A Boy and His Blob

Lore & Background

A Boy and His Blob is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer in which a young boy cooperates with a blob-like creature. The boy feeds the blob jelly beans that transform it into fifteen different objects—such as ladders, anvils, and cannons—to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Unlike the original NES game, which only displayed each jelly bean's flavor, this version uses a selection wheel showing what each bean does. The boy can hug, scold, or call the blob to revert its transformation. The game is split into four worlds, each with ten levels and a boss battle; hidden chests unlock challenge levels and bonus developer material.

Reader's Guide

A Boy and His Blob is significant as a faithful re-imagining of a cult NES title, praised for its hand-drawn 2D animation inspired by 1980s animated films and the works of Hayao Miyazaki. Director Sean Velasco, a fan of the original, streamlined the gameplay to be more forgiving, adding frequent save checkpoints and unlimited jelly beans. The game's art direction, led by Marc Gomez, was widely acclaimed and helped create a heartwarming, friendly experience accessible to a wide audience. Reception was largely positive, with Nintendo Power calling it 'a super magical adventure' and IGN praising its art while criticizing controls. The game was later ported to multiple platforms, including a high-definition version in 2016 and a Nintendo Switch release in 2021.

Did You Know?

• The game has around 4,000 unique frames of animation.
• The 'hug' button is a vestigial feature of a more fleshed-out emotion system that was abandoned during development.
• The rights to the series originally belonged to Absolute Entertainment, but Majesco acquired them after Absolute went bankrupt in 1995.
• The designer of the original NES title, David Crane, was not involved with the Wii version.