Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack Review - Pie Reviews

[Elliot]

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack is one of the European Vita launch titles. It is self-published by Drinkbox and is the cheapest Vita launch title at £5.49. Surprisingly, it's my joint-favourite title on the system so far, despite its thoroughly budget price tag.

The game has a great sense of humour and a lot of references to other games, particularly indie titles.

At its heart, the game is a traditional 2D platformer - you roll around, collect things to grow, and get to the end of each of the game's 23 platformer levels across six chapters. You start off very small, only a few centimetres large, but by the end of the game you've grown to a mightily impressive size that makes for a specularly impressive ending that'll have you grinning - I won't spoil it, but I will say that you shouldn't read the trophy list until you've beaten the game else it'll be somewhat ruined for you.

The platforming is extremely solid and the physics feel good - the more you grow, the faster you'll go and the higher you'll jump, and there are barriers that you'll get past by getting big enough to absorb them. There are two Blob Friends to find in each level, some of which are pretty well hidden, and at the end of each level, the number of things you've collected and your completion speed give you a score that will rank you on the online leaderboards, providing compelling enough replayability. It's entirely single-player though, so you might not want to play it through again if you're not the competitive type. If you're not going through each level thoroughly, trying to collect everything, then the campaign can be finished in about two and a half to three hours, but if you're a completionist, it'll take you double that. As value for money goes, it's not too bad given its low price point and how much fun it is.

The game's magnetism mechanic at work.

Interspersed with the platforming levels, there are also 6 "Tilt-A-Blob" levels, where you move the blob around by tilting the Vita using its very impressive accelerometer. These aren't quite as much fun as the platforming levels, but they provide a refreshing change of pace from the rest of the game and are still enjoyable in their own right.

After the first few levels, the game will start to introduce new mechanics for you to play with, such as using the touch screen to activate your blob's telekinesis and move highlighted objects around the screen, which can be used to solve puzzles that the game will throw at you. This is a lot of fun, and solving the puzzles, whilst they're not hugely devious, is still very satisfying. This is a great use of the Vita's touch screen, and really adds to the game in a way that couldn't be done on the PS3, so the developer Drinkbox deserves to be congratulated on integrating the new inputs into the game gracefully. The other significant gameplay mechanic is magnetism - the player can either attract or repel themselves from metallic objects, outlined in purple, in order to move around the game. This is where some of the trickier platforming happens, when the player has to quickly maneuvre themselves around these objects without colliding with the many dangers present. Because of the sound physics and generous checkpoint system, whilst this can be tough it never feels unfair or frustrating.

Moving around with the tilt works well, though it's easy to lose control of your blob.

Graphically, the game is stylish, and the B-movie horror style it goes for works well for it and enables some of the excellent humour in the game. The rounded corners, emulating an old CRT monitor, are a particularly nice touch. It's not the prettiest game on Vita, of course, but it's not trying to be and the stylistic choices it's made complement the gameplay well. The different chapters are distinctive, the cut-scenes, despite being brief, are laugh-out-loud funny, and the interface is well-designed and easy to use, which is more than some full price titles can claim.

The music is nothing special or memorable at all - I wish I could comment more in-depth on the game's sound design, but the game's audio would lock up and the same split-second sample would repeat indefinitely after a minute or so's gameplay, so I ended up muting it and listening to my own music whilst I played. This is the only noticable bug in my whole experience of the game.

I can move things with my mind!

It's been a long time since I've played such a good 2D platformer, the genre being a somewhat niche one these days, and as such I'm delighted that it's such a high-quality experience. I would happily recommend this game to anyone and everyone lucky enough to purchase a Vita, and if this is the type of clever, innovative, focused and enjoyable game we can expect from the Vita's PSN store then the future looks bright for the device.

[Christopher]

Lengthy review! Nice to see it!

As for the game, seems like a decent investment for my Vita because of how cheap it is now.

[BAZINGA0802]

I love drinkbox so much!

[OBSTINATIO]

One of my favorite games on the Vita. It only takes around 3-4 hours but those few hours are really fun and you are constantly confronted by new mechanics. Drinkbox is one of the true Kings in the Indie segment. 

[Oakniir]

Is the leaderboards still online so I can 100% this game?

[MikeCheck--]

DrinkBox studios, well done! 
 

also: servers still functioning as of this thread post 

[jsisoo]

 

On 12/25/2020 at 9:40 PM, Oakniir said:

Is the leaderboards still online so I can 100% this game?

 

@Oakniir Yes, the leaderboards are still online as I just got the trophy myself.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by jsisoo
testing

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

Anyone know if the servers are still up for that one online leaderboard trophy? 

[King-Leonidas-I]

Looks like it was last earned the 29th of Aug

[DodgyDodge]

Leaderboards are still online.