Review for by Blob 2. Game for DS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/02/2011 The version for PC came out on 22/06/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 28/08/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 27/02/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 27/02/2018
Eat, work, sleep. A gray, boring, tedious and immutable life. But immutable things are boring, right? We need a little color in our life, in our daily life. Something that gives panache, hope, joy and… color! Blue Tongue Entertainment e THQ tried it in 2008 with de Blob, a platform originally released as a Wii exclusive that then arrived on all other platforms of the current generation, including, recently, Nintendo Switch. And now, again on the hybrid console of the big N, comes its successor, de Blob 2.
Switch is the latest console on which de Blob 2 manages to land, having already visited the ports of PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in remastered versions, as well as those of previous generations, such as DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. A very long goose ride in which we were able to taste the THQ platform in all its sauces and flavors, but this time we decided to seize the ball and, with the arrival on the Nintendo flagship, have our say.
Red yellow and blue
To enter the new adventure of Blob, our super colorful protagonist, you won't need to have played the first chapter in the least. The narrative incipit is always the same: we are in Prisma City, a great metropolis that the bad guys on duty, led by the Black Companion, have made gray and off. It will be our task to bring back the cheerfulness and the various shades of color in a city that was otherwise lost in banality and torpor.
In a riot of dialogues that will surely amuse the little ones, but that will not fail to snatch a smile even from the elderly, we will have to complete the tasks that our trusted friend Pinkie will assign us first, then other secondary characters, which will lead us, from checkpoint to checkpoint, to free every neighborhood of Prisma City from the control of the Blands. Between exuberant situations, iconic characters and irreverent jokes, the plot unfolds rather linearly and without authentic twists. The protagonist himself, albeit practically mute, emanates that aura of eccentricity that permeates the whole title and which, in the end, is trivially amusing.
To accompany the technical part of the gameplay there is also a minimal RPG and level up component, in which we can, through collectibles that we will find scattered in the various levels, increase the lives, the maximum size and a few other features of our Blob.
The fun, however, begins to decline after the first half of the title, due to the simple fact that things to do are always the same. Coloring buildings with specific shades, saving a certain number of citizens, blowing up crates and turrets, all things that done in the long run will underline the basic repetitiveness of de Blob 2 that can never be saved by the enormous amount of collectibles (for the more useless) scattered in the levels.
Green Orange Purple and Brown
The general difficulty is clearly set for a young audience, therefore generally very low, with some small increase in the final levels. The only real big challenge is dictated by the inaccuracy of the controls and the camera. Very often we found ourselves taking a trip down into the void due to a sudden rotation of the view, obviously unwanted, or the lack of reliability of the direction of the jumps. An aspect certainly improved compared to the first chapter, but still a nuisance that is impossible not to underline nor let it go.
Accompanying our adventure there will be a timer at the top of the screen that will indicate the time remaining to complete the main missions of the level, but that can easily be extended beyond the limits of any security by carrying out small tasks in the process. At the end of the story missions, the timer will disappear and we can easily explore the liberated neighborhood of Prisma City, completing the various side missions.
2D sessions have also been added which, in our opinion, are far more fun and (slightly) challenging, and where knowing how to mix colors and calibrate jumps well is of fundamental importance if you don't want to waste precious time. The fact that they are then in two dimensions limits the problems of commands that we have mentioned earlier, making us think that, perhaps, had everything been like this de Blob 2 would have been much better.
Finally, it is remarkable the presence of split screen multiplayer, in which two players will be able to work together to complete small levels with specially designed puzzles. The second player can also join the main campaign as Pinkie, but with rather limited tasks (such as collecting items or paint for the main player) that definitely won't keep him on the screen for that long.
De Blob 2 is a good sequel, which expands and improves what had already been shown to us back in 2008. The defects of the predecessor remain, albeit to a lesser extent, in particular the inaccuracy of the controls and the sly camera. Among irreverent situations, exuberant characters and a colorful world, Blob will be able to capture the little ones and snatch a smile from the elderly. I'm calling myself an old woman.
► de Blob 2 is a Platform-Puzzle type game developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment BlitWorks and published by THQ Nordic for DS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/02/2011 The version for PC came out on 22/06/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 28/08/2018 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 27/02/2018 The version for Xbox One came out on 27/02/2018
