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While it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, Dr. Blob’s Organism does provide a quick dose of brainless fun.

Back in the Jurassic period of electronic gaming by far the most popular genre was the arcade shooter. The basic formula was kept simple. The player, commanding some sort of shooting platform (spaceship, artillery piece, bizarre vector graphic) would blast away at hordes of targets, usually something weird and alien.

Deep thinking was not synonymous with this type of gaming. You’d drop a quarter in, turn your mind off and kick up your hand/eye coordination to eleven, and away you’d blast. Play long enough and you would get into a mellow groove, the thousand-yard stare of arcade minions.

As gaming has gotten more and more complex over the years the arcade shooter has dwindled to near extinction. For the most part if you want to play a no brainer type of game you have to fire up MAME.

Thanks to Digital Eel and Cheapass Games though gamers now have an alternative to playing the millionth round of Galaga or Tempest on their computer. It’s called Dr. Blob’s Organism (say the name too fast and you’ll end up with a porn title) and for ten dollars you can hearken back to the glory days of arcade shooters.

The basic gameplay of Dr. Blob’s Organism (hereafter referred to simply as DBO) is kept simple, like any classic arcade game should be, and will be mastered in moments. In the center of the screen is a petri dish, with a blob at its heart.

On the outside of the dish is your weapon, a rod (usually a single rod, though at times it can increase to multiple rods) that fires a variety of ammo depending on the powerups acquired. Completing the screen is an area for your score, your health, and the health level of the blob (or blobs). The dish is rotated with your keyboard arrow keys and your weapon is fired with the spacebar.

The objective for each level is the same: destroy the blob’s nucleus. As you fire away at the nucleus the blob is steadily increasing in size. When a part of the blob touches the edge of the petri dish you lose one of your health icons. Lose all your health and it’s game over.

DBO mixes up this basic premise with a variety of powerups and blob powers. Players can acquire extra health, lightning and fireballs, split their weaponry into two or more rods, and more. These powerups are generated by the blob and must be shot to take effect.

Meanwhile, the blob itself has a number of special abilities. Sometimes the blob will activate an impregnable forcefield (whose effect looks a little like the shield belt effect from the original Unreal Tournament), or go mad and frenzy, or worse—split into multiple blobs.

As it sounds DBO won’t be mistaken for Civilization III or your typical wargame. It’s a game about doing nothing more than blasting the heck out of blobs using three keys. And it works. Pretty much at least.

For a few minutes of mindless fun it’s a great deal. Hard day at work? Picked on in gym class? Wife ran off with the postman again? Fire up DBO, power down the ol’ gray matter, and have some fun. The action is fast, it’s furious, and it has enough variation from level to level to make you want to continue on and see what type of cool powerup you’ll get next.

Yet, DBO can be a little too fast and a little too furious. Expect to give your keyboard a good workout, and don’t be surprised if you end up hurling obscene comments at your monitor as you replay the same level over and over and over again.

Visually and aurally DBO provides a lot more than what you’d expect ten dollars to bring you. The graphics aren’t earth shattering (especially since you’re looking at a blob for the entire game) but are pleasing enough. The music though is fantastic, a combination of old school jazz and electronica.

DBO succeeds well as an old school type arcade shooter. A few more levels would have been nice (it includes twenty, though there is plenty of replay value) but then again your keyboard probably couldn’t handle more. And hey, it’s only ten dollars!

If you’re looking for something completely mindless, that gives your reflexes a good workout, give Dr. Blob’s Organism a whirl. If you’re looking for something deeper, look elsewhere. And if you’re looking for something deeper but still fast playing, give Digital Eel’s Strange Adventures in Infinite Space a try.

Review by Scott R Krol.