attractions. Originally the game had an emotion system where the boy had to keep the blob happy, however this proved to be too complicated and it was scrapped with one exception. Hugs! That’s right folks, it’s a wholesale blob cuddle-fest, at just the touch of a button. It is one of the most endearing parts of the game and it proved to be a majorly successful point of the game for most playing at iDEF. It was the little touches such as these that really seemed to sell it.
Valesco had decided that they were taking a minimalistic approach to this game and weren’t going to include anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary, such as “waggle controls simply for the sake of waggle”. It is with this minimalistic angle that the game wins over so many of it’s fans. Spending less time focusing on over the top graphics and visual effects, it leaves them with more time to come up with ingenious puzzles and challenging enemies. It’s also somewhat refreshing to see a Wii title that doesn’t demand motion control.
The new finisher for the next Mortal Kombat installment.
Comparing this game to other family oriented games at the expo it was miles ahead. Disney’s The Princess and the Frog on Wii was weak, even by kids game standards. Once again it suffered from the system not being properly calibrated but the game definitely spoke for itself. Lack of respect for their audience was very clear. Whereas Ubisoft’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs definitely had some playability for all ages. It’s not going to set the sales charts ablaze, but it at least had some challenge to it.
I highly recommend this game for anyone wanting a trip down Nostalgia Street to the intersection of Challenge Avenue and Artistic Boulevard, or just for someone just in the mood for a cute, light hearted game that allows you a hug whenever you feel the need.
A Boy and His Blob was released in the US on the 13th of October, Europe on 6th November and will be available in Australia on the 9th of November. We previewed it on the Wii at the iDEF expo.