One of the games that has been somewhat lost in the shuffle at E3 this year is Majesco and Way Forward's A Boy and His Blob. The game, shown exclusively up on Majesco's media-only meeting room, is a gorgeous reimagining of the classic NES title by the same name. I was lucky enough to play through the three demo levels in a relaxed and quiet atmosphere, and I was happy I stepped out of the noisy West and South Halls long enough to do so.



From a gameplay standpoint, A Boy and His Blob is pretty simple. You have jelly beans that you can feed to your friend, a blob that is able to transform into different objects based on the flavor of jelly bean he has most recently eaten. If you need to cross a gap, you can toss the blob a bean that will turn him into a trampoline. If there's a monster in your way, you can make the blob turn into a hole, which will cause the monster to fall through the floor. As you can see, the ability to transform the blob to help you navigate the levels opens up the game to more than just simple jumping and avoiding perils. The focus in this game isn't so much making the difficult jump, but rather solving the puzzles presented by the level design.

While the game takes a very cartoony visual style, its gameplay and puzzle design should be deep enough to broaden the appeal of the game out beyond a younger audience. Some puzzles took careful timing, while others were more challenging from presenting effective logic puzzles.



The art style, animation, and colors of A Boy and His Blob really pop on the Wii, and they're sure to please even the pickiest art snobs. With hand-drawn environments and characters, there's a very personal touch to the game's visuals. Combined with the personal interactions between the boy and the blob, and you have a mood and setting that Majesco is saying has been described as reminiscent of films like The Iron Giant. If the boy scolds the blob to keep him in place, it can leave the blob saddened, and the boy will need to hug the blob in order to cheer him up and get him going again. The animations are full of character, so the player will immediately feel an attachment to the goings on taking place on their TV screen.

The length of the game will depend on the puzzle solving skills of each player, but Majesco said it's right in the 8-10 hour range for an average completion time. With the different environments and the variety of puzzles, that seems about the right length for this sort of title.



Hopefully as the buzz around E3 starts to cool a bit that A Boy and His Blob can regain its hype momentum as it was a lot of fun to play at the show and seems to be one of the better titles that will be coming to Wii this year.