A Boy and His Blob

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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JaySevenZero
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A Boy and His Blob

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions of A Boy and His Blob for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: 439: A Boy and His Blob

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

Will this cover the original NES game in addition to WayForward's version?
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Alex79
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Re: 439: A Boy and His Blob

Post by Alex79 »

I'm positive I saw mentioned somewhere, either on the forum or on one of the podcasts, that the show will mainly focus on the modern version but they will speak about the NES original, too. I've just downloaded the new one on my Vita as it happens to give a try. Never played either this or the original before.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: 439: A Boy and His Blob

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

oh good, I've played a lot of the original and some of the new one.

--Dan
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Alex79
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Re: 439: A Boy and His Blob

Post by Alex79 »

I started this on Vita. It's impressive - I've ever played the original, and I like the ideas. As a puzzle platformer it works really well, and I love the visual style. However, the sad truth is I'm just really not in the mood for a game like this at the moment. I think, after a couple of hours of play, the closest thing I could compare it to (other than the NES game of course) is an indie game from a few years back called The Swapper. If I had to pick between the two though, I think The Swapper was much more interesting and required a lot more thought, and was therefore ultimately more rewarding. A Boy And His Blob does what it does very well indeed, its just not for me right now.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: 439: A Boy and His Blob

Post by Jobobonobo »

I was always somewhat curious about this game seeing as it had an interesting concept and it being a re-imagining of an old NES title made me extra curious as more modern technology and design sensibilities could possibly refine a unique idea into a truly special experience. For me, A Boy and His Blob achieves this admirably.

The boy being so vulnerable and having a widely more realistic jump than most other platforming stars makes the blob a absolutely vital tool for navigating environments, defeating enemies and of course, solving puzzles. The puzzles and jelly bean abilities scale up in complexity and imagination as the game goes on and the pace was pitched just right where when it seemed puzzles were getting samey, new jelly beans were added to liven things up again. The game is also balanced quite well with some tricky spots here and there but never enough to make you quit the game and with its generous checkmarks, redoing sections is never too frustrating an experience.

Another note on the puzzle design is how it encourages you to drop the controller for a second and truly think about what you need to do, particularly in later stages. What might seem impossible can be easily achieved by truly observing your surroundings and the jelly beans you have on you. Once it used this technique to blatantly troll me. There is a section in one of the levels from the final world where you need to get past some spikes below you and get to the left side of the screen to go down a small pit and continue on your journey. Now you could jump off the ledge with your parachute and veer sharply to the left but doing that will crash you into a floating bomb so that’s out. You look to your far right and see a giant slime monster which you could use as a moving platform to go across the spikes but its path is blocked by well, a block. So how do I move the block in order to get the monster to move over so I can travel on him using the blob as an anvil? This was a complex, multi-layered puzzle and after numerous failed attempts I noticed something. There was an updraft underneath where I was at the beginning of the puzzle area which would soften my fall. I could simply throw my light blue jelly bean down there creating a duplicate of myself and push the block underneath me then I could call the blob up to me, feed him a red jelly bean and I would land safely on the block and be on my merry way! What seemed to be a real head scratcher was actually a quick and easy solution. This game rewards your observations skills so much that I just laughed at how the developers took advantage of the over-thinking that puzzle games can condition in players such as myself and was actually the moment when I went from liking this game to truly adoring it.

The bosses were a particular highlight with a nice balance of puzzle solving and reflex dodging of their attacks. The only one I really had trouble with was the king in his throne room as each time you died, you had to run down that long hall again and again and listen to his irritating laugh before each fight. Needless to say, the true final boss fight was very satisfying punching his horrible face in with the mech. Fantastic way to end the game.

Overall, A Boy and His Blob is an utter delight and one of the most fun experiences I have had with a puzzle game in a long time. If you are into puzzly platformers, this cute little adventure is highly recommended.

Three word review: Aw, blob hug!
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