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| The boy utilizing the blob's shapeshifting abilities to avoid an obstacle. |
A boy is woken up in the middle of the night by an alien blob crash landing outside his tree house. The boy quickly bonds with the blob creature and discovers that it can morph into different objects when it is fed jellybeans. The boy and the blob set out to save the blob’s planet from the evil blob king.
A Boy and His Blob is four worlds long, with ten levels and ten bonus levels each. In each level the boy and the blob have to reach the golden jellybean at the end. But, the levels are filled with enemies, pits, spikes, and other impediments. To avoid them, the boy has to utilize the blob’s morphing powers.
Some of the things the blob can morph into are ladders to climb, parachutes to jump down pits, rockets to get around long spiky corridors, or anvils to crush enemies with. There are fifteen jellybean transformations in all.
The boy is only allowed to use a couple of types of jellybeans each level, but has unlimited amount of those jellybeans. For example, a level might have the boy only use the ladder jellybean and the parachute jellybean.
The boy has no way to defend himself on his own. All he has is a small jump that barely clears gaps and enemies. And any attack or a fall from a great height kills him. Thankfully the boy has unlimited lives and reappears a few feet back from where he died.
The blob is controlled by the computer. Usually the blob follows behind the boy, but the player can direct the blob by throwing jellybeans. Several puzzles are solved by throwing a jellybean over an obstacle and having the blob morph into something that will get the boy over the obstacle too. Sometimes the blob will get stuck and the computer cannot get the blob to jump over whatever is blocking it. Eventually it will jump over, but that can get slightly annoying. The player can call un-morph the blob and return it to the boy with a button press.
Every level has three hidden treasure chests. Finding all three chests unlocks a challenging bonus level. Beating that level unlocks concept art. Collecting the treasure chest can be tedious, especially if the player passes them and has to go through the entire level again to get at them. In some ways the challenge levels are more enjoyable because there are no treasure chests to find.
The game starts off easy but gets really hard near the end. However, it never feels cheap. It helps that there are only so many jellybeans and therefore only so many answers to the puzzles, so the player can never really get frustrated at not figuring out the answer. It can be difficult timing things like jumps and dodging around enemies, but the way to get around them is always obvious. For the most part solving the puzzles is a fun challenge that should be accessible to anyone.
The graphic design is this really nice looking 2D cartoon style. The sprites and backgrounds are all hand drawn and do not look choppy at all; everything moves seamlessly. And the level design is gorgeous, from the swamps to the alien planet.
There is no story. There is a paragraph in the instruction manual and a picture book in the third world, and that is it. Besides explaining why the duo moves from place to place, the story does not affect the game at all.
There is no dialogue either. All there is the boy exclaiming something when he wants the blob to return. The developers should have chosen a less annoying voice actor, because hearing the boy shout “Blob!” repeatedly is unpleasant.
The game does not use the Wii motion control in any way, thankfully.
The game is not very long. Even after collecting all the treasure chests and completing all the bonus levels the game only takes about ten hours. And there is no replay value at all. It is not really worth full price.
A Boy and His Blob is a fun puzzle game that can be enjoyed by everyone who likes semi-challenging puzzles. It can get a bit daunting at the end, but no one should have any real problem with it and should still have fun.
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