Creating a sequel that evolves existing ideas and improves the few flaws from the last installment is anything but easy. That was the task given to Blue Tounge Entertainment to create a follow-up to their surprise hit of 2008 known as De Blob. De Blob rose to fame thanks to its creative gameplay, colorful graphics, and extraordinary cartoony sensibility. From my experience, the first De Blob is an underrated game that, while having its flaws in its motion controls, is a primarily timeless game that is the definition of pure fun. To my surprise, this sequel delivers the same experience but also improves some of the minor flaws in its gameplay to create an experience that is better than ever before.
Taking place after the events of the last game, Comrade Black is back and madder than ever as he tries to recruit his surviving Inkies to help take back Prisma City to make it into a dull Black and White utopia. Blob and his robotic assistant and friend Pinky hear about Comrade Black’s whereabouts and decide to stop his plans to take back the city by painting everything in sight with the help of the Color Underground team. However, it would seem the Comrade Black has a few more tricks up his sleeve to stop Blob and his pals in their tracks.
The story, like before, is a beautiful look into a very colorful and cartoony world that is wacky and a lot of fun. Both old and new characters have lovely personalities and are even more cute and endearing than ever before. Even though the idea of the Inkt corporation taking over the colorful Prisma City is the same, the narrative knows how to throw in a funny, charming, and fresh take on basically the same idea to keep the player engaged the whole way through. This game proves you don’t need a complex or thought-provoking idea to carry an entire video game’s story, sometimes simplicity is the key to keeping the game from going out of style, and that’s precisely what this game’s story does.
The gameplay in the original was quite good despite motion control issues, this sequel, on the other hand, is just as good, and yet it improves its controlling and its platforming. Like before, the main goal of each level is to paint your surroundings and use the paint around you to mix and match colors to complete challenges that require buildings to be painted a specific color. You do this while stopping Inkt enemies that are now more powerful and armored, which will require different methods of attacking. Thankfully, the control is much better because instead of flicking the Wii remote to jump, you will just use buttons to jump from place to place. Sure, it does make it pointless, seeing the Wii is motion controlled based system, but compared to the last game, It's a sacrifice that is well worth making as it helps the player make more precise jumps to get from building to building a lot better. Platforming has also improved as the game takes much inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy to design levels. Most levels are open-world cityscapes, and there are plenty of missions and collectibles to find that will keep the player busy both during level and even after a level. 2D platforming sections are also prevalent and will mainly take place in sewers to free gradians or restore paint for Blob to use. There are also many gravity-defying elements and new powerups and moves for Blob to move from place to place or defeat enemies, helping to add to the gameplay established before and creating new ways to play. This is an example of gameplay maintaining what made the last installment so special while improving and adding new editions to keep the franchise feeling fresh and exciting.
The graphics will depend on which system you play the game on. Regarding the Wii, the 480p SD version will not be the sharpest image, on the other hand, the colors really do pop, and they are even better than ever. The character designs are simple but full of expression and likeability. It’s hard not to admire how easy it is to identify with characters like Blob Pinky or Comrade Black just by their visual actions and emotions. Each level design begs the player to make it look how they see fit by just coloring their surroundings. Even concept art can be viewed if the player has collected a certain amount of collectibles, which can be a great insight into how the game was created visually. In some cases, the graphics feel more of the same, yet they are just as beautiful and lively as ever before.
The music was one of the major highlights of the last game, and I'm proud to say that this sequel did not disappoint. A lot of the music is catchy and immensely hard to not be enchanted by. Like before, the music starts out very mellow and mysterious when entering a level, but when the paint is added, the music picks up and becomes much louder and dripping with so much personality. They may not be the most memorble musical tracks of all time, but they are so much fun that it hardly even matters in the end.
If you liked De Blob, you would likely like De Blob 2. It improves upon the flaws of the last title while adding new additions to keep the game fresh and exciting. It is a shame that Blue Tounge Entertainment was shut down by THQ due to poor sales of their games because this game proves they have what it takes to be with the big publishing companies of their time. This game has excellent creativity with a wonderfully cartoony story and gameplay and graphics that, in many ways, have improved with what has been done before. I really enjoyed my time playing De Blob 2, It may not be flawless, but it is such a good game that deserves to be just as talked about and loved as how its predecessor was back in 2008.
(Final Grade: B+)