Video Game Review: A Boy and his Blob for the Nintendo Wii
When I was but a lad, I owned a Nintendo Entertainment System, along with the Sega Master System and the Atari 2600. To say I was a happy boy would be an understatement. However, if there was one thing I regretted about owning a Nintendo, it was the fact that I couldn't afford any games for it. I have about a grand total of 4 or so games for the system, while having borrowed a handful of games for that system. When I could afford to, I did not have a working Nintendo to play it on. So, to sum it up, I've never played the original version of the game I'm reviewing, nor have I had a chance to look into its excellence. I have a chance now, but I'm a bit backlogged with games, so it will have to wait. Hence, I can't tell you how this game measures up to the original. But, I can tell you how my experience with this game has been and if it is worth the purchase, let alone the rental.
Graphics
The developers at WayForward did an amazing job with the creation of these sprites. The motif is two-dimensional sprites on hand-drawn backgrounds. The art style is very youthful and friendly, mostly due to the fact that it was made to appeal to children, let alone everyone. When it needs to be dark, it's dark. When it needs to be bright, it's bright. But, I think the real show stealer for me is the amount of time put into animating the sprites within the game. The multiple frames of animation add to the detail of each character in question, from the boy and his blob, to the various enemies they encounter. A hat tip must be given to the developers for coming up with this style and the amount of work that went into it. If there was one negative, I'd say that when it comes to animation frames, the hit boxes of every sprite can be a bit challenging to call, in the sense that you won't know if you are too close or too far away from something. Still, it's not a very deterring problem so that the game is unplayable.
Sound
The sound really suits the tempo of the game, as well as give to the atmosphere the game is trying to convey. When it needs to be dark and despairing, the music can take a very dire tonal shift. When it needs to be somewhat upbeat and adventurous, the music picks up a bit. I found the sound effects to be rather well done. The boy speaks perfect English, and you can make out his words perfectly. Also, the sound effects for the environment comes in rather well crafted.
Control
When it comes to the controls, you can factor out the motion portion of the controllers as they play no factor, and also factor out the Gamecube and classic controllers as well. This game is all Wiimote and Nunchuk. The general means to succeed in this game is to throw jellybeans at the blob for him to eat, and with the flavor given, he can change into any object that corresponds with it. This can be an anvil, a balloon, a parachute, or anything within the scope of the gam. Also, you have unlimited jelly beans, so don't stress on running out. With the controls given, you can throw jellybeans, controlling the strength of your throw and distance of the beans thrown with the necessary buttons. Pressing the Z button gives you a chance to see which beans you are given, and what each bean will do to the blob via transformation. To sum it up, these controls are pretty sharp and won't leave you looking to toss your Wiimote around like a bag of candy. One thing though: since the boy isn't really an adventurer, like say, Mario or Link, he can't touch anything bad, or he'll die instantly. So, keep those controls sharp. And, there's a button to hug your blob. No idea why, save for the need to make the game, well, very cute. Mission accomplished.
Etc.
The story of this game goes as follows: A blob named "Blob" lands on earth and is discovered by a boy, named, well, he doesn't have a name. Upon communicating with the blob, the boy realizes that the blob's planet of Blobolonia is in danger of an evil blob king (what, you didn't think the blob was from earth, did you?) who is looking to take over the planet, enslave all the good blobs, and now that the blob has escaped, invade earth while he's at it. So, it's up to the boy and the blob to take on the evil blob minions that did follow Blob to earth, and ultimately confront the king and defeat him to free Blobolonia. To do that, you have to traverse the various stages you must go through, finding the golden jelly bean at the end of the stage. Sounds like a pretty standard PG film from the likes of, say, Don Bluth, right? The story is very similar to that of the original, with a few tweaks here and there ( I don't believe that the boy goes to Blob's planet in the original). There are 40 stages to attempt within the regular scope of the game, with the same number of challenge stages to unlock. Unlock these stages by finding various treasure chests in the regular stages, and when you complete the challenge stages, you unlock various forms of content, including development pictures, videos of the producer's creating the game, and cinema fully explaining the story of the game. When finding these extras, it warmed my heart as if I was watching Nick, Jr. with my little cousins. That said, attaining these goals are no easy feat, setting up our discussion for the game's lasting appeal. According to most, it should take you a total of 10 hours to complete the game's standard levels. However, the challenge levels are so intricately designed that you'll find yourself knee deep in a long journey to Blobolonia. These challenge stages leave you with a minimum of 2 beans to use, and at times a max of 4 beans to use. And, guess what? Most of these beans aren't the most useful of beans, but they are useful. They just stretch the challenge out extensively. Instead of being given a parachute bean, you'll be given a trampoline bean with the task of landing on the trampoline, and softening your jump, otherwise, the boy will lose the challenge and lose a life. Though the boy has infinite lives and continues, only the regular stages have save points to return to, while the challenge stages do not. Another such challenge to these stages, along with regular stages, is the sometimes erratic behavior of Blob, who will at times go ahead of you, lag behind you, and not listen to your calls, leaving you in a challenging spot with no way out but to die. Good controls? Sure, but they can only go so far with A.I. that dizzy. But, this type of issue doesn't make the game impossible to complete. It just takes time and patience. And you'll have a lot of moments like that in the game, where you have to stop and think just a bit.
Final verdict
This game cost me about 20 dollars when I first bought it. To me, this game really fills out the budget pricing it was given, and then some. The graphics are wonderful, the sound well-scored, and the controls pretty intuitive. The game is lengthy enough for a decent weekend rental, but if you want to push yourself, go for those challenges. You will find yourself a little annoyed with the Blob's behavior at times, but with a little patience, you can see the challenges through. There's no greater love than between a boy and his dog, they say. Well, if there is a great love for a great nod to an underrated classic from the past, this is a game you want to pick up.
