Showing posts with label KCgoPP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KCgoPP. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Video Game Review: A Boy and His Blob

posted by Fly Boy
A Boy and his Blob is a Nintendo video game about a boy…and his blob. Like many Nintendo games one would purchase at a yard sale, this game lacked any real story. You begin the game in the middle of a desolate street at night with a sack of jelly beans and a bouncing amoeba that slightly resembles an albino Slimer. At this point the player is already pondering such questions as "who is this boy?" "Where did he get this blob?" and "What the hell am I supposed to do?"

Unfortunately, the game fails to answer any of these questions and forces you to use your imagination. If I had to write the story of A Boy and His Blob it may go a little something like this:

Boy lived a hard life. He was raised by his abusive step father and crack-addicted mother, who failed to properly name him. He grew up never really knowing his biological father, except for the occasional stories his mother would tell when she was coming down off the rock. She would tell him that his father was a miner named Doug and that he spent most of his life digging. Then one day, when Boy was a baby, Doug decided he'd had enough of family life and abandoned Boy and his mother in pursuit of his dream to reach the center of the Earth. At first, Boy paid little attention to his ranting mother, but at the age of 12 he developed a mild case of schizophrenia and her stories began to make sense. By the age of 13, Boy began to suffer from severe depression. He felt scared and alone. To counter his feelings of insecurity he created an imaginary friend named Blob, who convinced Boy to kill his step father, rob a candy store, and set out on a journey seeking revenge on his biological father at the center of the Earth. (Press “A” to begin)

Even though A Boy and His Blob lacks a sense of plot and what would seem like a definitive ending, it is definitely an entertaining side scroller. The concept of the game, feeding a blob an assortment of jellybeans that cause it to morph into various objects that are intended to assist you, is interesting and innovative to say the least. The game has a bit of a learning curve and the blob can piss you off worse than the dog from Duck Hunt, but don't let this discourage you. All in all, A Boy and His Blob is 1/4 fun, 1/4 frustration, and 1/2 what the fuck?

Friday, December 18, 2009

A Hunt For Something Familiar

posted by Fly Boy
Manhunt is a game of stealth, fear, and adrenaline. Manhunt is a lot like tag, if tag was storming the Beach of Normandy on an acid trip. Manhunt is like Tag’s older brother... if your older brother is the type who steals your lunch money and then proceeds to have sex with your girlfriend. I am not going to take this time to explain the rules of the game. If you do not know how to play, you may want to accuse your parents of neglect. If you plan to look for the rules of the game do not click on the first link in a Google search for "manhunt." That's what I did, and as a result, I ended up here:

“MANHUNT is the world's best place for men to meet online; tens of thousands of guys are online this second! Get on, get off: The hunt is on.”


Unfortunately, kids these days are too busy for manhunt or any other backyard game that has satisfied generations prior. They are more interested in updating their facebook status and downloading Lady Gaga ringtones for their smart phone, while dressing in skin tight jeans and trendy flannels. Does the dawning of a technologically advanced society and the Twilight Saga mean the end of Manhunt? Not in my book.

Just because the new generation has lost its love for the great outdoors, doesn’t mean our generation can’t continue playing manhunt. I don’t see anything wrong with a group of grown men, dressed in all black, chasing each other in the middle of the night, lurking in unfamiliar backyards waiting to rescue a friend from an imaginary prison, all while being slightly intoxicated. Sounds like fun to me. So I ask my Soldiers of the Side Street and Commanders of the Cul-de-sac to come together and keep our favorite past-time alive.

Manhunt anyone?