A Boy & His Blob (Wii)
Pub: Majesco/Dev: Wayforward
ESRB: E/Players: 1

Wayforward continues their excellent 2D streak with A Boy & His Blob.  Gorgeous spritework, incredible music, and top-notch level design unite to create one of the most charming and rewarding puzzle-platforming titles I’ve had a chance to play.

My god, did Wayforward pull out all the stops with their phenomenal artwork.  This game rivals (and handily excels most) any other 2D title I’ve seen in the sprite department.  This game’s sprites flow like a exquisitely detailed, well-animated cartoon.  And the love that the boy and his blob share is about as adorable as anything I’ve ever seen in a game.  You can hug your blobby buddy at any time he’s not in a different form!  The attention to detail doesn’t end there – the backgrounds are vibrant, and the enemies are as beautiful in their animation as the endearing heroes.  The whole experience is awfully cute…so you bloodhounds will need to look elsewhere. :p  Mad props to the animators on some of the most impressive work I’ve seen in this medium.

The gameplay is as delightful as its looks.  Using several different flavors of  jellybeans, your boy will be able to change the blob into varying forms (these change per level) needed to safely make your way through the traps, enemies and environmental hazards of the game’s 4 major worlds.  The game holds your hand early on with plenty of telltale signs dictating what bean to use in a particular area, but, thankfully, the kid gloves will come off after the first world, and the frequency of the signage decreases the further you go.  There’s three treasure chests buried in each stage, which if they are all recovered, will open up challenge levels.  These are significantly more difficult and will certainly push you, and you will be rewarded with bonus material (ranging form concept art to dev videos to sound tests) upon completing them, which is more than a fair enough incentive to tackling them.  And there’s a good amount of meat to the game, too – 40 separate levels, with 40 unlockable challenge levels and 5 boss fights to conquer, is a whole lot of puzzle gaming goodness.

The music is incredibly well-suited to the gameplay – in fact, I’ve become overwhelmingly compelled to add it to my list of favorites.  The music fits each stage, and there’s a wide variety of it, ranging from cheerful to dire to sad to gloomy.  Many emotions can be gleamed from the musical score, and it’s just a delight to listen to.  The sound test (which works by feeding other blobs jellybeans in a special unlockable) is a massive plus.

There’s not a whole lot to nitpick about this game – the blob occasionally doesn’t do quite what you want, which can be a little annoying.  There’s a few spots where getting the blob right where you want him is more luck than gamer’s skill.  Wayforward did allow players to summon the blob at any time in case he gets stuck, lost or falls down a pit by pressing the Call button three times, which does alleviate the issue slightly.  When battling a boss, if you die, you’ll be forced to rewatch the intro cinematic each time, which also gets old.  Outside of those nuisances, though, the overall experience is enjoyable and a lot of fun.

If you love 2D games, platformers that take a bit of thought, or are seeking an engaging Wii title, you really can’t go wrong with A Boy & His Blob.  This is a majestically well-developed title that showcases the passionate talent that is over at Wayforward.  You guys need to keep on revitalizing older game series, because so far, you’ve yet to disappoint.  In fact, you’ve astounded me with this.  Kudos!