A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

Lore & Background

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia was designed and programmed by David Crane, with help from Garry Kitchen. Crane described the concept of a boy with a shapeshifting blob as 'an off-the-wall idea,' and Blobert's design was heavily influenced by the characters Gloop and Gleep from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Herculoids. The game was officially licensed by Nintendo in the summer of 1989 and completed in an intense six-week development period, during which Crane worked 16- to 20-hour days and went without sleep for 48 hours near the end. The team originally discussed a simultaneous launch with a tie-in toy and film, but those plans never materialized.

The gameplay revolves around feeding Blobert flavored jelly beans to change his shape into tools such as a ladder or a jack. The player controls the boy, who cannot jump or swim, and must rely on the blob to cross gaps and overcome obstacles. The game presents a series of interconnected screens rather than side-scrolling. A total of 14 jelly bean flavors were implemented, with names chosen as puns or alliteration to aid memory. An early version included a grape-flavored bean that turned the blob into a wall, but it was replaced with a ketchup-flavored bean that summoned the blob after Nintendo viewed the separation of boy and blob as a bug.

Reader's Guide

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia is significant as an early example of a puzzle-platform game that uses a companion character as a toolset, a concept that David Crane intended to advance the adventure genre. The game's development was notably rapid, completed in six weeks, and it became Absolute Entertainment's first NES title. Critical reception was mixed: while many reviewers praised the originality and challenging gameplay, some felt the execution was poor. The game won the 1989 CES 'Best of Show' and a 1990 Parents' Choice Award. It was followed by a sequel on the Game Boy, The Rescue of Princess Blobette. After two failed attempts to bring the series to Nintendo's other handhelds, a re-imagining was developed by WayForward Technologies and released on the Wii in 2009. That same year, the original NES game was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in North America and PAL regions. The game's legacy includes its influence on later companion-based puzzle games and its enduring cult status.

Did You Know?

• The game was designed and programmed by David Crane in just six weeks.
• An early version included a grape-flavored jelly bean that turned the blob into a wall, but it was replaced after Nintendo viewed a potential separation of boy and blob as a bug.