After a short reviewing hibernation, a menagerie of games was waiting for me to pick them apart, and give them a good seeing to. And what’s the first to greet me? A little green blob, determined to consume everything in its path. This is Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, available on Steam right now.
The game revolves around a spikey green blob, who is the victim of scientific testing on a regular basis. Naturally, it’s less than enthusiastic by this deal, so escapes, freeing his other blobby friends in the process. What follows is this little guy’s quest to eat anything and everything that isn’t nailed to the floor… until he can eat the nails first.
What I love about the story is the way it’s presented in quirky, cartoon-y scenes. There’s no real dialogue except for some gibberish from the humans (think the language in the Sims), but you get the idea of what’s going on through descriptive and concise images, and reactions from the NPCs.
The game itself could be classed as a ‘Physics-based platformer’ it’s 2D side-scrolling, with the option to manipulate certain elements of the world around you. This can range from knocking over a jar to reveal items for consumption, to moving a box so lasers won’t fry your membrane. The main goal is to guide the blob through various sections, ingesting as many items as possible, in order to grow large enough to eat even more, and advance further in the game.
Just imagine GISH crossed with Katamari and you get the basic idea. It’s a very basic, yet very enjoyable concept, as you strive to finish each stage in the quickest time possible, and gaining the best score, through eating as much as possible, finding your blobby friends, and collecting blue dots for extra points.
Controls are so simplistic even one’s own grandmother will understand them. You can move, jump, slam the ground, move highlighted objects with telekinesis, and magnetise yourself to metal surfaces. Even after the first section of the first level I was leaping about like a squishy parkour enthusiast. However, my only concern is the layout of the buttons, mostly the slam and magnetic buttons. You use the usual WASD layout to move, and left shift to attract yourself to metal. That means you can use your pinkie finger to press shift while you manoeuvre through the level.
Unfortunately, there were some occasions it felt like my hand was practising some uncomfortable yoga position, and I was left with an aching hand, and my blob plummeting to a spikey death (does that sound dirty? Maybe…). I feel that attract and repel could be moved to another location on the keyboard, closer to the slam command. The @ button is slam, so I would suggest using > and ? for the magnetism powers, or even { and }.
Despite the slight control hiccup, this is still a very enjoyable game. The gameplay is fun, the humour is great (avid followers of memes will get a chuckle or two), and the whole concept itself is fantastic. If you want a few minutes to kill, and want a few laughs while you’re taking over the world, then I have found you your new best friend… just don’t try to hug him.
Platform: Steam
Publisher/Developer: Drinkbox Studios
Price: £5.49
For more info visit www.steampowered.com/app/206370