A Boy and His Blob: Trouble On Blobolonia - Reception

Reception

Critical reception for A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia has been mixed. Many reviews published during the game's original release positively regarded the game's premise of a boy advancing by using a blob companion as a tool-set. Staff for the magazines Mean Machines and Dragon and Edward J. Simrad of the The Milwaukee Journal all remarked the game as having fun, challenging gameplay and being a creative and original idea. The two reviewers of Mean Machines gave praise to the graphical quality of A Boy and His Blob, commenting, "Some of the backdrops are digitized and superbly coloured. The boy moves smoothly realistically and the Blob himself is a masterpiece of animation." Simrad, who labeled the game as updated version of Crane's previous work Pitfall!, was not as impressed by the graphics, claiming that the programmer always preferred to use the available memory for the size of the maze.

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly found A Boy and His Blob to be strictly average due to its few enemies and a lack of scrolling screens. Although they made similar, positive comments about its unique gameplay formula, one of the writers felt it "never fully realizes its potential". This opinion was echoed by Lucas M. Thomas of IGN, who gave a more negative review of the game. "While the idea behind A Boy and His Blob was certainly unique, even praiseworthy," he explained, "the execution of the concept didn't exactly make for a very fun game." Thomas faulted the game's controls; its vast, empty environments; and a limited number of essential jelly beans to advance, leaving the player with "just the core gameplay gimmick of the blob's different transformations". 1UP.com contributor Jeremy Parish predicted that the game's potentially frustrating, trial-and-error mechanics could subside once the player is over the learning curve and masters the limited toolset and simple interface.

As reported by Stuart Hunt of Retro Gamer, "A Boy and His Blob proved to be a phenomenal success for Absolute Entertainment, going on to become one of the company's biggest hits and exceeding all the team's expectations." The game won "Best of Show" award for its debut at the 1989 CES. The advocacy group Parents' Choice Foundation awarded A Boy and His Blob with a Parents' Choice Award in 1990 for "portraying 'Positive human values', 'High quality software', 'Intelligent design', and the 'Ability to hold the player's interest'." Designer David Crane was particularly proud of the latter honor, which he appreciated both before and after becoming a parent himself.