Planet Dob

DOB is a Japanese Future Project combines many different Music Styles ranging from Ambient, Indie, Pop to Drum’n’Bass (sometimes in one song). Their album ‘La Lu La Roo’ (1996) comes as a CD-Enhanced (CD-Audio and CD-Rom). Recently they invented their own game for the Sony Playstation called ‘Planet Dob’.

An alien flying above Earth gets knocked unconscious after his ship crashes while avoiding a giant net. Scientists strap his passed out frame on a table and send a very unwilling subject (his glasses are shaped in the letters Y-O-U) into his mind to see what makes him tick.

The absolutely whacked-out result is Planet Dob, one of the strangest and coolest games on any console. Part adventure, part puzzle, part music, and completely inspired musically. The visuals mix pre-rendered backgrounds, 3D elements, and CG characters, and are full of vibrant colors that pop, swirl and spin.

The “plot” spells itself out as you play in loads of Japanese text, but there are so many visual cues and English signage that it’s not too difficult to play. The “Super Lounging Music” is almost too relaxing;”Oh yes, It’s like no gravity, dippily, Super relaxing and Lounging kind of sound”, according to one of the two fold out manuals included. But the frantic, hysterical urgency of some of the mini-games and the “Mixing Hour” stages (where you play around with music from the game) will keep you glued to your tee vee for days.