Raining Blobs Review – Cute and Quick Puzzle Fun

Published: January 15, 2016 9:00 AM /

Reviewed By:


header Raining Blobs

Good old fashioned arcade fun is what players will get when they play indie puzzler Raining Blobs. Match colorful circles as they rain down from the sky in developer Endi Milojkoski’s newly released game. This title is simple and straightforward, yet surprisingly challenging, delivering a real treat for Windows, Mac and Linux using puzzle lovers.

Similar to classic color matching puzzle games like Bust-A-Move or Tetris, Raining Blobs is basically about matching different colored shapes, in this case circles, with like-colored shapes in order to get points and keep your grid clear. If it fills up to the top than you lose. Blobs fall in groups of two with different color combinations which can be rotated however, this game has a bit of a twist to set it apart. To destroy a grouping of blobs players will need to match two stars of the same color. This adds more strategy to gameplay giving players the choice to move blobs quickly or try and rack up more points with big groupings but run the risk of the grid filling up.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmP5k6GF14Y]

Right off the bat, Raining Blobs delivers on its promise of cute female protagonists. Inspired by anime style art, a cast of eight adorably pixelly girls are available to play as or against. Magdalena Milojkoska and Igor Sandman’s art is great but the girls are little more than color coded pretty faces. Aside from differentiating players the girls have no special abilities or other factors to make them unique or incentivise players to choose one over the other.

After the cute anime art stylings, Raining Blobs’ music is the next thing that makes a good impression. BJ Derganc created both awesome tracks and traditional arcade sound effects to accompany the puzzling action. There’s a catchy tune for each tournament level and the music really stands out as a strength of this game.

Raining Blobs
It might not be immediately obvious but take a peek in the menu, there’s some helpful stuff in there.

Taking a peek inside the settings and options menu will reveal a great level of customization so players can choose exactly the way they like to play. Raining Blobs has a well implemented windowed mode and colorblind options just to name a few key setting choices. With full gamepad support, there are multiple control mapping options, and they’re easy to master once you’ve found what works best for you.

In true arcade fashion, this pick-up and play style game jumps right into the action. This can be daunting for first time players who might take a few rounds to figure out the mechanics and controls. It would have been nice to have a tutorial or have the “How to Play” button featured prominently on the start screen, but instead players will need to find that information in the menu before getting started.

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Cute girls fight with garbage. See how far you can get in tournament mode.

Tournament mode is single player and pits players against all the other characters in the game. If you lose a match, then it’s either use a continue or hit a game over and start fresh from the beginning. It’s very nostalgic of playing in an arcade, but you won’t need to ante-up any quarters.

Arcade mode can be played with up to 8 players, and is great to play co-op or versus with friends. There are a few different variants to try in Arcade mode, ranging from difficulty modifiers to game mechanics. This goes a long way towards adding replay value and more challenging game play.

 

Raining Blobs
Things can get crazy with up to eight player multiplayer.

Another thing that sets Raining Blobs apart is its competitiveness. Not only are players racing against each other to get the best score, but you can actively mess with your opponent's grid. Doing well on your grid will send colorless blobs called garbage over to your opponent’s board, which they’ll then have to break through to keep their grid clear.

Other players will be sending garbage your way as well, which adds another obstacle you’ll need to deal with in order to win. Raining Blobs is a fast paced puzzle game that builds on classic predecessors of the genre while adding it’s own flare. It’s certainly challenging and fun with the ability to test player’s reflexes and ability to think quickly.

Simple mechanics and gameplay make this a great game to pick-up anytime and see how far you can get or the best score you can achieve.  Fans of color matching puzzle games will likely find themselves loving Raining Blobs. Those that would rather save their quarters for a different genre of game may not find much to inspire them here. 

This game was obtained from the developer and reviewed on PC via Steam.

Review Summary

6.5

Raining Blobs is a fast paced puzzle game that builds on classic predecessors of the genre while adding it’s own flare. Fans of color matching puzzle games will likely find themselves loving Raining Blobs. Those that would rather save their quarters for a different genre of game may not find much to inspire them here.

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Alexandra Joy Taberski
| Past Author

Alexandria is a former Staff Writer at TechRaptor, who specializes in coverage of mobile games, RPGs, and JRPGs primarily, and has an unfortunate aversion… More about Alexandria