A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

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.