A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia Collector’s Edition (NES)

There was a time when the idea of feeding jellybeans to a shapeshifting blob felt like the most natural gameplay mechanic in the world, and honestly, it still does. A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia Collector's Edition for NES delivers David Crane's bizarre, wonderful platformer on a pristine white cartridge that looks like it fell out of some alternate-timeline toy catalog. Each copy is individually numbered with a deluxe foil-stamped O-sleeve wrapping a classic NES-styled box, the kind of presentation that makes you want to shelve it face-out and never look away.

Back in '89, this game asked us to solve puzzles by tossing flavored jellybeans at an alien blob, and we didn't question it for a second. We just burned through our allowance money and got to work. The included soundtrack lets you revisit those Blobolonia melodies outside the cartridge, and the dust sleeve keeps the whole package looking pristine for years to come.

This is the kind of release that reminds us why we collect in the first place. Not because we need another copy of a game we already own on seven platforms, but because certain games deserve to exist as objects. Physical, tangible, foil-stamped objects that prove someone else loved them as much as we did.