Power Button Podcast
Tip JarBoy, Blob Set To Return
May 12, 2005
Reach back to a simpler time and remember the Nintendo Entertainment System title A Boy and His Blob (and it's Game Boy sequel). Surely you remember the game. The premise is that a boy befriends an alien blob from the planet Blobolonia and together they search Earth's sewers and caverns for treasure which they use to buy vitamins that are needed to fight the twisted candy-craving emperor of Blobolonia. The gimmick involved using jelly beans to change Blob's shape to function as a ladder, a bridge, a hole, etc.
Now, fifteen years later, Majesco is bringing the series back. In the company's E3 press release a number of games are listed for the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable, one of which is A Boy and His Blob. Which of the two systems the game is for isn't clarified (it could be one or both), but seeing as how Majesco tried to revive the series for the Game Boy Advance several years ago, I'm betting it's for the DS.
I have to wonder though, of all the forgotten games of yesterday to choose from (assuming Majesco had such a choice; this is hypothetical), why bring back A Boy and His Blob? Both the NES and Game Boy titles weren't exactly all-star material. In fact, in the NES version one could skip the underground cavern portion of the game, go into the sewers for the bag of jelly beans that contained the lime bean needed to open a lock guarding the game's final (and only) boss, and move on to Blobolonia to finish the game. The vitamin aspect of the game is not required to pass any of the game's hazards, yet collecting treasure to buy vitamins is probably about 75% of the game.
There's got to be some untapped potential in the A Boy and His Blob concept. Here's hoping Majesco can dig deep enough to find it.