Bulb Boy Review: Bulb Boy’s Modern Life

I grew up during the Nick Toon boom in the early 90’s, and I loved every series featured. To this day, I am in awe of some of the things they got away with in a kids show. Sadly, most kids today will never be able to experience the joy of Rocko at his phone sex operator position or Ren and Stimpy beating each other within an inch of their lives. Bulb Boy clearly took inspiration from these series, with its abstract design and light take on some pretty dark horror elements.

You’ll begin your journey as the title character, Bulb Boy, who lives in a small house with his grandfather and dog-fly hybrid. After taking care of the narcoleptic grandpa, the boy puts himself to bed and the horror begins. He awakens in a slightly more abstract version of home and from the get go, things are off, even more so than the opening.

Playing much like a point and click adventure, similar to the exploration elements of the Telltale game series, you’ll navigate light puzzles to work your way through the house and battle a number of boss characters. There are some platforming elements as well, navigating traps as the titular character with his detachable head. These are well designed and while not nearly as challenging as Limbo or Little Nightmares, they do require some trial and error, but are not nearly as dependent on timing. Even when dying repeatedly, the game never became frustrating or felt unfair. Luckily the load times are quick and the checkpoints are frequent.

Since Bulb Boy’s head is made from a light bulb, he has the handy ability to provide his own light source throughout his journey, as well as the ability to remove his head and screw it into a number of other creatures or their corpses. These abilities cannot be swapped, as they are a means to completing your objectives, which are mainly puzzle based. Some of the puzzles are not obvious and do require a bit of exploration, looking for small arrows above the items or characters you can interact with. If you do get stuck, there is a handy hint tool that is optional and can be found in the pause menu. While I did use it a handful of times in my playthrough, the puzzles and design are easy enough to usually determine what is needed to be done, even without a detailed tutorial and no verbal queues.

The controls are very basic and responsive, making this easy to navigate for gamers of all skill levels. While some events are timed, your brain will be getting more of a workout than your fingers. You’ll control Bulb Boy or a member of his family with the left stick, swap items with the bumpers, and select, use, or interact with the A button.

The art design is top notch. While everything is abstract, Bulb Boy looks and plays like a Saturday morning cartoon of my childhood. Filled with a deep green or red tint, the setting is spooky enough to set the tone of the game without going overboard and being too scary for the younger gamers. My son sat with me throughout the time I spent playing this game, as if he was watching a cartoon, completely enthralled in the game world and it never reached the point of it scaring him.

The boss fights are a highlight of the game, featuring enemies straight from a child’s nightmare. You’ll square off against giant light bulb eating turkeys, a strawberry spider plant hybrid, as well as your own gigantic turd. The last has successfully toppled the giant spider crab as my arch nemesis from any horror game. Defeating these enemies requires interacting with the environment in a specific order while dodging or avoiding their attacks. With the exception of the lackluster final encounter, which plays like a rhythm mini game that overstays its welcome, all are enjoyable.

The game does fall on the short side, but with its modest price point I didn’t feel this was an issue. At the cost of less than a movie ticket, you’ll find a few hours’ worth of enjoyment. Sadly, there is not much replay value aside from collecting the standard achievements. Aside from completing these, there is not much of a reason to return to the game once it has reached its finale. With this being the only shortcoming, I highly recommend that you purchase this game during the Halloween season. While not nearly as terrifying as Outlast or Resident Evil 7, it does offer some spooky fun fit for gamers of most ages.

With the exception of the bugs you will see in the background or interact with, Bulb Boy has been 100% glitch free. In this day and age, a game without issues is something we rarely see. I received my copy for review almost a week early, and without a single post launch update, this game ran seamlessly. In the age of day one updates, I tip my hat to Bulbware for releasing something finished and great from the start.

10 out of 10

Pros

  • Excellent Design
  • Fun Boss Encounters
  • Accessible Controls
  • Low Price Point
  • The Poo-Monster
  • Most Polished Game I’ve Played This Year

Cons

  • A Little Short In Length

Bulb Boy was developed and published by Bulbware. It was released on PC October 29th, 2015, Switch on July 6th, 2017, X1 on October 6, 2017, and will be available on the PS4 in the future, for $8.99. The game is also available on iOS and Android for $2.99 as of 2016. The game was provided to us for review on X1. For more on Bulb Boy, visit its official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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