Reviewed: August 1, 2003
Reviewed by: Scott Shirhall
Publisher
Cheapass Games
Developer
Digital Eel
Released: May 27, 2003
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1
ESRB: Unrated
4
5
5
2
4.0
System Requirements
Something very strange is going on in Dr. Blob's mystery kitchen. Pulsing emanations spill from the windows at night illuminating the overhanging willows with eerie green light. Unsettling squishy noises, diabolical laughter and the crackling sound of raw electricity pierce the stillness of the after hours frightening passersby and disturbing nearby residents from their sleep.
Rumors of unlabeled crates and canisters being delivered by dark-suited men driving unlicensed black vans even now circulate among local barflies and conspiracy seekers. What can it mean? I’ll tell you what it means because that is my job.
Imagine, if you will, the year is 1981 and you head into your local arcade. You are amazed to see the new game from Atari called Tempest. For those of you that are too young to remember this arcade classic Tempest was a game that had you spinning around the outside of crudely drawn wire frame geometric shapes and shooting at the tiny things that were trying to make their way out. Now, jump forward twenty-two years into the future and imagine finding the same game with a new twist. Are you amazed? Probably not but it is still fun to reminisce about the old days and it won’t cost you a quarter every time you play it.
That is what you will get with Dr. Blob’s Organism. A little blast from the past with a sci-fi facelift and a B movie plot is the best way to describe this game. This game probably won’t win any awards for originality but it can offer you a minor distraction from the daily grind.
Dr. Blob’s Organism is published by Cheapass Games and developed by Digital Eel. With a bargain price of $10.00 it is a budget game that may offer some of you out there a little fun and a break from the routine of your day, if only for a few minutes at a time.
Dr. Blob’s Organism’s gameplay is fairly simple and straightforward. Basically you control a tiny gun that slides around the outside edge of a petri dish and try to contain the ever-growing mass of evil cells residing within. Unfortunately, that is all you do. Level after level of trying to contain the Blob. The features of the game include:
- 20 levels of increasing difficulty
- 10 different powerups
- 5 special blob abilities
- 3 difficulty settings
- 21 music tracks
- Squishy, moist sound effects
- Bonus dishes
- Jukebox (Play music selections from the game.)
Throughout the nineteen levels you will see almost the same thing each time. There are however some twists. Special powerups are available to make your weapon shoot different ammo or multiple shots simultaneously. The blob changes shapes with an almost mesmerizing randomness and sometimes briefly takes on super powers making it as easy to get rid of as SARS or the Ebola Virus. During these times the blob will divide, become invincible or more rapidly grow for example.
The one great advantage that Dr. Blob’s Organism has over the game it is clearly spawned from is that there are gauges that tell you when the blob will expire. The more you shoot, the more your meter will empty of the slimy fluid and when your gauge is empty the blob is gone.
Between some levels you are given bonus dishes in order to add on to your score. These games last only a few seconds so you’ve got to be fast. Destroy as much of the pulsating gooey menace as you can to give your score a little boost.
All in all the gameplay is simple and fun for a little while. You will however become quickly bored with the concept and only revisit the lab occasionally.
The graphics in Dr. Blob’s Organism are done very well for a budget title. You can easily tell that the artists on this project did excellent work and did a good job of giving a simple game a nice polished look. Everything from the dish to the blob looks good.
The blob mostly maintains its phosphorescent green state but occasionally it transforms into various other looks. When in frenzy the blob takes on an evil looking red glow and when invincible it looks like a glowing gold-plated indestructible menace. While there really aren’t many variations throughout the game the ones that are available look exceptionally good for a budget title.
The backgrounds of the petri dish and the wooden table on which it resides are average and probably could have had a little more realism added to them but the cartoonish evil scientist’s lab was probably the look that the developer was going for so they fit in perfectly.
The only part of the graphics left to discuss are the weapons and there is not much to say. They are very simple but effective within the scope of this game. They really don’t detract from the game yet there seems to be much more potential that really could have added to the title.
The soundtrack to Dr. Blob’s Organism is very tame and consists of various midi tracks. The musical selection ranges from the whimsical to the eerie. Most of the music seems to be a techno pop version of what all the mad scientists must be listening to. In fact I had to go to the jukebox feature to actually notice the music. In the game it falls on deaf ears as you concentration on eradicating the green blob seems to block out any knowledge that there is even music playing. Maybe this can also be because the music is not very memorable or because it all sounds very similar.
The sounds used for the action part of the game are not too bad. Sure they are your standard photon torpedo being fired and a squishy blob sloshing along but they work well with this game. They have to because after all that is the whole game.
Unfortunately for Dr. Blob’s Organism this is the part where I have to be blunt. It is really easy to point out positive aspects of a games gameplay, graphics and sound but during the value portion of the review you can’t sugarcoat it.
Dr. Blob’s Organism has little value other than a minor distraction. After minutes of playing this game you will soon be looking for something else to do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad game it just lacks any variety. While Tempest was a huge deal in the infancy of video games, Dr. Blob’s Organism is just a concept whose time has past. Twenty-two years past to be precise. The kids might like this but us adult gamers need something more and this doesn’t have it.
Because I write reviews I had to play this game in its entirety. People that say they would love to have my job seem to forget that for every great game we play we probably have ten that, while not horrible games, we do because we have to. I don’t dislike the game necessarily, I just found it extremely repetitive and without anything special that could increase its replay value.
Dr. Blob’s Organism is a game that will appeal primarily to young gamers. Seen through a kid’s eye this game is very cool with its full compliment of squishing sounds and gun blasts. For adults, I suggest you look elsewhere for your entertainment. At the very least, download the demo version and try it for yourself and remember this is just my opinion. Your opinion may be different and that is why we at GCM have forums for you to express yourselves.