A Boy and His Blob

It's a neat piece of topiary on the hedgerows of difficulty which obstructed enjoyment beforehand, but don't be fooled into thinking that challenge is no longer a factor. Stages start easily, with signposted solutions to basic problems introducing each new power as they become available, but before long real head-scratchers start to appear. Traditional platforming responses, in the form of tight jumps and well-timed actions, aren't a huge part of the action, but combinations of bean use are, with plenty of multi-stage solutions soon to compose. Frustration kicks in once or twice, with a few counter-intuitive puzzles in what I've played, but you overcome this relatively quickly.

A major hurdle is the fact that the problem-solving half of your partnership, your globular toolbox, is never directly under your control. It's the essence of the game, really, and a difficult thing to pull off without inducing a bit of hair-pulling, but the Wii game makes a good fist of it. While your ungainly protagonist is directed with either nunchuk analogue or the classic controller, the blob stays behind you and can only be sallied forth with a well-placed sugary treat. This is made considerably easier this time around with a ghosted direction indicator - holding down C to distribute a bean lets you position its final resting place to accurately place whichever object it is you're conjuring.

Actual tools have been expanded too, with a Braid-like shadow-boy and a zooming rocket-ship. Old staples return, like the hole, which can now be used to drop enemies through floors and away from the hero. The collectable treasures of the first game have been replaced with chests, three to a stage, which add a piece of decoration to the various dens which serve as the game's level hubs once collected. Gathering all three unlocks a challenge room - usually a themed puzzle - and these reward the player with the usual concept-arty bonuses, showing the evolution of characters and environments.

And what art it is. This is an undeniably beautiful game, one of the best-looking on the system. Gentle pastel colours and subtly shaded assets give rise to a definite air of Studio Ghibli, particularly in the dark-hued monsters which patrol the floors. Parallax-scrolling backgrounds vary from the pastoral to the cutely industrial and the boy and blob themselves are soft-edged and smoothly animated. For what is essentially a pillow with eyes, the blob is hugely expressive, growing increasingly pink with frustration when separated and glooping almost seductively as it morphs into its different forms. The boy has more than a shade of Earthbound's Ness about him, and portrays the hesitatingly awkward exuberance of a six-year-old child without being clumsy. The infuriating and often deadly slide, which was a particular bane whenever changing direction in the NES title, has also been banished.

WayForward could be on to a winner, converting a much-loved yet flawed classic to a new platform with just the right gentle touch of freshness - improving both challenge and charm without gimmick. Actually, there's one gimmick - and it's my favourite touch of the whole experience. Pressing a button performs a gently squeezing hug between boy and blob which serves no purpose other than to elicit an almost unbearably cute "ahhhhh" from boy and heighten the emotional bond between these two unlikely companions. Like being shot in the face with a marshmallow gun by a kitten in a Santa suit. Lovely.