Great Game Stories, No. 8: The Boy, the Blob and the Tower (The Rescue of Princess Blobette)

The Characters

The hero of this gentle tale is simply a boy, a small and ordinary child with an extraordinary friend. That friend is the blob, a soft, shape-shifting creature from another world who follows the boy everywhere and can become almost anything, provided it is offered the right snack. Their story is told in The Rescue of Princess Blobette, a quiet little Game Boy adventure with a very big heart.

The reason for the whole journey is the blob’s sweetheart, the lovely Princess Blobette, who has been locked away in a tower and is waiting to be freed. And every tower needs a villain to fill it: here it is the Alchemist, a scheming and dangerous sort who has taken the princess prisoner and filled his castle with cruel traps to keep any would-be rescuers away.

Princess Blobette, waiting patiently in the highest tower, as princesses in fairy tales tend to do.

The World

The adventure carries the boy and his blob far from home, all the way to Blobolonia, the strange and distant planet the blob calls home. There, rising against the sky, stands the great Royal Castle, and it is a maze from top to bottom. Passages twist, floors stack upon floors, and somewhere at the very summit, in the highest tower of all, the princess waits.

It is a beautiful place, but it is far from safe. The castle bristles with hazards for a small and fragile boy: sudden gouts of flame, deep and deadly falls, and serpents lurking in the drains below. Our hero cannot jump and cannot swim, so every room must be crossed by wits alone rather than by daring leaps.

The Adventure

The magic of this tale lies entirely in a humble bag of jellybeans. The boy carries beans of many flavours, tangerine, vanilla, apple and more, and each flavour, when fed to the hungry blob, transforms the creature into a different helpful tool. A tangerine bean turns the blob into a bouncy trampoline, so the boy can spring up to a ledge he could never otherwise reach. Another flavour shapes the blob into a key to slip through a locked door, and so on through the whole tasty rainbow.

So the adventure becomes a long and thoughtful puzzle. In each room the boy must look carefully, decide which treat will make which tool, and feed his blob at exactly the right moment to build a path forward. Along the way there are rewards for the curious: extra sacks of jellybeans to refill the bag, glittering treasures tucked into hidden corners, and peppermints to gather, for collecting five of them grants a precious extra life. Step by careful step, snack by clever snack, the boy and his blob climb ever higher through the castle toward the tower where Blobette is held.

A boy, a blob, and a bag of jellybeans: the least likely rescue party ever assembled.

Spoiler Alert: How It Ends

After all the traps are dodged and all the puzzles are solved, the boy and his faithful blob reach the very top of the castle, the highest tower where the Alchemist has hidden his prisoner. There, at last, is Princess Blobette, caged and waiting. With one final act of teamwork the pair set her free, and the long climb is rewarded.

It is a small and tender ending, exactly as a story like this deserves. There are no grand armies and no thunderous battles, only a boy, his loyal blob and a bag of sweets, proving that cleverness and friendship can open any locked door and reach any lonely tower. The blob is reunited with the one it loves, the boy has kept his promise to his friend, and the three of them can leave the Alchemist’s cold castle behind for good.

Curious to meet this odd and charming little cartridge for yourself? Visit the Game Boy Museum and browse our full catalogue, where even the quietest Game Boy games keep their stories safe.