A Boy and His Blob:Trouble on Blobolonia
Developer(s)	Imagineering
Publisher(s)	Absolute Entertainment Jaleco
Designer(s)	David Crane
Release date(s)	1989 November 29, 1990 1991
Genre(s)	Platform Game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	NES Game Boy Nintendo DS

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (Fushigina Blobby: Blobania no Kiki in Japan) is a video game developed in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System by David Crane.

History

Created by David Crane (creator of Pitfall!), the game was named best of show in 1989 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The advocacy group Parents' Choice Foundation awarded it with a Parents' Choice Award in 1990.

Overview

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia is a side-scrolling platformer in which the character and his friend Blob (full name Blobert) travel together on earth and on Blobert's home planet Blobolonia in a quest to defeat the evil emperor.

Blobert can change into several different items when he is fed jelly beans. A licorice jelly bean, for instance, will change Blobert into a ladder, while a honey jelly bean will turn him into a hummingbird. Most of these transformations can be remembered mnemonically due to a correlation between the flavor of the jelly bean and the item that results. The list is as follows:

Box Art

• Licorice - Ladder - Climbs to higher places. The flavor and relating item both start with the same letter. May also be because licorice is long and thin.
• Strawberry - Bridge - Crosses gaps. "Strawberry" relates to "draw-bridge."
• Coconut - Coconut - The screen follows the rolling coconut.
• Cola - Bubble - Allows safe underwater exploration. Bubbles are in cola drinks.
• Cinnamon - Blowtorch - Burns webs. Cinnamon is spicy and blowtorches are "hot."
• Apple - Jack - Lifts up objects. This refers to a drink made from cider called applejack, and to the popular cereal "Apple Jacks".
• Vanilla - Umbrella - Protects the boy from falling objects and from heights. the illa and ella parts of each word almost rhyme (and will rhyme when pronounced with a rough southern accent)
• Tangerine - Trampoline - Jumps to high places. "Tangerine" sounds similar to "trampoline."
• Root Beer - Rocket - Allows travel to and from Blobolonia. Root beer, when shaken, can create a large explosion of soda, much like a rocket.
• Honey - Hummingbird - Allows Blobert to follow more easily. Hummingbirds eat nectar/honey.
• Punch - Hole - Punches a hole to new areas. This is a pun on hole punch.
• Lime - Key - Unlock doors. Key lime is a smaller type of lime.
• Orange - Vitablaster! - Shoots vitamins at enemies. Oranges can be an excellent source of vitamins.
• Ketchup - Nothing - Blobert dislikes ketchup-flavored jelly beans, so will not normally eat them; instead, where the ketchup jellybean is thrown, Blobert will appear, even if he was many screens away. "Ketchup" sounds like "catch up."

It is possible to trick Blobert into eating a ketchup-flavored jelly bean by throwing him a honey jelly bean first and then quickly throwing the ketchup one. Doing so will cause Blobert to transform into a brick wall which serves no purpose.

The boy must make use of all of these jelly beans, collect diamonds and treasure, and defeat the final boss on Blobonia, the emperor, by using vitamins. The emperor has a sweet tooth to the extent that vitamins are fatal.

Japanese Release

Screenshot from Fushigi na Blobby: Blobania no Kiki; here the boy is featured with a different game sprite.

When the game was released in Japan it was retitled Fushigi na Blobby: Blobania no Kiki (ふしぎなブロビー ブロバニアの危機 Mysterious Blobby: The Crisis of Blobania). The game's game sprite for the boy was changed to a more detailed anime look, and the game's title screen was changed to a more colorful look as apposed to the English title that is reminiscent of the Indiana Jones logo.

Sequels

A sequel to the game was released for the Game Boy in 1990 under the name The Rescue of Princess Blobette.

Fifteen years later Majesco announced another sequel for the Nintendo DS at E³. The game will use 3D graphics, and takes place 6 years after the first game. The game was scheduled for release on November 11, 2005. Although the game is rumored to be completed, Majesco's financial troubles have delayed the game's release indefinitely. As of August 2007, it is apparently cancelled.

The game was set to feature 15 differently colored jellybeans and 15 levels. The touchscreen feature of the DS would have featured a map and helped manage jellybean inventory.

See also

• List of NES games
• Majesco

External links

• A Boy and His Blob at MobyGames

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