With the absolute domination of the streaming era, even people in their late 30s have begun to forget what channel surfing was like. Being insomniatic at 1 AM, trying to find something to lull you to sleep. Sure, you can throw on an terrestrial signal and hope for the best with your HD antenna nowadays, but it’s not even remotely the same. The mystery of it all is gone. If you end up seeing people acting wild on public access, it’s because you know what’ll be happening. Even services like Pluto TV can’t fully capture the high strangeness of a romp through whatever channels your tuner can find. Thankfully, Blippo+ has found the most innovative way to try and recapture this sensation: programming from a different planet, hypersaturated in new wave aesthetics, and weaving a disconcerting, compelling tale through snippets of sitcoms, talk shows and errant news reports.

Congratulations! You’ve now upgraded to the newest version of Blippo+. Please enjoy your wide range of channels and programs, such as the Time Dilation Network, Tee Vee Ex, The Salutation Station or Microwave Theater. At all times, you’ll be treated and exposed to the very best that planet Blip has to offer, stimulating your brain and body with all sorts of activities and entertainment. Let’s Tique will take you down the path to understanding antiques of Blippians of the past. The Rubber Report has all the latest news and gossip, which can be one and the same! And amazing tales like Werf’s Tavern, Clone Trois and Bushwalker will keep you on the edge of your seat. Chat with other viewers through the Femtofax system for all things local and astronomical. New data packets with new programs arrive all the time, so be sure to keep your system updated! 

If you were looking for a game where you are expected to do literally anything other than watch TV, you have made a grave error with Blippo+. From the drop, the premise is to watch a channel, experience the content therein, and flip to another channel when things start to repeat themselves. Eventually, the service provider will send you a new data packet, which, when installed, will overwrite current programming and bring you the next installment of each channel, sometimes locking and unlocking channels seemingly at random to better partition out content. If you idle for too long, your Blippo+ will go out of whack and you need to manually retune it before you can continue watching, which is a simple task to make sure you haven’t just walked away from your television/console. At a totally surface level, this is a tv programming simulator that ends when you’re bored.

To be honest, I didn’t totally get the entire immersion of it all initially because I was trying to “play” the game. I kept flipping through channels, clicking the screen at regular and irregular intervals, and made sure to read each and every thread that was available on the Femtofax channel. Then I stared at bubbles in water for way too long, copied along with the stretches and dance moves when the exercise channel started up, and made careful notes of certain lingo, certain that it would be necessary to discover the game’s deeper meaning. I really thought I was in a Glittermitten Grove situation and the “game” would reveal itself at any moment, and that…simply never happened. I was ignoring watching real TV so that I could watch fabricated TV, complete with news reports on places that didn’t exist and space events that couldn’t be experienced.

Then, shifting my mindset, I began to ingest Blippo+ like I would a visual novel, and it suddenly clicked for me. If you’re invested in the tv programs, then you can go on quite a ride to figure out the throughline of each and every series. Confetti Cowboys felt like a silly space western until it dawned on me that they were referencing events that may or may not be happening on planet Blip. Clone Trois takes a seriously dark turn in spite of the saucy and silly nature of the initial episodes. And you can really piece together some interesting information by watching Werf’s Tavern and also remembering some things the actor said in an interview that was being given on Small Talk. The tone and reality of it began to shift, particularly when the story of Blip itself takes a huge turn about three data packets in.

Beneath everything else that’s happening, Blippo+ is slowly feeding you the news and facts about some incredible happenings in space, particularly centered around a concept called The Bend, which appears to be a literal “corner” in the universe that leads to somewhere else. The Femtofax board is rife with people fascinated and ridiculing the event in the same breath, and this even leaks into programs like Boredome, where teens wax macabre about their existence and what it might mean to travel through a wormhole. Throughout it all, it’s clear the directors and programmers are trying to make television that’s entertaining and educational without ignoring the sudden shift in Blippian opinions about space and who or what might be up there. And all of it is being done under the guise of the late 80s, early 90s neon saturation that make my childhood a vibrant mess.

If you allow Blippo+ to get its hooks into you, you get dragged through a wild and multifaceted storyline that’s as improbable as it is compelling. And you have no choice but to simply sit back and watch, to drink in the information as best you can while constantly feeling like you’ve missed something. You might toggle back to Psychic Weather just to catch the tail end of the consciousness report because, oh yeah, Blippian scientists have proven that consciousness exists as particles and can be dispersed, remake and all sorts of other combinations that send your existential dread screaming if you stare too long. If you remember some of the live action content of Adult Swim back in the early 2000s, that vibe is constantly sitting just below the surface, that something is very wrong but also impossible to turn away from.

The production value and amount of effort that went into the creation of all these channels and programs cannot be overstated. Players who are interested can see a mini-documentary on Blippo+’s Steam page, giving a glimpse into the care for detail and real love of the history of broadcast television that drove this project to completion. The costumes and makeup, capturing the very best and worst of Devo, Cyndi Lauper and even Adam Ant, fills the visuals with love and affection. Programs that seem out of time, like the Confetti Cowboys, emulate how programs from the 50s would air after hours during the 80s. When you have something seemingly benign, like a scientist in a lab coat talking to a brain in a jar, there’s little twinges of color and saturation that keep this closer to Mr. Wizard than Beekman’s World, and the outfits more Blade Runner than Hunger Games.

Naturally, the musical landscape is key, allowing the composition team to run hog wild with synthetic sound effects and outer space ambience that best fit the tone of this era. Whether you’re watching a nine person telethon raising money for a cause that seems beyond comprehension or observing a painfully dissonant robot voice teaching you the lingo of Blip, everything is on key and completely in the vein of the intended goal. I would often tune into the musical channels to enjoy the electronic beats that seemed over far too soon, so I would get a few minutes of the sparse but enthralling Bushwalker soundtrack. It’s so much incredible aural detail that shows a level of care beyond just “this is what the 80s sounded like.” It’s making a new world where that is the current soundtrack, and it’s gorgeous and completely unironic.

Once everything is said and done, Blippo+ may only run you about six hours of “play” time, but it’s one of the most honest and unique titles in the last decade of gameplay. It’s an FMV without any game, and it works in a spectacularly bizarre fashion. This niche concept is so fun, so honest and so unapologetic that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself as I surfed between channels and tried to piece together the deeper tale. Anyone with a taste for classic television tropes and out-of-the-box storytelling will fall madly in love. Gather the family ‘round the Yube, flick on the newest update about the Bendonauts, and forget the world around you: Blippo+ has everything you need.

Graphics: 9.5 Cannot overstate how much I love the adesign and colors of Blippo+. Incredible choices in set and costuming, plus everyone looks completely out of time and not at an 80s Halloween party. Only minor detraction is the constant graphical glitches can sometimes give me a headache, but that was thankfully rare.	Gameplay: 5.0 No surprises here. You change the channel. You watch, you check the forums, you get a new data packet and then you keep watching. There’s nothing wrong and it does exactly what it needs to do, but there simply isn’t any engagement to speak of. You aren’t going to “git gud” at Blippo+.
Sound: 10 The second I can buy the soundtrack, I’m going to and then I’m putting it on a cassette tape. I have the tape, I have the USB to cassette adapter. I just need this soundtrack in my life so I can fully escape into the Blippo+ soundscape.	Fun Factor: 8.5 Watched with my daughters as we tried to figure out what was happening with the Bend, the aliens and everything happening on planet Blip. Anything where I can watch and discuss something with others is a big win, and I was compelled to watch over an hour at a time. Amazing work.
Final Verdict: 8

Blippo+ is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Blippo+ was provided by the publisher.