You can never figure out what Rich Carlson, Iikka Keränen and Phosphorous (collectively known as the top notch indie development studio Digital Eel) are going to come up with. The company is known for taking interesting ideas and turning them into small, simple and entertaining game properties. If they suddenly announced the release of a game that revolved around impregnating monkeys or a game about removing leg hair from a rotund woman it wouldn't come as any shock to anyone that has followed (and admired) their past endeavors.

Their previous game, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, was a lunch break game that let you explore space in a turn-based, time limited adventure for points. Digital Eel's latest game, Dr. Blob's Organism , offers the same kind of bizarre game design approach - melding a far-out topic in a whole new light. In Dr. Blob's Organism players take on an out of control organism as it attempts to escape the petri dish and do unspeakable things once it escapes - we're not sure how harmful this organism can be but we do know it's probably very naughty and should be eliminated. The game is purely an arcade shoot 'em up where players use guns to zap the poor little organism at its core - the nucleus. Doing so will eventually kill it and you'll move on to the next level. The game is played by using the left and right arrow keys to rotate the petri dish and the spacebar to fire at the organism. Occasionally power-ups that offer a variety of different firing rates and special weapon functions will appear that you can get (temporarily) by shooting. The ultimate goal is to keep the organism from touching the sides of the petri dish. If the slime touches the side then you lose a life. If it does it enough times (you get five lives to start out with) then the game is over. The amount of damage that you do indicated in the life gauge on the upper right side of the screen. When it is completely empty you have killed the organism and get to move onto the next level.

Dr. Blob's Organism features a variety of different levels offering progressively powerful power-ups and weapons and more feisty organisms that will challenge even the most hardcore shoot 'em up players. The game also offers three levels of difficulty and when you can't take anymore and lose to the Blob you can put your name in the hall of fame. There are some other interesting features like a Jukebox that lets you play all the tracks from the game and the ability to play any level from the main menu by typing in its respective name. Beyond that Dr. Blob's Organism offers a nice clean visual experience. While the game is light years away from being cutting edge it looks very good by most accounts.

Ultimately Dr. Blob's Organism is a fun little game that combines a really bizarre topic with an interesting arcade shoot 'em up theme that ends up working very well. The game is a lot of fun and levels are light enough that one or two can easily be played in a ten minute lunch break. One of Digital Eel's trademark design features is that their games are meant to be bite sized, easy to understand and fun without being a chore. Dr. Blob's Organism can be played at your leisure and doesn't require a whole lot of thought. One could almost say that Digital Eel's latest game takes the thinking out of the game, whereas its' previous title was heavily strategic at times and offered a richer story and settings. No matter. Dr. Blob's Organism is a fun game well worth the $10 price tag that they are asking for. Digital Eel is obviously comfortable creating games about anything that strikes their fancy and it's admirable to see an indie take a chance on a concept that is not in the mainstream. If you fancy shoot 'em ups then you'll want to give this game a try. The full version of the game can be purchased directly from Cheapass Games . It features:

• 20 levels of increasing difficulty
• 10 different powerups
• 5 special blob abilities
• 3 difficulty settings
• 21 music tracks
• Squishy, moist sound effects
• Bonus dishes
• Jukebox (Play music selections from the game.)