![]() ![]() Echoing some aspects of Nintendo’s level design philosophy, each stage feels unique in the way that it presents new obstacles, such as a low gravity effect on the moon levels, or how it reintroduces old ones in different ways, such as the repeated motif of laser traps. Often, the pockets of items that you need to eat to grow bigger are hidden away in hard-to-reach places behind tricky platforming and puzzle segments, and this is where Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack goes from good to great. Of course, it’s not like everything is just handed to your blob without any pushback. Causing chaos and destruction isn’t necessarily difficult – you just roll over anything that gets in your way and add it to your burgeoning mass – but the simplicity is part of what makes it so compelling. Though a rather basic concept, it’s surprisingly rewarding to see your blob go from such an insignificant thing to a city-destroying monster razing college towns and military bases as tiny humans flee in terror gives it the feel of an old-school monster movie (fun fact: there actually was one based on this premise) that you’re in direct control of. Once you reach a sufficient size, you can then eat the barrier keeping you from going to the next area, and the cycle repeats anew. Eating anything smaller than your blob – whether it be pencils in a backpack or (later) military helicopters – will cause your blob to grow just a little bit bigger and allow you to consume progressively larger things, Katamari Damacy-style. Gameplay takes the shape of a level-based 2D platformer oriented around puzzle mechanics, with the goal being to make your blob as big as possible. The emotive expressions on the faces of the humans and the gibberish they speak in ‘dialogue’ displays a kind of charm akin to the earlier LEGO games and their over-the-top antics to get plot beats across. As far as plot goes, it’s about as basic as things get, but we appreciated the kind of visual humour employed in the handful of cutscenes that are sprinkled in between some of the levels. Our amorphous hero decides that it’s had enough and manages to break out of containment, freeing its friends and kicking off the beginning of a tale of vengeance as it works to take over the world. Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack sees you taking control of a nameless green blob being held in a lab where it and its brethren are continuously experimented on by a mad scientist. Now, the Switch has been graced with this quirky platformer and while it’s not the sort of game that will blow you away, it still proves to be a well-constructed and enjoyable adventure. Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack was originally published as a PlayStation Vita launch title way back in 2012, showing off the capabilities of the hardware through its physics-based puzzle platforming while offering up a creative and rewarding campaign of uniquely-designed levels. ![]() Many of you are no doubt familiar with DrinkBox Studios for their work on the Guacamelee! games, but prior to their crazy luchador Metroidvania endeavours, the company was known for another platformer series about, well, blobs.
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