WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS PERTAINING TO BOTH THE GAMEPLAY AND STORY LINE OF THE GAME DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE APPRISED! Introduction De blob 1st made it's appearance on the wii a few years ago bringing a unique way of playing where you had to paint the environment to progress through the story. However bad controls and rather predicting gameplay made it get boring rather fast will the 2nd suffer from the same fate or will it bring a fresh coat of paint to the series? Story Comrade black is back having survived his last encounter with blob and getting stranded on a tropical island but that doesn't stop him from concocting yet another evil plan to take over the planet which involves taking over the senate and hypnotizing the entire population to do his bidding! His soon got his army of inkys back up and running and once again the inkt corporation is threatening the cities draining the colour and fun out of the population it's up to blob and the colour underground to stop him. Gameplay Unlike the 1st de blob the gameplay has changed drastically there's a lot more platforming and fun parts as well as new 2d levels that take place mainly underground. Instead of focusing mainly on painting the city blocks a certain colour to advance the game has you doing all sorts of things ranging from simply painting to smashing all the inkys in the area to rescuing a certain number or greydians or hitting all the colour switches so you can turn on the pumps to drain the ink there's a lot more to do colour is now in pools as well as paint pots. Better stay way from the ink too if you touch it blobs paint will slowly drain and if it reaches zero he pops losing a life get to some water fast if this happens. After doing these tasks it's than up to you to get a colour and jump into a building the transform it unlike the 1st where you simply shook the mote to do it this time you actually go into the building where you confronted with all sorts of tasks. Once the building is transformed your set of to find your next tasks OR you can simply go off and do some painting of the environment, rescuing gredians to get more time, painting all the billboards, smashing all the inkys in the area or finding every last tree and colouring it these are optional tasks but doing them will net you a gold medal after the stage is finished. You can do these after all the main tasks but it's kinda hard not to wander off and do them while your in the area. Also in the 1st you couldn't save until the whole level was complete which was a big pain in the ass well not this time each time you transform a building or area it will autosave and if you die your taken back to this save point! Once all the tasks are done in the area the transform engine appears where after smashing it will transform the whole area allowing you to advance to the next. Each level usually consists of 3 large areas and they are large the levels are way bigger too than the 1st. Once you've transformed all the areas the timer disappears and your free to roam the levels picking up those last patterns or light bulbs that you missed and colouring every building possible. As well as this extra tasks appear that you can do and complete to earn more light bulbs and speaking of these light bulbs can be used to power up blobs abilities in the upgrade center. You can upgrade things like his size, armor, boost ability or player 2's ammo. Did i mention that well a 2nd player can use the mote and shoot at enemies just like in mario galaxy. As well as more platforming and tasks the levels also have extra cool stuff to try later on you'll be walking up walls, skating on ice, bouncing around all over the level with z jumps and trampolines or traveling through a network of pipes. The enemies have also been upgraded there's more of them and they each have a special trick up their sleeve to defeating them. Some can't be killed unless your a certain colour others will fire at you if you jump near them as well as a few even constantly changing colour making it harder to kill them. With all this cool new stuff you think you've seen it all until you get to the last level which takes a page straight out of mario galaxy! Controls Controls in the 1st were less than perfect using annoying motion controls where they just weren't needed! Fortunately their all gone now you use A to jump, Z to target, C to center camera and B to do a charge attack once locked on also used to duck. You can use d-pad to rotate the camera but it's really just easy top keep using C to center. The camera behaves itself quite well too except for 1 or 2 parts that it was getting annoying that I noticed. Push 1 to bring up a compass which tells you the direction of paint or the tasks you need to do to advance. To attack enemies simply target them and jump on top of them to splat or target and ram them using B for a charge attack which costs paint. This works well for the most part only problem I have is you can't really target what enemies you want to attack in the heat of the battle and sometimes it targets the wrong enemies and by the time you realize it's too late the same thing happens with paint pots making you the wrong colour and having to backtrack to get it right. Some enemies can't be jumped on and others can't be charged so it's up top you to figure it out. But don't worry because you'll get a run through all of them in a built in tutorial which can't be skipped.. Graphics Graphics are greatly improved from the 1st you'll notice the little differences ranging from the reflections on the buildings to the refractions on the water. Everything just looks a lot more colourful too even the ice looks nice and shiny. Sound Just like the 1st the sound is funky and smooth allowing you to pick which music you'll be listening to from the stage menu but some tracks need to be unlocked 1st. Lasting Replay Replay is pretty good if you missed a gold medal in the level you can go back later and reply it there's also a 2 player blob party game you can play with a friend in split screen. You pick a level and see who can do all the challenges 1st there's 9 to choose from some needing to be unlocked in the single player missions. Overall A much better improvement over the 1st the controls and gameplay are alone worth it in fact i don 't even want to play the 1st ever again after this! More platforming, challanges, enemies and cool stuff make this a successful sequel. Only thing stopping it from getting a perfect score was the crappy targeting system. score 9/10
