Bulb Boy

I rate Bulb Boy 3/5. This short, linear game is okay I guess, especially if you like point and click adventure games. Point and click style adventure games are not really my favorite kind of game. I haven’t played very many games of this type and when I have tried, I tend to get quickly frustrated with them. If I hadn’t gotten Bulb Boy for free during some sort of Steam promotional limited-time giveaway, I would never, ever have played it. Even so, I have seen a point and click style game done pretty well before. Blade Runner (I played the original 1997 disc version), was pretty good overall. Despite its restrictive, limited gameplay, its plot was interesting and it had heart (so it's not a totally foregone conclusion that this type of game is necessarily going to be awful). Of course, Bulb Boy is a very different game from Blade Runner, though its controls are extremely similar. Nearly everything is controlled with the mouse by left-clicking on different parts of the screen. Good things about Bulb Boy: + Easy to play and is visually easy to understand in general. + Intuitive controls. Just point at stuff with the mouse and click on it. + This game can be extremely cute. + I noticed no errors or game freezes. Mediocre things about Bulb Boy: +/- I guess the audience of this game is very young teenagers who may want to take a break from more fast paced, action-oriented games? The art style is icky and nightmarish looking but the puzzle complexity (or lack thereof) is perhaps more suitable for pre-teens? +/- Lots of possible metaphorical meanings about overcoming adversity and turning weaknesses into strengths but the plot itself is really very simple and the game’s world is merely a nonsensical, silly cartoon without much added depth. For example, I’m not sure why these light bulb people live inside a giant lightbulb shaped house. Wouldn’t that be like a person living inside a giant statue? What’s the meaning of that supposed to be? (Oh, I guess I wasn’t supposed to think about that, was I?). The game’s depth isn’t extremely deep. +/- Some ok music in a couple spots (during the flashbacks). The music is not otherwise irritating. The sound is okay too, with suitable but not particularly memorable sound effects. Bad things about Bulb Boy: - Very short game. Is a game lasting a little over 2 hours worth 9 dollars? I probably would’ve gotten tired of it if it were much longer, so it seemed to last just the right length of time to me. I’m happy I got it for free. - Before the game starts you can rebind the controls but these key binding settings seem to have nothing to do with anything. -The game’s tightly color controlled graphics can get boring to look at before long. Most of the game is green (like as seen through some sort of non-fuzzy light amplification goggles). While very cute in places (but more often disgusting looking), Bulb Boy’s visuals are not beautiful. - Like most games, this game gives you no real choice. You can continue or you can die. There are no major choices to make which affect the course of the plot. There are no branching pathways to choose between. There are no alternate endings. - As with most other point and click style games, you must figure out how the game designers want you to play the game. It is never a matter of playing this game how you want. Luckily, Bulb Boy makes this limited, linear experience non-frustrating and mercifully short. - There are no difficulty levels and no character selection or customization options. As a result, Bulb Boy has has no replay value.