For the umpteenth time, I again apologize for a review of a sequel –de Blob 2 – sans context of the original. In this instance, however, I have some semblance of an excuse, with Blob #1 limited to the Wii the first time around.

Thankfully, however, de Blob isn’t The Two Towers, meaning jumping right in is a fairly self-explanatory exercise. Even more so, since the game is clearly targeting younger gamers via its dialog, gameplay dynamics, and level design,

Now playing de Blob 2 is akin to dating the perfect partner but at the most inopportune time. Perhaps he/she’s recovering from the other guy/gal, or has the job from hell weighing significantly on the relationship. Either way, there’s this near-constant sensation of everything being ‘slightly off.’ That, my friends, is the cruel fate of de Blob 2.

The intended brilliance of this game is obvious, a beautifully presented, well- orchestrated tale of a water blob seeking to bring color to a dubiously stark world. de Blob 2 literally bursts forth with ingenuity, as every encounter with color pools infuses our hero – ‘Blob’ – with crayon inspired greatness. Blob’s mission is to thwart the mysterious Papa Blanc, a religious icon preaching the benefits of a colorless existence.

De Blob 2’s world is an inspired one, art deco and packed deep with gorgeous skyscrapers, cars, boats, planes, trees, and really clever touches. Akin to PSN hit Flower, every time Blob interacts with these elements he literally brings them to magnificent colorful and vibrant life. Watching Prisma City erupt into splendid color never gets old, likewise unleashing this hue-bearing, liquid juggernaut from color-centric challenge to challenge. These efforts are continuously supported by a surprisingly robust, jazzy soundtrack. Not surprisingly, Blue Tongue’s team reaped several audio-visual awards for their Wii original, with said imagination transcending to their multi-console sequel.

Unfortunately, however, de Blob 2 doesn’t play as well as it should. By ‘should,’ I’m referring to but a few dozen more sorely needed hours in level design and/or quality assurance.

To elaborate - and for a title emphasizing literally fluid character movement and gameplay - de Blob 2’s camera is an abomination of unintelligent adjustment. The game goes out of its way to direct camera angles in the worst way imaginable, sending Blob on far too many paths to no where and/or incomplete jumps. Manual camera adjustments (and/or axis flip) did little to remedy these problems, making Blob’s movements eerily familiar to the supermarket trolley constantly wanting to veer right…despite oodles of brute force attempting to send it in the opposite direction. Blob sticks to walls when he shouldn’t, bounces to and from objects in reckless abandon.

Camera problems are exacerbated by finicky jumping dynamics, also distance measurement far too guesswork for my liking. For a kid-friendly title, I can imagine many a 10-year old throwing Dualshock’s across the room following failed jump attempt x40.

Moreover, de Blob 2 sports a smart color and task locator radar, one that sadly works only conceptually. Pointing Blob to needed color pools and/or task completion items are fantastic; having the liquidy bastard go in endless circles following inaccurate directions, shoddy controls, and a finicky camera…not so nice.

I offer the above knowing full well the intent. Blue Tongue wanted to create a near-constant sense of vibrancy and movement…almost Katamari-like in purpose. Still, a failure to commit wholly to either a precise or fluid approach produces a disjointed gameplay mess.

The same can be said about de Blob’s seemingly open world…yet one slave to a very generous, constant countdown timer. Free local residents, get time boosts…complete extra tasks secure points for character upgrades. The game, however, can’t decide where one ends and the other begins, making both level navigation and progression staccato in feel. Expect to wander around in circles. A lot.

Finally  - and not to be finicky – I’m really wanting de Blob 2 to determine an identity. I’ve got no beef in kid-friendly titles…just commit to them. There’s simply not enough here to draw in younger crowds, with Blob’s partner (and pseudo-narrator) ‘Pinky’ very generic and uninspired in implementation. In all fairness, Pinky can be played via a co-op, Move-friendly mode (for the PS3), one where Player 2 can shoot color into areas plus tackle more difficult challenges. