Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack Hands On

Developer: Drinkbox Studios / Publisher: Drinkbox Studios / Played on: PlayStation Vita / Price: $7.99 / Release Date: February 21, 2012

I’ve been so starstruck by the PlayStation Vita’s beefy launch lineup that I hadn’t even considered what the PSN would offer. My first glimpse of that hit today with Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, and if this game is any indication, you’ll have just as much quality content to download as you will to stick in your Vita the second you take it out of the package.

The game is basically the mashup of Gish and Katamari Damacy. You control the titular Mutant Blob, rolling through 2D side-scrolling levels absorbing items, growing large, solving puzzles, and navigating tricky platforming sections. The basic goal in any level is to simply survive to the end, occasionally meeting certain size requirements to absorb a cork that plugs up the level preventing your progression, and that’s where platforming and puzzle elements come into play. Platforming is more than simple bouncing — your blob can either attract to or repel from magnetic objects marked by a purple glowing border. This opens the door for crazy trick jumps where you have to attract to a wall, bounce off, and then repel to push yourself further away.

Puzzle elements in Mutant Blobs Attack use the Vita’s touchscreen. In the example I saw, the blob was too small to absorb a hallway-blocking cork, but the camera pulled out to show a pile of hamburgers resting several platforms up out of reach. Here, you have to drag the platforms around and even use the game’s physics to bounce the food down, absorb it, and then move on. It’s a novel use of the game’s touch screen and I’m interested to see how else that factors in to the level design.

The developers have obviously focused on level variety too. One of the levels I played included a zero-G section where I had to propel myself around with a little gas jet, maneuvering through a laser grid in a manner that reminded me of Solar Jetman. Another bonus level used the Vita’s tilt sensors and changed to a top-down view, where I rolled the blob over trash, people, cars, and eventually tanks to grow in size and finish the level. The presentation even changed to greyscale in this level and was framed with a plastic “GameBro,” complete with red battery light and everything.

Of course, what sort of game would this be if it didn’t try to tweak your OCD tendencies. True gamers will try to collect every score bubble and absorb every object in the level — a feat I attempted in my short demo time only to realize how difficult it is. Some score pips are entirely missable; if you don’t stick your jump perfectly you’ll fly right past them, meaning you have to restart the level or die and go back to the last checkpoint. Some other collectibles taunt you into death, such as a score pip that hovers just above a deadly laser field. You can drop onto it from above by sticking to a pipe, but if you drop too far you can’t attract your way back to the cieling. The margin here is razor thin and extremely gratifying once you get it. Each level has two hidden blob buddies to save too, so to thoroughly stomp the game you’ll have to collect all of those from every level.

Bear in mind this is a downloadable game, available on day one of the Vita’s release for under ten bucks. This is the sort of game that I’d expect publishers to try and squeak out for full retail at a system’s launch — and you know what, you could probably make a case for that. Based on what I’ve seen of Mutant Blobs Attack, it’s not only a great way to spend your first few days with a Vita, but a great statement about the value you can expect from the PSN in the future.

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