Game Failings: de Blob 2
Game Failings is a series of features that checks out forgotten titles, looks at them with the benefit of hindsight and sees if there was anything special that just didn’t catch on.
de Blob 2
THQ / Blue Tongue Entertainment Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
It’s a sad time when such a loved video game publisher like THQ goes under. There has been discussion about it’s intellectual properties and studios being sold, including much talk about the Darksiders franchise and developer Vigil not getting a buyer. However, one overlooked franchise is a bit smaller but still much beloved by many - de Blob, developed by the now defunct studio Blue Tongue Entertainment.
The first de Blob game was exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, being Blue Tongue’s first game not based on a licensed property. Official sources say that de Blob managed to sell more than 700,000 units, a reasonable success for a new IP and enough to warrant a sequel. But this time the game would be released on all current home consoles and in high definition for the first time.
De Blob 2 is presented in a gorgeous, colourful style. It really emphasises contrast, with the starting environments and enemies being various shades of grey and the protagonist and everything positive being full of vibrant colour and fun. The cartoon style of the characters are stunning with each having their own personality. Everything from menus to the cut scenes are extremely well polished. It even supports 3D on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, giving incentive to those still supporting that fad.
Your goal, playing as the title character named Blob, is to paint the city red, green, purple and all the other colours of the rainbow. The painting aspect might sound similar to Disney’s Epic Mickey, but rather than using a targeting reticule to paint you simply touch a surface to give it colour. This doesn’t make the game simpler, rather it expands on the platforming aspect. Challenges can involve painting certain surfaces a colour without touching others in the process, giving additional layers to the basic gameplay. The later levels do introduce some things that can be a bit annoying, like whole stages taking place over bottomless pits, but the reasonable difficultly level keeps this from getting too infuriating.
Attacking involves a lock on mechanic similar to that pioneered in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Locking on allows you to pounce directly on an enemy or other obstacle, and is also used for traversal by locking on to jump pads and paint pots. It does work very well, but the lock on can sometimes miss the specific target you were aiming for.
What better way to accompany such a gorgeous and stylised game that with a score of upbeat Jazz. Painting adds another layer to the music, similar to the bongos that play while riding Yoshi in Super Mario World. The painting also effects the timing of the music, with the tempo speeding up the more you colour and the music gaining in fidelity and depth as you progress through painting an entire level.
Taking the world from Grey to Glory
When de Blob 2 was released in early 2011, it did review reasonably well. IGN scored the game 8.0 across all three platforms, with most outlets following the trend. Unfortunately, de Blob 2 wasn’t a sale success.
The impression might have been that the HD console version was an upscaled port, dissuading people from those versions. THQ also probably didn’t have had the resources and funds available to market the title as extensively as the original game three years earlier. Unfortunately, the lack of sales combined with THQ struggling to stay afloat forced the closure of Blue Tongue Entertainment a few months after the games release. At the time of closure they were working the PC version of a licensed game based on The Avengers movie, something never released in any format. With all attention THQ properties are getting, I very much hope a publisher is able to take a chance on the franchise. It stands out as a extremely unique, innovative and fun game that can stand up against Super Mario Galaxy and other titles in it’s genre.
De Blob 2 is available for download on Xbox Live Games on Demand and The Playstation Network Store for $14.99 in the United States. As THQ is no longer, they soon might not be available for download, so be sure to get in while you can.
It may not have been successful, but de Blob 2 is a joyful game that comes with the highest recommendation.