Review by: Danielle Riendeau

Way back in July, when I visited the Majesco booth at E3, I was completely – and happily - surprised by the excellent demo of A Boy and His Blob, a gorgeous-looking 2D platformer/puzzler that “re-imagines” the NES classic of the same name. It felt like a completely under-the-radar gem, and it looked truly beautiful – like a living hand-drawn cartoon with especially nice animation. As with all E3 demos, however, you never really know how the final product will turn out until you have your hands on the game.

The 2009 Blob is a pleasure to play, (and hear, and watch), as it brings all of the satisfaction of a great old-school game, without the aggravation factor. It’s long (there are 40 levels, with an additional 40 “challenge stages”), challenging without ever being cheap, and positively overflowing with character and charm.

You control “boy”, a cute little dude with a backpack full of jellybeans. Said beans cause your blob buddy to transform into one of 15 different shapes/manifestations, like ladders, bouncy balls or balloons. Your mission is to traverse the eclectic array of side-scrolling stages, avoiding obstacles and baddies and finding treasure. You’re tasked with finding the right color-coded beans for every task at hand – most puzzles require a clever combination of forms and quick reflexes. For example, you may need to transform Blob into a hole and throw it in front of a charging enemy, or use one of your buddy’s many height-enhancing powers to reach a coveted treasure chest on a dangerous ledge.

That’s it – the premise is simple, the interface clean and elegant, and the controls are perfect. The satisfaction comes from the successful solving of the puzzles, which start small but become increasingly devious as you continue towards the outer reaches of “Blobolonia”.