It happened at night when no one
would notice – no one except for one special boy. We don’t know why he’s
special, and just like a similar mystery on Lost, the wondering may never end.
What happened that night is reminiscent of Superman’s arrival to Earth: after
realizing that something (from outer space?) has crashed near his home, a young
boy rushes to investigate.
His curiosity leads him to a
blob-like creature that, under normal circumstances, would eat him alive.
Instead, the blob finds a way to commune with the boy. They hug. They become
friends. Together, they embark on a journey that would be absurd in film or TV –
but is somehow plausible, even likable, in a video-game.
If you were to watch a boy and his
blob being played without ever picking up the controller you might be duped into
thinking it’s just another platformer. But it isn’t really a platformer at all,
and you can’t call it a straight action/adventure either. The only way to
describe a boy and his blob without losing its essence mid-sentence is to define
it solely as one giant puzzle-based adventure game.
We’ve seen these kinds of games
before, and when done right, they’re drastically different every time. Games
like ICO, the first Prince of Persia remake (they early one for PS2/Xbox), and
to some extent LittleBigPlanet, focused more on the world, its navigation and
its solution than the act of running, jumping and crushing the enemy. While the
latter can surely make for compelling gameplay, A Boy and his Blob is a
wonderful substitute, particularly because it doesn’t conform to the idea of
what a platformer or a puzzle game has to be.
As revealed by the screenshots,
videos and mountains of hype the game received at this year’s E3, the blob is a
much bigger star than the boy. The blob can transform into any shape you need –
balls, parachutes, balloons, anvils and ladders, to name a few – while the boy
can only take advantage of them. The blob is also quite good at transforming
into things that don’t really exist, such as a pancake that forms a
manhole-sized opening for dropping through solid ground.
It’s unclear if the developers built
the levels around these transformations or vice versa, but in any case, the
results are stellar. a boy and his blob starts you off with a near step-by-step
explanation of what needs to be done. During these early stages, it seems like
the game could be finished in a couple of hours. Most of the worlds are short –
the only thing that ever holds you back is your inability to uncover the stage’s
solution. But that is precisely what keeps the game from being defeated
prematurely. Gradually, the hints are reduced while the quantity of options and
the depth of each puzzle increases. The types of blob transformations change
with each stage, and that too helps to increase the game’s depth and challenge.
On the visual side, a boy and his
blob has received a lot of buzz for its distinct hand-drawn 2D graphics. They
are fairly nice, but the character animations are basic at best. The backgrounds
look good but there’s no depth to them – they don’t pop out at you because they
are only comprised of one or two layers of artwork. There will no doubt be some
gamers who look past that and appreciate the graphics as they are. But overall,
the gameplay is a far greater achievement, and is worth so much more hype.
One thing to be aware of, however,
is that, despite how amazing the gameplay will be for those who get into it, the
controls are kind of stiff and the character movement is very slow. In the
context of this game – a puzzle-based and puzzle-directed adventure game – speed
is not much of an issue. But it is likely to be a barrier for some players. If
they pick up the controller and can’t stand how slowly the game moves, they
might stop playing and completely miss the blob’s magnificence.
Though it’s not necessarily a
problem, a boy and his blob uses an old-school format for level completion:
collect a few treasure chests and reach the goal. It works really well the first
time you play through each stage. But after that you may not have the urge to
play through them a second time. This is one of the drawbacks of a puzzle-based
adventure game; the act of solving each scenario is so difficult that you
remember the solution long after it has been found. Thus, when you go through a
stage a second time, the fun of trying to figure out the solution is lost
because you already have it.
This in no way means a boy and his
blob is without replay value. It just means that this is the kind of game you’ll
play through once (or twice at the most), put it away, and want to come back to
in a year (or five) when you’ve forgotten the coolest parts.
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Gameplay: 8.5
Creative puzzles and blob formations are mixed together in a unique
puzzle-based adventure that will surprise you level after level.
Graphics: 7.5
a boy and his blob looks good but its visuals are too basic to bring Wii
graphics to a new artistic level.
Sound: 7.0
There isn’t much to the game’s sound. It’s very subtle, so much that you
might not even notice that it’s there.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Not for the weak-minded, doesn’t-want-a-thoughtful-challenge kind of player.
Concept: 8.7
a boy and his blob may be a remake (or a long-awaited sequel, depending on
how you look at it), but it feels like the beginning of a fresh franchise.
Overall: 8.5
An excellent and highly original puzzle-infused joyride of near-epic
proportions.
