When it comes to weirdo NES games, mentions of A Boy and His Blob ($1.99) hit every possible piece of nostalgia I have for the era, like one of those YouTube videos of a guy playing unbelievable piano pieces utilizing all 88 keys. It was released in 1990, which meant I was old enough to understand most of the zany game elements, most of which hinged around feeding jellybeans to your pet blob which would then inexplicably cause it to transform into various different forms, which were then used to solve different platforming puzzles. For instance, if you need to go up or down, you’d toss your blob a licorice flavor bean and it’d morph into a ladder. It was (and still is) a super cool game mechanic, as you had a limited number of jelly beans so you needed to use them strategically.

In late 2009, a remake was released on PC and consoles (then later re-released in 2016 on current generation consoles) that I thought was just fantastic. They took the same mechanic from the original, and basically just totally spruced it up with new graphics, animations, and (of course) levels to play through. It was received generally well, and I had a great time with it.

Well, this morning’s surprise is that A Boy and His Blob is now available on the App Store. Without telling anyone, Majesco snuck this classic out that we found just paging through any new releases we might have missed. It seems like a pretty faithful port too, with the only real difference being the obvious addition to virtual controls.

I look forward to spending more time with the game to see how these controls end up holding up in later, more difficult levels, but so far I’m pleasantly surprised. The possibility of A Boy and His Blob was not even on my radar at all as a potential iOS release, making this a fantastic addition to this month’s onslaught of incredible titles to be released.