B.O.B. (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1993 action-platformer for the Super Nintendo, B.O.B.

B.O.B. was a game that I seem to remember being promoted fairly heavily in gaming magazines during the summer of 1993. Stylized drawings of the hormone-driven teenage robot appeared in full-page ads all over the place, and the game reviewed generally well.

Fittingly enough, the exact same description could fit Bubsy (   • Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furr...   ) which came out right about the same time. In B.O.B., we have yet another character-driven action game that, despite the praise it received when it was released, made for a pretty lukewarm experience overall.

B.O.B. plays out over forty-five stages split across three worlds. Most of the maze-like stages are simple run-and-gun fare. Bob can pick up ammo for several different guns, as well as "remotes," which act as power-ups, including shields (temporary invincibility), parasols (to survive long falls), trampolines (for high ledges), and gyrocopters (for gyrocoptering, I guess?). Every so often you'll also have to pilot a spaceship through a tight maze against a ridiculously strict timer, which somehow manages to be even less fun than it sounds.

The graphics and sound are pretty nice. B.O.B. himself is animated in a way that gives him a lot of personality (the good kind - not "purr"sonality, if you catch my drift), the backdrops are detailed and feature some nice parallax scrolling (though they quickly get repetitive), there are some creative enemy designs (especially in the bosses), and the music is catchy. It's also pretty twangy thanks to the bass. It sounds a lot like James Bond Jr. on the SNES (   • James Bond Jr. (SNES) Playthrough - N...   ).

This is probably because James Bond Jr. and B.O.B. were both developed by Gray Matter, a company known for ambitious efforts that often fell flat. If you've played the SNES versions of James Bond Jr. (   • James Bond Jr. (SNES) Playthrough - N...   ) or Wayne's World (   • Wayne's World (SNES) Playthrough - Ni...   ), you'll immediately notice the similarities between them all. They all exhibit the same bloated stage design, screwy collision detection, floaty jumps, and slippery handling. They also share the same irritating penchant for cheap enemy placement and blind jumps. B.O.B. is an improvement over those two games, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.

It has its fans, but I can't say I am among them. I'm not keen on games with mazes for levels to begin with, and this one does absolutely nothing to change that.

I wonder what B.O.B. stands for, anyway.

Balki Over Bronson?
Boobs or Bewbs?
Bajoran on Bajor?
Broth Oozing Barbeque?
Broken Oath Bearer?
Barfy Oleander Beagle?
Belligerent Ovarian Betrayal?
Blatantly Obsequious Barnacles?

I could go on forever. So many possibilities. I suppose I could check the manual, but this is more entertaining.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!