B.O.B.

"If it weren't for sucky car after sucky car, B.O.B. would be one mackin' alien"

As far as time goes, let's assume it's the distant future. B.O.B., an angst-filled teenage insectoid, wishes to take the family auto out on the town, maybe cruise around for chicks or something like that. His dad, complete with beer belly and wagging finger of admonishment, says to be back by eleven. Sure Dad, whatever. B.O.B. will paint the galaxy red his own way and he'll be back whenever he wants with however many ladies he wants.

He soon runs into a problem though: the car runs out of gas and B.O.B. is stranded on a barren plateau full of domed cities and alien hives. Thus begins B.O.B., a brain-bending action/platform game spanning more levels than the average platformer cares to traverse. Gray Matter (B.O.B.'s developer) is an aptly named company. The first two worlds lull you into that extremely annoying False Sense of Security that becomes evident when you're thrust into the obstacles the third area presents without warning. I have no problem with the gameplay - it's just that the game is fun for the first two worlds, but becomes a chore to complete starting with the third.

B.O.B. is resplendent with early nineties pop culture. You get a lot of funkadelic synthesized music that actually fits the foreign backdrops perfectly. When you beat a level, B.O.B. will spout weary cliches that were everywhere at the time, like ''Psych!'' (a word I COULD NOT STAND in second grade just as I CANNOT STAND ''extreme'' now) and ''And B.O.B.'s your uncle!'' I flat-out don't get that one. Wisely, no digitized voices were used. At the time, the technology wasn't quite up to par yet, so having B.O.B. speak in speech bubbles was probably a good move. After a while, almost all the music becomes slightly annoying except for the boss theme, which I could rock out to for a good ten minutes or so. B.O.B.'s music and sound effects fit it like a glove.

Control isn't much trouble for B.O.B. either. He has fluid movement which is good for jumping and other airborne tasks like the trampoline. There are some Bubsy-like problems with hit detection and slipshod stopping that are hard to adjust to, and movement with the helicopter is only four-directional. Other than that, making B.O.B. walk and climb ain't no thing.

I like just about everything about B.O.B. except for its hardcore difficulty once you reach the middle stages of the game. Everything from there out becomes a trial-and-error process, and you don't have a lot of lives to spend on that kind of thing. If you want to check out B.O.B. and know a place that still specializes in Super Nintendo rental, I suggest giving it a look and then purchasing it if you like it. The passwords are spaced out nicely so that you don't have to play endlessly for just one, but it doesn't save your heavily stockpiled arsenal. You'll like B.O.B. if you enjoy a platformer that gives your frontal lobe goosebumps, but if you're not looking for that kind of depth, stick with an old-school title, back when it was just a game of get-to-the-finish and nothing more. With B.O.B. you're lucky to be able to do that most of the time.

Score: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/02, Updated 05/26/02