de Blob 2 (360/PS3/Wii) (DS)

[Bort]

Pretty much a straight sequel to the first game. The only major new feature are the intermittent 2d side-scrolling sections. Almost everything has be iterated on and improved.

+ Music has been integrated more
+ In-game save (at checkpoints)
+ Compass (optional) that guides you to the nearest Ink/item/mission location
+ Once the main objectives have been complete it helps you mop up most of the side challenges via the compass
- Timer still used on initial play through

Camera - You can either control it yourself or let the game guide it. It can freak out but only when you are in a tight corner.

No problems with it so far (360 version). A nice peaceful amusing game.

[Bort]

Completed De Blob 2. Fun throughout as long as you don't binge. The save function is vastly improved over the first game but there are still points where you can lose 10-20 minutes of progress.

Suitable for kids. There are a few trickier enemies later on that they might have issues with.

Bosses are straight forward and painless.

No stupid painful rage inducing sections.

Bright charming game. The last section is drawn out a little too much but the humour in the closing cinematic dispels any ire.

->Open Spoiler<-

De Blob ****ting himself.

out of Ten.

[cavalcade]

And now &#163;17.99 at Zavvi. Why bother buying anything on release any more these days, it's ridiculous.

How are the time limits Bort? The first was pretty lax, but I still didn't like them.

[Bort]

Easy mode gives you 60 minutes to start with and there are lots of 1, 2 and 3 minute pickups. I constantly had 80-90 minutes on the clock during all of the normal levels. You also don't have to paint building in order on specific missions. Once a block is the correct colour it won't change if you touch it again with a different colour.

Normal starts you off with 30 minutes but I'm not sure if the time pickups will give the same amount of time.

Apart from an achievement for completing on Normal there really isn't a reason to choose Normal. You can still choose to paint in puzzle order if you fancy it without being always forced to do it.

[Kaosu]

I've finished the fourth stage, and I'm really enjoying this having not played the previous game. It's not aggresively demanding on time during Normal if you don't loiter around too much, and collecting everything along the way while doing each mission segment has been possible so far.

There have been a few framerate issues, which I think occured when there were a lot of crates being destroyed at one time whilst panning the camera, this rarely happens though so it's not terrible. Also, one of the audio tracks had a 'buzz' occur during cutscenes.

Very vibrant though and relaxing, which is a nice change of pace from a string of crazier games I've been stuck with lately.

[Kaosu]

Finished a full runthrough, collecting everything with S ranks and no upgrades.

Other than the enemies that target you meaning you can't jump (which is annoying when you need to climb up onto rooftops), I did not find it that difficult to finish main objectives with time constraints, which surprises me a bit as I've read the final level without upgrades is close to impossible, which it isn't. *shrug*

Granted, sometimes there were checkpoints that were a bit too far apart, but with so many shields in the later levels to abuse, the only thing that will probably kill you are electric fields and crushers (one pipe section in perticullar has a very nasty timing section where you have to be spot on perfect to avoid being splattered, how did that even get into a platformer which isn't suppose to be severly punishing?)

Boss fights (of which there are two which play in the same way) were underwhelming, the core mechanics work well enough, that I can't help but feel that they were added on to bridge between the ending of a stage.

Other than a few issues which hinder on progression, I enjoyed it, fantastic soundtrack and instrument mixing. Good CG work too.

[ItsThere]

*Bump*

In my quest for 3D games it turns out that this is one of them.

I liked the first one but never completed it, I might do some painting today.

[cavalcade]

I love this. Deeply, deeply subversive game. I explain here:

http://www.sidthomas.net/doyouinverts/Austerity%20Pleasures%206%20-%20deBlob%202.mp3

[ItsThere]

I love this. Deeply, deeply subversive game. I explain here:

http://www.sidthomas.net/doyouinvert...- deBlob 2.mp3

Awesome. Enjoyed the sideways glance at George Orwell / Orson Wells / Unicron.