Tales From Space Mutant Blobs Attack Xbox 360 Review
The Intro:
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack was originally introduced on the Vita in 2012, and it immediately entertained gamers with its weird mix of fresh, retro designs and enjoyable puzzle action. Now, two years later, the Mutant Blobs have made their way onto the Xbox360 and it’s refreshing to see that not much has been lost in translation. The original’s sense of fun and wackiness still remains intact, although introducing it onto bigger and more powerful consoles has brought along some unfortunate issues as well.
The Game Play:
As mentioned before, the original gameplay is still by and large exactly the same, with the UI and on-screen elements adjusted to fit larger screens. The puzzles have been slightly realigned to fit in with the increased scale of the levels. You play as an innocuous little blob with a chip on your shoulder who escapes from a cage and proceeds to run rampant all over a building full of scientists and research equipment. During your rampage, you take over and consume anything even remotely smaller than yourself as you annihilate any sort of science personnel in the building, including astronauts, geeky scientists and even whales for good measure. The puzzles in the game will have you navigating through different lab environments with increasingly complex security system. But you’re not just a fat little blob – you can slide, jump and even fly to make sure you get to the next level and unleash some more terror. You can even revisit some previous levels after you’ve grown bigger and add some extra bulk to your gooeyness.
The art design of Mutant Blobs Attack harkens back to the golden age of comics and Mad-Men style advertising hoardings. The color palette is mostly faded, but your blob and the stuff he can consume is brightly colored. This design style looked great on the Vita, and it looks even better on the larger screens you can play on with the Xbox360. The soundtrack is delightfully weird as well, and it complements your rampant antics on screen wonderfully. The level transitions are composed of some tongue-in-cheek cutscenes that are an absolute treat.
The one thing that was most immediately striking about the original Vita game was how smooth the control system was. While the blob still handles smoothly, and is easy enough to navigate around the environment with, the game doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the spike in difficulty in later levels. When the security systems and the environments grow increasingly complex and hazardous, you might find yourself at the wrong end of a laser beam even when you are comfortable with the controls.
One of the levels has a series of platforms floating above a bunch of laser beams, none of which look to appealing to come in contact with. You have to toggle the movement of each of the platforms individually and get them into position so that you can hop and skip across. However, using the shoulder buttons and the analog stick to move exactly the right piece at the right time is about as easy as it sounds. You would be forgiven if you plummet to your death multiple times on this level. Some other levels have you moving through giant wheels, much like a hamster would, while you control the rotation of the wheels to make sure you get out in one piece. On the Vita, these rotations were accomplished using finger movements, which felt organic and intuitive. When you try to replicate these motions using the analog sticks of the Xbox360, precision is harder to achieve. These control issues also make themselves apparent when you have to control other objects in your environment, such as turrets or gears that are part of a larger system in the environment. Much of the flawless control scheme that defined Mutant Blobs Attack in its original form are lost on the new consoles.
The bonus stages:
That have made it through to this version of the game now feature an entirely different control scheme. If you’ve played the Vita version, you’d know that these stages took place with a top-down perspective, and you had to guide the blob by tilting your device to make sure it got through the maze bigger and better than before. In some stages, there were barriers that blocked your path, and you had to swipe the screen to make sure you don’t get squashed by them. Since there isn’t a touch screen on the 360, the barriers have been eliminated completely, and the maneuvering is done via the analog controller. This takes out a lot of the fun difficulty that accompanied these minigames, and the resultant concoction is less satisfying.
The Conclusion:
Despite all of its issues, Tales From Space: Mutant Blob Attacks is still a really fun puzzle platformer. Whether you play it on the Vita or the Xbox360, you’re in for a fun time. However, if you already own the Vita version, you’d be well advised to stick with it. There are some unfortunate control issues that mar the overall experience on the Xbox360, and while newer gamers might still enjoy the game, the fact remains that this version of the game is an inferior one.
Written By – Brandon Perton From (The Old School Game Vault) who enables you to sell video games thru our website for cash.