A Boy and His Blob is one of those old classic games that I have a love-hate relationship with. On one hand, I loved the concept of the original game, but on the other hand the original game was just too hard and unforgiving in many ways. The new remake is sets out to honor the spirit of the original and fix many of its shortcomings, and for the most part I believe that the remake succeeds.
GAMEPLAY: You play the role of a young boy who discovers an alien blob. The boy and blob work together as a team to navigate the levels. On the surface the game looks like a standard 2D-platformer, but this is hardly the case. While there is some basic platforming involved, the true meat of the game is based upon overcoming environmental obstactles and puzzles with the blob's shape-changing capabilities. Different levels give you access to different jellybeans, which will allow the blob to transform when eaten. The farther you progress into the game, the greater the variety of jelly beans. Example transformations: hole, trampoline, ladder, balloon, parachute and rocket. The majority of the levels are fairly short. Some levels have a theme and others are more platformer in nature, but the good news is that there are a lot of them. You will die a lot, since this game is old-school. Touched a spike? You die. Touched an enemy? You die. Fall too far? You'll die. Fell in the water? You drown. Luckily the game has checkpoints everywhere, so frequent dying isn't an issue.
GRAPHICS: Gorgeous cartoon style artwork graces this game, giving it a sense of style and place. While the game doesn't do anything particularly impressive from a graphics standpoint, it is obvious the development emphasis was on clean, colorful, and whimsical artistic expression. The artwork can get repetitive though since many of the levels within the same zones use much of the same artwork, but at least it looks good.
PRESENTATION: The presentation is a mixed bag. One one hand, the game is trying to create a cohesive experience from the moment you boot the game up. The feel of the original game is definitely kept alive, which is a huge bonus. The first time you play, an intro movie is played that ends by abruptly dumping you into the game's hub level. The hideout/hub level is charming and gives you a sense of child-like whimsy. On the other hand, you are limited to exactly one save file and the game doesn't bother giving you much of a sense of purpose near the beginning, leaving you wondering what to do inside this tree house. No tutorial, no instructions, and no helpful mission hints. To top it off in the mixed-bag department, once you do figure out how to get to the first levels, the first several levels turn out to be absurdly easy with the game holding your hand through the solution to every puzzle near the beginning.
CONTROLS: Mostly pretty good. The button layout for remote/nunchuck controls is slightly awkward, but the classic controller setup is rather nice. Running and jumping work great, but commanding the blob can be a bit annoying since it seems like the little alien has a mind of its own. Throwing and aiming the jelly beans is a snap and once I figured it out it makes perfect sense. A lack of a tutorial will leave a lot of folks randomly pushing buttons until something they want to happen happens. I perhaps I was just really special. Near the beginning, a lot of the buttons don't do anything, so it kind of confused me at first. My biggest complaint is the Jellybean wheel, which is used to select your jellybeans. The layout of the jellybeans changes from level to level, so the bean you got used to being in the right slot for four levels in a row might suddenly get moved to the bottom slot. It's kind of annoying and never really lets you intuitively learn where your menu items will be at any given time.
VALUE: The game has a lot of levels, although most of them can be beaten fairly quickly. Every level has 3 secret treasure chests which can be collected to unlock additional levels, artwork, and basically gives something for the completionists out there to shoot for. Considering this game released for about $10 less than the average Wii game, I'd say you get a good value for your gaming dollar.
PROS:
+++ Beautiful cartoon graphics
+++ The spirit of the original game was preserved
+++ Lots of little unlockables
CONS:
--- Minor control quibbles
--- The game is way too easy near the beginning.
Overall, I have to recommend this game to anyone who enjoys puzzle solving game, 2D games, or who wants to get a nice family friendly game. Fans of the original game will probably like this remake, but just be warned that the difficulty is much lower than the original, partially due to the frequency of checkpoints.