Plot: What’s it about?
A small, alien blob has escaped from a scientific research compound and now, the green menace is unleashed on the world with one goal…consume. While you start off a small, harmless ball of goop, you soon discover that you can absorb almost anything you come across. As you consume, you grow larger and in turn, you can swallow even larger stuff and get even bigger, so on and so forth. As you traverse the levels, you will also learn new abilities to aid in your rampage, but you will need them all, as plenty of obstacles wait in your path. The levels feature all manner of traps and hazards, including military forces determined to return the blob to the lab. You can also track down collectibles throughout the levels, so if dodging military firepower and other hurdles wasn’t enough, there you go. The world is a dangerous place for our little green guy, but eat well and grow strong and you just might avoid a return to captivity.
This game was first released on the Vita, but now Xbox 360 fans can give Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack a spin on their console of choice. When I first saw videos of the game, it reminded me of the Katamari series. You have to roll around, absorb stuff, grow larger, then continue the cycle. But the mechanic is used to here as part of a puzzle/platform adventure. While the game has some challenging moments, Drinkbox Studios has made this a player friendly experience. In addition to generous, fairly placed checkpoints, you’ll face no time limits or punishments for trial & error. So while it might take some practice to nail some sections, you’ll never feel that frustrated. I had a lot of fun going through the game’s levels, as the controls are excellent and the level designs are terrific. I do feel like replay value is somewhat limited, as once you solve the puzzles and grab the collectibles, there’s not much incentive to revisit stages. Even so, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack offers a good amount of top notch gaming and puzzle/platform fans will love this one.
Video: How’s it look?
A visual tribute to old school sci/fi/horror, the game’s visual design is fun to soak in. The art is deceptively simple, with a lot of background activity you could easily miss. But if you take some time to look around, you’ll see a lot going on and appreciate the visuals that much more. The visuals are peppy and pleasant, which makes controlling a hideous blob that much more fun. With a great art design that yields a beautiful canvas to play on, this game just plain looks awesome.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The audio is in synch with the visuals, giving us whimsical audio that is upbeat and fun. I usually do little more than tolerate music in games, but I liked the soundtrack here. The music matches up with the content well and never gets annoying, so a nice surprise there. The sound effects continue that trend, so the entire sound design is spot on and well executed.
