A Boy and His Blob

My first hour with A Boy and His Blob went by without a single combat input, and I mean that as a compliment. This is a 2D puzzle-platformer where the whole mechanical vocabulary runs through a single concept: feed your alien companion different jellybean flavors and it shapeshifts into one of fifteen objects, from a Licorice Ladder to a Tangerine Trampoline to a Caramel Cannon. Every level is a short closed puzzle built around which beans you have, where the blob is standing, and whether you've spotted the correct sequence. That loop is genuinely inventive in the early going. The game is spread across four worlds, each with ten levels, plus boss fights at the end of each world. Finding three hidden treasure chests per main level unlocks bonus challenge stages that tend to strip things back to one or two transformations and push the puzzle design harder. Those challenge levels are worth hunting for; they're where the game sharpens up and stops being quite so gentle. The main campaign is deliberately forgiving, with generous checkpoints and infinite lives, so deaths rarely cost more than a few minutes. Boss encounters ask you to read a pattern and apply the right form at the right moment, and a couple of them get fussy about timing in ways the standard levels don't. The art is the game's strongest card, full stop. WayForward built everything in hand-drawn animation, and the result holds up well even against more recent releases in the genre. The boy's movements have a slightly clumsy, kid-weight to them, and the blob's transformations are smooth and weirdly satisfying to watch. There is also, famously, a dedicated hug button. It does nothing for your score. It's still one of the best buttons in a puzzle-platformer. Where things get uneven is in the back half of the campaign. Once you've seen all fifteen forms, the later levels start cycling through familiar solutions rather than introducing genuinely new thinking. Some reviewers have noted the blob's AI companion can get stuck or slow to reposition, which in tighter sequences turns a clean puzzle into a waiting game. Controls are generally solid but have a slight mushiness to them, particularly during faster boss sequences where precision matters more. The PC port, handled by Abstraction Games, is functionally fine though a community note flags that the image can appear softer than expected at 1080p. The audience here is specific: players who enjoy quiet, logic-forward platformers, younger players getting their first taste of the genre, or anyone who grew up with the 2009 Wii original and wants it on a desktop without firing up an emulator. If you need constant forward momentum and reflex-heavy play, this one will feel slow. If you can accept a contemplative pace and a game that leans hard on charm to carry its rougher edges, there's a lot to like in its roughly four-to-six-hour run.

Alex · Scout Team

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