Review of A Boy and His Blob

The Wii has become the welcoming home for a series of wonderful 2D games lately, from Muramasa: The Demon Blade to World of Goo, and the forthcoming New Super Mario Bros Wii (worst...title...ever).Add to this list A Boy and His Blob, which is an ultra-charming reimagining of the NES "classic."I say "classic" because, like Battletoads, it's one of those old games that people remember fondly until they try to play it again and realize just how crazy hard the game is.

The Wii version is much easier than the NES game in some ways, although it offers up plenty of challenge in its own right.The boy now has an unlimited number of jellybeans to feed the blob, which means that you can now focus on the puzzle at hand rather than worrying about rationing and backtracking.Further, there really is no backtracking anymore since the Wii version does not contain an open world; the game is split up into self-contained levels in four unique worlds.There is a final goal to reach in each level, but there are also three treasure chests hidden in each one.Get all three chests and you open a whole new challenge level at your treehouse "hub."Beat the challenge and you're rewarded with behind-the-scenes footage of the game in progress, including sketches and artwork.It's a great system that's easy to understand and really boosts the replay value of the game.

The game is beautiful.It's hand-drawn and the level of detail is astounding, in a subtle kind of way.Stop for a while and appreciate the light swaying of trees in the background, the animated frogs jumping at your feet, and the very nice lighting effects, especially during the night stages.Like a Miyazaki film, you can feel the love that was poured into this game.Heck, the animators even went so far as to include a feature where you can hug and scold your blob, for no other reason than "because you can."These elements also greatly add to the charm.The music is also subtle but quite nice.Chances are you won't be humming the tunes later, but the music fits well with the visual style.

Controls are tight, for the most part.Some sticky points can come in when you're trying to direct the trajectory of your jellybeans, which requires a very light touch on the analog stick.Also, flying can feel too loose and the screen gets kind of jerky, which leads to quite a few accidental deaths.Luckily, there are a wealth of save points within each level so you're never sent too far back after a death.My biggest beef with the game is that only one player can save a game at a time.My fiancee and I are both big puzzle fans and it's annoying that we can't each have our own game going at the same time.

Long story short, buy this game if you're a fan of puzzle games.The pace is not fast, but you'll love the animation and the challenging levels that build in the latter half of the game.Support 2D games, let the developers know that there's still a market out there for them.



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