In retrospect much of the output on the Game Boy Advance feels like a ripoff. The system was able to squeeze out over 1000 games in just six years or so, but far too many of them take five hours or less. Even many of the good ones like Metroid Fusion can be played through in an afternoon. It almost feels like the entire game catalogue could be played through in less hours than it would take to play through Bethesda's output on PS3. It also doesn't garner much attention from collectors. Used gaming stores will often have dusty bins filled with licensed shovelware games that the average person would never want to play in 2016. Of course I love these bins and will sometimes go in and stock up on obscure GBA games. I know I shouldn't but then how would I ever come across oddities like Gumby vs. The Astrobots?
(Never would've guessed!)
Gumby is an odd franchise. The old cartoons are great showcases of animation and surrealism. Almost every episode of the television series was written and directed by Art Clokey which gives the whole thing a very singular feel. The strangeness of his vision is probably missed on little kids, but watching it as an adult I can't help but seeing the nonsensical plots and exotic settings as intentional pieces of art. I have a great deal of admiration for Art Clokey and his work. He wasn't, however, a person who brought out his characters all that often. We weren't bombarded by other media such as books and comics like so many other classic kid franchises. There was just the original series, a revival series in the 80s, and a very strange movie from 1995. This makes the game's existence all the more unusual. When this game was released it was the first significant piece of Gumby related media in over a decade. There were no games to tie in with the movie or the revival series so this is the first, and to date only, Gumby game. It is also a very slight affair obviously targeted toward children, so of course your thirtysomething game profiler is going to talk about it. I am probably not the target audience, but like every game I've ever played I enjoyed it.
(As usual the mine cart was the hardest part of this game)
If you know anything about the Game Boy Advance than you can probably already guess that this is a platform game with story segments between the levels which can easily be beaten in a couple of hours. There are probably 600 games like this on the GBA, and hopefully I will write about each one of them on here. I can see myself at the age of 95 finishing the last one knowing that I had completed my life's work and that I could now die happy. The game does use the Gumby premise well though. Each level takes place in a different book which features a completely different environment. You play as Gumby going along and collecting ice cream while also saving your family and friends from the Blockheads. They were the main villains in many Gumby episodes, and their wordless destruction was always a bit unsettling. Sadly they are underused in this game. The majority of the enemies are Astrobots. They were friendly until the Blockheads transformed them using a stolen remote. Basically you make your way through the levels until you get to the end. I have done this sort of thing hundreds of times at least. Sometimes there are bosses and sometimes there aren't. The bosses that the games does have are a bit strange and of course easy. It doesn't sound like this game has much going for it.
(What could possibly go wrong?)
At the very least it does manage to capture much of Art Clokey's style. The characters are very claylike and Gumby has special moves that reflect this such as rolling up into a ball. You know if this were a show or game today it would be ugly CGI. It also features Clokey's favorite themes of indifference and miscommunication. The whole thing starts because Professor Kapp is unable to communicate properly. He is unable to talk to the mute Blockheads and gets his Astrobot controller stolen. Clokey loved doing this as a way to teach people that being unable to communicate is what causes many of our problems. I appreciated that this made it into the game. I am probably starting to go a little too deep, but that gameplay doesn't give me too much to talk about.
(I do love this kind of overworld though)
So Gumby vs. The Astrobots is a slight game but not an unpleasant one. I played through it on a sick day, and it has just the right amount of challenge for a person with a fever who can't quite think straight. It manages to capture the Gumby spirit without updating anything too much. It is an oddity in the Gumby universe, but it's a universe that thrives on oddity. This is probably the most obscure game I've played through so far on the blog, but it doesn't bother me too much if this one doesn't get a ton of views. I totally understand. It's not exactly a lost classic. I enjoyed it but I am a special case. If you really love Gumby and easy games that you can cross of your backlog than you should pick it up the next time you see it for a dollar or two. It did encourage me to go back and watch some of the old Gumby shorts and that's never a bad thing.
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