Bob - Block Blob

Intro

"Bob - Block Blob" is a short puzzle game developed by Jpratt using RPG Maker 2003. At first glance this game looks like a cute, colorful, and innocent game about a blob that pushes blocks. In reality this game is so brutal that only the most masochistic of players would ever be able to enjoy it. After all, it's said by that community that the best dreams hurt the most. Or at least that's what I saw on a fake Magic the Gathering card one time. Unfortunately this means most people really wouldn't be able to enjoy this game and should just avoid it.

Story

You play a Bob, a block pushing blob, whose trying to rescue his friends from a deadly maze with block pushing puzzles. At least I assume that's the plot line since this game really doesn't explain anything.

Gameplay

author=Jpratt
There are 10 levels in total. You will not succeed in getting through them all. You will become frustrated at level 5.

The biggest problems with this project are basically summed up by the developer on the summary page for this game. This game wasn't designed with the goal of people having fun or getting that rush of satisfaction that comes from solving a difficult puzzle, but was designed to troll the player so hard that they would give up from sheer frustration.

The biggest source of this frustration comes from the fact that when you die in this game your forced to go all the way back to the title screen and start over from the beginning. And this game was designed with the intention that you would either get killed over and over and over again while attempting to complete the puzzles. Or you would make a critical mistake while trying to solve the various puzzles and be forced to commit suicide since the game doesn't have a puzzle reset button as far as I'm aware. Of course, the game further ensures you can't circumvent this system by disabling your ability to pull up the menu and save while playing the game.

As a result you'll be spending a lot of time in this game on the early levels which will either drive you into a game ending rage where you'll simply smash your keyboard and storm off from your inability to make progress. Or you'll get so bored at seeing the same few puzzles over and over and over again that you'll decide to put this game down in favor of something a bit more stimulating.

As for how the game will most likely kill you. The biggest obstacle I've seen so far are fast moving orange blocks that need to be bypassed by properly timing your movement to get past them. On the first stage these blocks don't hurt you, but on subsequent levels they do. And to make matters worse they send you back to the starting location for the level your on if they hit you. So an error on your part might mean you'll need to brave a bunch of these sections multiple times if you make mistake.

Of course the empty pits you push blocks into are also deadly for Bob after the first level as well. And when you fall into them you'll be spat out above them which can be really bad if you end up landing in another pit since the game will just kill you at that point. And some of the buttons you need to touch are surrounded by such pits on three sides. So a single mistake on the arrow key while your pushing those buttons will prove absolutely fatal.

And to make the puzzles harder when you push a blue block it moves three spaces instead of the usual one. Of course, this isn't enough for Jpratt since the blocks can actually slide over the open pits as well. So you need to either push the block from the correct distance away or make sure you'll hit the pit from a side where there's a wall to stop the blue block from going to far.

Graphics

On a visual level "Bob - Block Blob" looks cute and innocent and is very welcoming, but as previously mentioned this is a façade meant to lure in the unwary. Of course this doesn't make the game any less pleasant to look at.

Conclusion

"Bob - Block Blob" is a game whose difficulty is just absolutely brutal, but my biggest problem with the game is this high difficulty isn't there to give people a challenge but to frustrate them into submission. And the main way the game does this is by taking a page from one of the worst possible elements of old school game design. When you die you go all the way back to the beginning. A design choice that makes this frustrating game just to much to bear in my opinion. If the game at least let you save between levels or allowed the player to drop their own saves it would make the game a bit more manageable and I could see myself attempting to truck my way through it on sheer force of will, but I refuse to subject myself to the tedium of solving levels I've already beaten a bunch of times in order to get a chance to practice on the levels I'm struggling with. After all, I'm the crazy fool that forced myself to beat "Castle of the Evil Witch". Even as that game drove me insane with just how wonky the hit detection was.

As for scoring this game. On the plus side this game does have some decent visual direction and the music is catchy enough, but Jpratt's efforts to make this game a frustrating experience that will drive people into giving up means this game isn't enjoyable in my opinion and thus is deserving of a low score to reflect how much enjoyment the average player will get out of it.