Gaming Memories: B.O.B.

B.O.B.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

June 1993

No, not the flat-earther rapper.

I said before that when I got my SNES, it was a gift from cousins leaving for university, so I inherited their collection as well. Some classics, and some stuff I had never heard of. Heck, stuff that's barely heard of. Like today's game.

B.O.B. is a part of the run-and-gun genre - same genre as Contra, but this is the funny cousin in the family. B.O.B. is a teenage robot taking the family car to go on a date. However, the teen gets distracted while driving in an asteroid field and crashes the car, landing on a large asteroid with alien bases and enemies on the way. He makes his way through, finds a new car, and heads onwards to his date. Guess what? Another crash, another landing. This happens a third time, poor guy. Oh, he does get to his date in the end. But he's gonna be a few hours late.

Our protagonist has access to six different weapons, and you can cycle through them with the L button of the SNES controller. All guns have ammunition, and you can run out of ammo... though if you do, B.O.B. can still use his fist to attack. The standout mechanic here, however, may be the Remotes, six items you can pick up and use. One's a trampoline, one is a mini-helicopter, one is a protective force field, one is an umbrella that slows his fall... These add nice variety to gameplay, and when necessary to beat a stage, they'll be plentiful. You can cycle through Remotes with the R button.

You run and shoot your way through 45 stages. It's been a long time since I last played this game, so I don't remember all of it, but I do know there was a nice variety in terms of dungeon types. Further down the line, stages can get downright labyrinthine. Some levels have memorable moments, and I recall the use of a floating ship to get through some of them, so gameplay changes now and then. The bosses all look friggin' cool, as well: Robots, aliens, fire elementals, ghosts... Also of note is the comedic tone from the story, retained in the many ways in which B.O.B. can die. Exploded to bits, melted into a puddle, disintegrated... 

The game worked with a password system­. When you finish some stages, you got a password made of six digits, and you could input that password from the title screen to get roughly where you were at. I don't remember ever beating the game in a single sitting, I do remember playing through its stages and eventually beating it thanks to the passwords. Because, damn, was it really tough. It's a difficult game. I still consider it a point of pride that I did win in the end. Critics consider it average, and maybe with the added time since I would think so as well, who knows. I probably should get an emulator and play it again... But I have fond memories of it, so maybe you'll enjoy it too.