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A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia for Nintendo NES
A Boy and His Blob for Nintendo NES is a puzzle adventure in which you help a boy and his alien friend Blobert. Beneath the city lie caves filled with treasure, deep chasms and dangerous creatures. You control the boy directly, but give Blob instructions by throwing sweets to him. Each flavour changes him into a different tool. A ladder, trampoline or umbrella lets you reach places the boy cannot get to under his own power.
You begin with twelve jellybean flavours and discover more along the way. Whistling calls Blob back or makes him return to his normal shape. The right position matters as much as the right sweet: a trampoline beneath an opening is little use if you land beside it. You can also throw a jellybean ahead to make the camera explore an unfamiliar section. Treasure from the caves provides money for vitamins, which you later use as ammunition on Blobolonia.
The adventure alternates searching, experimenting and moving carefully. On Blobolonia you pass orchards, a candy factory and the emperor's home. Peppermints can earn extra lives, while falling too far costs a life. You play alone with a standard NES controller. The original cartridge has no save function or passwords; switching off means starting again.
Region and language
Our Nintendo NES games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia for Nintendo NES, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia
David Crane designed A Boy and His Blob, which appeared for NES in 1989. He had previously created games including Pitfall! and Little Computer People. His name featured prominently on the packaging and in the full title. The adventure was made at Imagineering and published by Absolute Entertainment. The subtitle Trouble on Blobolonia refers to the planet where the second part of the journey takes place.
Crane began with the idea of an adventure in which each obstacle required a particular tool. The shape-changing Blob turned that toolkit into a character. A cartoon character from his childhood contributed to the idea. The result focuses less on direct combat than on working with a friend who is not controlled with a second controller. The flavours and shapes are also often linked through English wordplay, making a combination easier to remember once you have discovered it.
The concept later took other forms. Game Boy received The Rescue of Princess Blobette, and WayForward made a new A Boy and His Blob for Wii in 2009. That Wii game divides the journey into separate levels and substantially changed the controls and presentation. The NES release instead features continuous exploration of caves and a distant planet, with a limited supply of sweets and no permanent saving.
Similar games for Nintendo NES
Adventures of Lolo, like A Boy and His Blob, asks you to examine obstacles and tools first. Lolo pushes blocks and temporarily turns monsters into eggs to solve a room. Blob uses different shapes in a larger landscape with changes in height and dangerous falls. You plan a route in both games, but with Blob you must also manage his position and your supply of sweets as you travel between screens.
Kirby's Adventure also has you use different powers to pass obstacles. Kirby copies enemies' abilities and uses them himself while running, flying and fighting. The boy instead gives a separate friend another shape with a chosen jellybean. Blob therefore requires more preparation around a stationary tool, while Kirby carries his new attack straight through a traditional platform level with clearly marked exits.
DuckTales shares the search for hidden treasure and the alternation between safe ground and dangerous chasms. Scrooge uses his cane as a pogo stick and chooses between different areas. The boy cannot perform those jumps himself and must first position Blob and turn him into a trampoline or another tool. Where DuckTales depends heavily on a well-timed jump, Blob first asks you to work out how to make that jump possible.
Adventure Island Classic also features caves, threatening animals and items that change your movement options. Master Higgins must keep moving, however, replenishing his dwindling energy with fruit. A Boy and His Blob allows more time to examine a situation and choose a useful shape. Danger there more often comes from a wrong route or position than from a constantly draining energy bar during a fixed sequence of platform levels.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch, like Blob, builds an adventure around a small character and everyday objects with unexpected uses. Gizmo uses a paperclip or an improvised bow against enemies, for example. His journey through the Clamp building features plenty of direct combat and jumps viewed from above. Blob is viewed from the side and focuses on transforming your companion rather than a succession of increasingly powerful weapons.
