Rescue of Princess Blobette

"19 kinds of jellybeans are enough!"

I have to admit, I have never played a game quite like A Boy and his Blob. When I got it, I did not know what quite to expect, and even I was surprised at what it was. This game seems aimed more at smaller kids since when I got older, I found this game a little dumb, but when I was younger, I could not help but play it often.

Basically, you are a boy, wearing green shirt and blue pants, and a white blob comes to your house and you make it your pet. The blob asks you to save the princess, who is named Blobette (original!) from a cage over boiling lava. Well, it is no Edgar Allen Poe book, but it did well for this game.

You have a pet blob, and a surplus supply of jellybeans, and whenever you feed him a certain jellybean, he turns into something that you can use to get through the game, such as the Strawberry jellybean which will turn it into a bridge, a Cinnamon jellybean will turn it into a flamethrower, etc. It adds more puzzle element to the game, trying to figure out which jellybean will help you get through each area. This game is incredibly fun at first, however, after a couple days of playing, it gets boring soon. This is a type of game that you will pick up and play every once in a while.

There are a few things wrong with the controls, but it was probably purposely left out to add to the challenge. You can not jump, and you can not make your blob move to certain areas. The only way to get a blob to move wherever you want it to is to turn it into an item you can pick up and drop, such as an umbrella, or the flamethrower. You are also not able to swim across, but this can easily be solved by using the bridge. Also, you will sometimes miss the jellybeans, wasting key jellybeans, which can stink, especially if you are using your last Lime jellybean at the very end of the game. Other then these, the controls were done pretty good.

One other thing you will notice while you play is the lack of sound. There is only like one tune during the game, and that is only during the first few level. There are also a few tracks, but they are not anything special.

The graphics around this game are pretty good for an NES game. The backgrounds are detailed, and pretty colorful. The sprites are detailed also, and even the blob has its own facial expressions. The worms and other enemies are also realistic looking. With the exception of the boy having a ponytail and looking like a girl, the graphics were well done in the game.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is a pretty long game for NES standards, plus you can not save, and if you lose all your lives, you will have to start all over again. This makes the challenge level go up. But the game does not last long in terms of playing it a lot, since there is nothing worth doing after you beat it once, no rewards, etc.

Overall, this is more of a kiddy game then anything, the novelty of the game wears off after playing through it a few times. But this is pretty fun when you first get it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/03