Now, would the guys at WayForward give us Wii gamers another reason to enjoy our system? Yes they did, but it took a brave and bold move to do so.....
Graphics
The developers at WayForward did an amazing job with the creation of these sprites. The motif is two-dimensional sprites on hand-drawn backgrounds. The art style is very youthful and friendly, mostly due to the fact that it was made to appeal to children, let alone everyone. When it needs to be dark, it's dark. When it needs to be bright, it's bright. But, I think the real show stealer for me is the amount of time put into animating the sprites within the game. The multiple frames of animation add to the detail of each character in question, from the boy and his blob, to the various enemies they encounter. A hat tip must be given to the developers for coming up with this style and the amount of work that went into it. If there was one negative, I'd say that when it comes to animation frames, the hit boxes of every sprite can be a bit challenging to call, in the sense that you won't know if you are too close or too far away from something. Still, it's not a very deterring problem so that the game is unplayable.
Sound
The sound really suits the tempo of the game, as well as give to the atmosphere the game is trying to convey. When it needs to be dark and despairing, the music can take a very dire tonal shift. When it needs to be somewhat upbeat and adventurous, the music picks up a bit. I found the sound effects to be rather well done. The boy speaks perfect English, and you can make out his words perfectly. Also, the sound effects for the environment comes in rather well crafted.
Control
When it comes to the controls, you can factor out the motion portion of the controllers as they play no factor, and also factor out the Gamecube and classic controllers as well. This game is all Wiimote and Nunchuk. The general means to succeed in this game is to throw jellybeans at the blob for him to eat, and with the flavor given, he can change into any object that corresponds with it. This can be an anvil, a balloon, a parachute, or anything within the scope of the gam. Also, you have unlimited jelly beans, so don't stress on running out. With the controls given, you can throw jellybeans, controlling the strength of your throw and distance of the beans thrown with the necessary buttons. Pressing the Z button gives you a chance to see which beans you are given, and what each bean will do to the blob via transformation. To sum it up, these controls are pretty sharp and won't leave you looking to toss your Wiimote around like a bag of candy. One thing though: since the boy isn't really an adventurer, like say, Mario or Link, he can't touch anything bad, or he'll die instantly. So, keep those controls sharp. And, there's a button to hug your blob. No idea why, save for the need to make the game, well, very cute. Mission accomplished.
Etc.
The story of this game goes as follows: A blob named "Blob" lands on earth and is discovered by a boy, named, well, he doesn't have a name. Upon communicating with the blob, the boy realizes that the blob's planet of Blobolonia is in danger of an evil blob king (what, you didn't think the blob was from earth, did you?) who is looking to take over the planet, enslave all the good blobs, and now that the blob has escaped, invade earth while he's at it. So, it's up to the boy and the blob to take on the evil blob minions that did follow Blob to earth, and ultimately confront the king and defeat him to free Blobolonia. To do that, you have to traverse the various stages you must go through, finding the golden jelly bean at the end of the stage. Sounds like a pretty standard PG film from the likes of, say, Don Bluth, right? The story is very similar to that of the original, with a few tweaks here and there ( I don't believe that the boy goes to Blob's planet in the original). There are 40 stages to attempt within the regular scope of the game, with the same number of challenge stages to unlock. Unlock these stages by finding various treasure chests in the regular stages, and when you complete the challenge stages, you unlock various forms of content, including development pictures, videos of the producer's creating the game, and cinema fully explaining the story of the game. When finding these extras, it warmed my heart as if I was watching Nick, Jr. with my little cousins. That said, attaining these goals are no easy feat, setting up our discussion for the game's lasting appeal. According to most, it should take you a total of 10 hours to complete the game's standard levels. However, the challenge levels are so intricately designed that you'll find yourself knee deep in a long journey to Blobolonia. These challenge stages leave you with a minimum of 2 beans to use, and at times a max of 4 beans to use. And, guess what? Most of these beans aren't the most useful of beans, but they are useful. They just stretch the challenge out extensively. Instead of being given a parachute bean, you'll be given a trampoline bean with the task of landing on the trampoline, and softening your jump, otherwise, the boy will lose the challenge and lose a life. Though the boy has infinite lives and continues, only the regular stages have save points to return to, while the challenge stages do not. Another such challenge to these stages, along with regular stages, is the sometimes erratic behavior of Blob, who will at times go ahead of you, lag behind you, and not listen to your calls, leaving you in a challenging spot with no way out but to die. Good controls? Sure, but they can only go so far with A.I. that dizzy. But, this type of issue doesn't make the game impossible to complete. It just takes time and patience. And you'll have a lot of moments like that in the game, where you have to stop and think just a bit.
Final verdict
This game cost me about 20 dollars when I first bought it. To me, this game really fills out the budget pricing it was given, and then some. The graphics are wonderful, the sound well-scored, and the controls pretty intuitive. The game is lengthy enough for a decent weekend rental, but if you want to push yourself, go for those challenges. You will find yourself a little annoyed with the Blob's behavior at times, but with a little patience, you can see the challenges through. There's no greater love than between a boy and his dog, they say. Well, if there is a great love for a great nod to an underrated classic from the past, this is a game you want to pick up.
Now, would the guys at WayForward give us Wii gamers another reason to enjoy our system? Yes they did, but it took a brave and bold move to do so.....
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