POSTED 25/2/11


DE BLOB 2

THQ
PS3/Move (also on Xbox 360, Wii, DS)

Damn. No matter how blobby you get on their arses, sometimes you just can’t keep a bastard dictator down.

Yep, the nefarious Comrade Black – possessor of the worst case of small man syndrome since Napoleon lost a bet with a shrink ray - is back. Dare we say it, back in black? Hmm, wish we hadn’t.

He took the Stones at their word in the original Wii-tastic de Blob and made like an impressionable proto-Goth by not only painting the town black, but everything else within. However, a cheeky shit of a paint globule porous enough to absorb pigment aplenty saved the day, defeating Black and his INKT Corporation to bring colour, music and, well, just the vibe back.

It’s essentially the same here, but something’s whiffy. The original bridged the kiddie/adult gap more expertly, and that dollopy, dashy swagger has been eschewed for a more marblesque way of, erm, rolling. It also couldn’t be more hand-holdy if it was Morten Harket in the ‘Take On Me’ video. Meanwhile, the frequent interruptions would make Channel Ten jealous.

Jumps are often iffy, and the timer's the funniest joke in history. Talk about broken – let's restart a level with 40 seconds shall we? Move’s supported, but not for classic Wii-mix flick jumps, just button jabs. It’s suckage in glowy orb-encrusted sticky shape.

Still, there’s more Blob to get blobinous with (including 2D levels) and it’s spiffy visually. If you shoom you’ll get a good half day’s play. Get obsessive and need to collect everything (and as it’s stingier than Unca Scrooge and Monty Burns’ lovechild with trophies, bling whores’ll wanna) and you'll get more, sanity permitting.

The edginess that made the original such a treat’s been smoothed, to de Blob's detriment. Meh, we liked him better before he was famous...

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