A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

NES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Imagineering Publisher Absolute Entertainment, Jaleco Ltd. Published 1990-01-?? Platforms NES Genres Action-adventure, Passive puzzle, Platformer, Puzzle, Puzzle-platformer Themes Adventure, Cartoon, Science Fiction Series A Boy and His Blob Distribution Commercial

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia is an adventure puzzle-platformer developed by Imagineering and published by Absolute Entertainment for the NES in January 1990. It's the first game in the A Boy and His Blob series.

In the game, a blob-like alien has come to Earth seeking help because his home world has been taken over by tyrant. While here, he befriends a little boy who feeds him jellybeans. The little boy must buy vitamins to help defeat the tyrant, but, lacking money, he must first discover underground treasure. The game's gimmick is that, each flavor of jellybean fed to the blob causes it to assume the shape of a related object. Feed the blob a cola flavored jellybean, and he morphs into a giant bubble the boy can ride in; feed him a cinnamon flavored jellybean, and he becomes a blowtorch; and so forth. These shapes will help you get past the various hazards you'll find underground and on the blob's home world of Blobolonia.

Personal

Own?	Yes. USA loose cart.
Won?	Yes. Beat the AI on equal difficulty settings.
Finished	2003-05-??.

After seeing this game reviewed in Hot Tips for the Coolest Nintendo Games, I rented it around 1990. I remember being really enamored with the concept, but got stuck on Blobolonia when I couldn't get past the popcorn. In 2003, I bought a used copy and played it again, creating a hand-drawn map of the Earth section and figured out how and beat the game. I was a bit annoyed to learn just how close I was to victory all those years ago.

Review

6	4	4	3	3

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game's theme is extremely clever. Having a sidekick that can morph into various shapes to bypass hazards and monsters is a very creative idea.
• The use of actual photographs for background graphics was an interesting choice, and it give the game a nice ambiance. The night time cityscape has been burned into my memory.
• The various animations for the Blob look nice.
• The game has a lot of cartoon tropes which give it charm. Using holes to slip through the floor, trampolines that launch you into the sky, being able to slide off a cliff, but not fall until you look down, etc.
• Crane did a great job assigning the flavors to various shapes. They either fit thematically or have a nice alliterative wording.
• I like how the blob gets sad when he misses a tossed jelly bean.

Bad

• I would have preferred a few more clever puzzles. Most of them are all variations on a theme and solved without much thought.
• The graphics and music are pretty awful and a bit bizarre. Blobolonia is particularly strange with corn fields, candy factories, teeth caves, and gingerbread men.
• The game is too short. I almost beat it the very first time I played it.
• While I like the animation of the slide over the edge of a cliff, the actual movement controls for the boy make it feel like he's running on ice, and it's too easy to fall to your death.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  Japan - Manga drawn in American style. Fits the content better than the US art, but

• 

  USA - Uses a comic book style befitting the theme. The blob looks a bit too goopy, but it's otherwise quite good.

• 

  USA - Title lettering.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Hot Tips for the Coolest Nintendo Games.

• 

  Zac Gorman comic.

Maps

• 

  Earth.

• 

  Blobolonia.

• 

  A hand-made map I drew.

Screenshots

• 

  Changing the Blob into a ladder to reach some treasure.

• 

  One of the first examples of coyote time, added for comedic effect.

Fan Art

• 

  Zac Gorman comic.

Videos

Longplay.

Play Online

Famicom, NES (Europe), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The only female is a damsel in distress.
Bechdel test?	Fail	The only female character doesn't speak.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	The only human character is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia
Japanese	ふしぎなブロビー ブロバニアの危機	Fushigi na Blobby: Blobania no Kiki	Mysterious Blobby: Crisis in Blobania

Links