This uncanny feeling is what was going through my head while playing Bulb Boy from developer Bulbware. Review title of BloodyKisses x Creatively Fun. Bulb Boy is a pretty cool puzzle horror game. Not scary but grotesque. You're getting ready for bed when a sinister force turns everything against you. So you must venture out to save your bulb family. The puzzles in the game are just the right difficulty to solve so the progression doesn't get.

By flotsamBulb BoyBulbwareYou get to play as many thingswhen you play adventure games, some more interesting than others. BeingBulb Boy is certainly more of the former. Having a glass detachablehead, with a body that faithfully scuttles along behind as you roll on,makes for some interesting conundrum solves. That is before mentioningbeing swallowed, dragged down the toilet, or carried around by yourflying doglike pet.A head is a very useful thing,especially one that unscrews. Screw it onto a knights body and voila –instant warrior.

One that lights up is better again – fling it into adark space and see exactly what you are doing. Immunity to electrocutioncan be helpful as well, especially when looking to rid yourself of apack of ravenous wormlike critters or repair some frayed wiring.Bulb Boy lives in a bulb-house,with an elderly bulbish father type figure and said flying dog thing.

Hewakes one night to find the house overrun with hideous monstrous things,and it’s up to him to put things straight. This involves finding a fewthings, and swinging, dodging, rolling, avoiding and blowing things up(mechanically and by other means).You can die in interesting ways,and you then get to try again. The game starts more gently than it ends.My first encounter simply resulted in me being grabbed by the head andflung back across the room. The last involved being swallowed over andover by a fire belching beast and navigating the increasingly difficultinnards that tried to crush/smash/chew/dissolve/me.I am not sure what that lastbeast was called, but along the way I got Steam achievements fordefeating the headless chicken, the snotty bunny and the drunkenearthworm. There were others without achievements, including a somewhatgrotty poop monster. I missed out on the achievement “Nice to poo you”and can only imagine what that might have involved.I also got to play some of BulbBoys more pleasant memories, of days before the creatures came.

Playingin a park and fishing in a river, with the doggy and daddy things. Youget to play each of them on occasion as well, and need to co-operatewith the dog more than once in order to survive in monster land.I have to confess I had a lot offun.The quirky and interestinglycoloured look was enough to get me interested, then the sing songgibberish and picture bubbles pulled me further in. The ratherdisgusting monsters sealed the deal.Bulb Boy himself was also ratherendearing, especially the first time he unscrewed his head.

When heinhabited a spider and scuttled around upside down, dodging the spittinggiant head in the middle of the web in order to save his dog, he had mehooked.While there are inventory itemsand conundrums to solve (mainly how to vanquish the next beast), itshould be clear by now this is not a pure adventure. The beasts are likethe “bosses” in action style games, getting more and more hideous anddifficult to defeat. It’s not like an action game though, where youwield a big stick/sword/gun and have it. Instead, you might manipulatethe environment, or get involved in a series of little platform typeactions involving timing, dodging and running/swimming/rolling/flyingaway.

I died a lot, but never stopped having a good time doing so.Bulb Boy is all point and click,and the mouse button will get a good work out. The game autosavesperiodically, and is generous in doing so. This is particularly evidentduring some of the more complicated sequences – getting through one partwill usually result in a save so the next death won’t result in youstarting all over again. Moving the mouse to the top of the screen willresult in a ribbon containing the inventory, a hint button and the menu.Using the hint button will result in a little dream bubble with an imagesuggesting what to do next. They were rather nifty and helpful more thanonce.Vanquishing the last beast hasgotten me to what I think is the end. Order is restored, dinner is onthe table, and everyone seems contented.

However I can access a scrapbook, where each image takes me back to a scene I have already played.Finishing that scene will return me to the dining room and I can chooseto do another. I have done a couple, mainly to make sure I wasn’tmissing anything, and unlocked a few more achievements (not the pooone). I don’t know if I unlock them all whether something else willhappen, but will let you know if I do so.Bulb Boy was an engaging andgrotty hoot. It took me about two and a half hours over the course of asingle day. The fact that I kept coming back to it says something abouthow I was feeling about it.Grade: B plusI played on:OS: Windows 7Processor: Intel i7-3820 4GHzRAM: 12GB Ripjaw DDR3 2133 MhzVideo card: AMD RadeonHD 7800 2048MBNovember 2015design copyright©2015.