A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

David Crane's A Boy and His Blob is a puzzle/platform game from the man who introduced us to Pitfall, where you feed jellybeans to the titular Blob to make it transform into things like ladders, bridges, umbrellas, bubbles, and even guns.

It got a sequel on the Game Boy, a Wii reimagining, and two unreleased games for the GBA and DS in between.

Bit Reversal#

This game's samples are corrupted by the 2A03's bit reversal bug. For more info, see here.

X/Y Coordinate Display#

A simple coordinate display can be enabled with the Game Genie codes XAKKEZXY UGKKOXXK. Note that all other status bar updates will be disabled until you change screens, due to a lack of Vblank time.

The first set of values is for the boy, and the second set is for the Blob. Each value represents the character's current screen number, X position, and Y position, respectively.

Unused Screens#

The game contains a number of unused screens, several of which are completely unique. According to the developer, Nintendo set a strict 6 week deadline to complete the game which is likely the reason why all these screens were cut.

These screens can be seen in-game by setting RAM address $23 to the desired screen ID (set $24 to the same value or toss a ketchup jellybean to make Blob appear). Screens D2, D4, D5, and D7 are particularly odd, as they consist of a limerick in various stages of completion. Judging from the slightly suggestive ending, it was likely used to test the screen drawing code and not actually intended to appear in the final game.

Screen FF is identical to the Evil King's chamber seen in-game, except the Evil King is missing. He does not normally disappear after you dump the vitamins on him, rendering this screen unused.

Unused Graphics#

Jellyfish#

A simple little jellyfish. These appear as underwater enemies in the sequel, so it's reasonable to assume they'd do the same here. It would have made the underwater caves less barren, at least.

Apple#

A nasty-looking apple, probably intended to appear on one of the unused Blobolonian orchard screens.

Bubble#

A bubble-like object. The bottom half is shifted downwards by one pixel, for some unknown reason. (An obstacle using these graphics actually appears on two of the unused screens, as shown below.)

Gingerbread Man#

It seems the gingerbread men lining the walls outside the Evil King's chamber were originally supposed to attack you! How unpleasant.

Unused Enemies/Obstacles#

Green Bubbles#

Screens BC and BE both feature glass jars in the background that spew large, green bubbles. Neither the jars nor bubbles appear anywhere else in the game. As is to be expected, touching a bubble means instant death.

Strangely, in the Japanese version, the bubbles were replaced with vitamins. Perhaps the developers had considered resurrecting this obstacle?

Useless Hidden Ability#

An early preview of the game in Nintendo Power featured a grape jellybean that turned Blobert into a wall, instead of the ketchup one featured in the final. A later issue then revealed a "code" to turn him into a wall by giving him a honey jellybean then switching to ketchup and tossing one in the opposite direction while the blob is transforming. This will result in a brick wall, which no longer has any use in the game.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

The title was given a very colorful overhaul for the Japanese release.

US	Japan	Europe

The English title was localized as "ふしぎなブロビー ブロバニアの危機" for the Japanese version, which, directly translated back, means "The Mysterious Blobby: Crisis on Blobania." The Japanese title screen also adds a "Push Start" notice and uses an 8x8 font to display the copyright text instead of the custom graphics used in other versions.

Character Sprite#

The boy was given a more cartoony (and rather out of place) look in the Japanese version.

International	Japan

Text Changes#

Most of the jellybeans have different flavors in the Japanese version. Only coconut, cola, honey, and orange were left unmodified.

Staff Roll#

The Japanese version displays the credits in green text, while the international versions use yellow text.

References#