Also, the fact that you play against the clock while trying to achieve primary objectives, seems somewhat inconsequential considering that it is actually quite difficult to run out of time, provided you stick to the game plan. Now this might sound like a rather futile gripe until taking into account that DB2 also caters to children, and a less experienced gamer might become desperately frustrated at not meeting these deadlines. Especially when checkpoints are so sparsely located that a failure could result in huge chunks of already played sections having to be repeated. So, to those of you who have young budding gamers in your lives, set the game to easy, where time limits are extended and the games colour conundrums are virtually non existent, before you have to remove a controller from your T.V. screen.
De Blob 2 has some wonderfully cheerful environments with well animated jiggling, bobbing and bouncing characters that are surprisingly hard to forget. The use of bright energetic colours makes it hard to stop painting everything you see, especially when the contrasting unpainted sections are just so damn uninteresting in comparison. While I’m not crazy about the idea of characters babbling of in some gibberish language accompanied by subtitles, the games overall sound is actually quite decent. What I enjoyed most about the auditory aspect of the game was that besides the base track which plays constantly while Blob does his thing, different musical instruments were assigned to the various colours, resulting in instrumental flares which complement the base track perfectly each time something is painted. Basically, the effect is that you are constantly adding to the games soundtrack while you play.
Although there is the option of playing the campaign co-operatively, the second player will take on the role of Blob’s robotic sidekick Pinky, in a predominately supporting role. If you have the intention of playing this game with your child this might be a good position for you to be in, as you will have the opportunity to actively participate in the game without stealing too much of the experience away from the youngling. Alternatively players can go head to head in a game mode called Blob party, whereby the objectives are similar to that of the single player campaign only with less time.
Conclusion
By and large I enjoyed De Blob 2 for its memorable characters and its bright vibrant feel good tone. I would like to leave it at that, but I would be lying if said that I hadn’t switched off my console a couple of times, because of badly placed checkpoints that would have me repeat annoyingly large portions of the game. Sadly while DB2 does not have many flaws, they are the kind that can quickly cut down any happy go lucky attitude that the games finer qualities do so well to inspire.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 7.0
While De Blob 2 has some pretty solid game play aspects, there are one or two issues that stole a lot from the overall enjoyment of the game.
Design and Presentation: 8.2
The game is very well put together with some brilliantly simple yet unforgettable characters and some startlingly vibrant level designs cohesively blended with an awesome musical backing.
Value: 7.0
DB2 has a decent campaign length and a couple of collectables for the completionists out there, but I can’t really see the value extending much further than that.
Overall: 7.4 (not an average)
An enjoyable and humour filled experience with some good visuals and sound. Unfortunately it has the potential to become frustrating.
[Reviewed on the Playstation 3]
Last Updated: April 12, 2011
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