Single Screen Platform Games #1

Super Glob a.k.a. The Glob, a.k.a. Beastie Feastie (1983)
By: Epos Corporation  Genre: Platform  Players: 1  Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade  First Day Score: 23,350
Also Available For: Nothing

Who remembers the Psygnosis classic, Globdule, on the Amiga? It was a cavern-based collect 'em up which saw you controlling a floppy purple blob who could stick to almost anything! I'm a big fan of that game, and when I saw the abbreviated filename of this game I thought someone had finally made a sequel! Alas, it proved not to be the case, for, whilst also a platform game, this one is a little know oddity from the early 80's. Despite what the title screen says, Super Glob is a one player game (the two-player mode just sees the players take turns). It's your job to guide a blue blob called Toby around the single-screen stages to collect food, which includes standard game food such as strawberries, grapes, and even hunks of meat! The food has of course been sprinkled liberally all around the platforms on each screen. As you might expect, being a 'glob', Toby lacks the limbs to use ladders, so he can't reach other platforms that way. He instead has to rely on the handily-located elevators which he can summon to his current platform by pressing one of the buttons nearby.

Also populating these platforms in ever increasing numbers are various enemies which take the form of animals. The first stage is populated by crocodiles but other stages are home to such seemingly benevolent creatures as rabbits, frogs, monkeys, and pigs! Of course, contact from any of these results in the instant loss of a life, although more can be gained by achieving set scores. These guardians of the food can be defeated in two ways. Firstly, if he times it right, Toby can crush them with the elevators by moving up or down into them. It's also worth mentioning that he can actually crush himself with the elevators too, by summoning one and standing underneath it as it desends! The other way, which is probably more reliable, is to take advantage of Toby's gelatinous nature by jumping up and sticking to the ceiling! Hold the jump button down to stay stuck, then release it to land on top of your adversary. If either of these manoeuvres are not timed right, however, it almost certainly results in contact with the creatures and subsequent death! Neither is a long-term solution either - the enemies quickly respawn close to where they originally apeared so it's sometimes easier to just avoid them.

Before the accidental discovery mentioned earlier, I had never heard of this game. I have no idea how it was received or how popular it was, but I'm guessing it passed a lot of people by, and that's a shame. It's not spectacular or remarkable in any way, and I'm sure that was the case when it was first released as much as it is today, but it's an enjoyable little game and it must've been pretty original back then. There is apparently 24 stages to play through here and that should prove a challenge for most gamers, but even if you can't get very far, you'll keep trying. It's a very addictive game and, despite being pooly animated, Toby is quite an endearing little chap. The graphics and sound are pretty basic, with no in-game music at all, but there a lot
worse games to spend ten minutes than
trying out this one.

RKS Score: 6/10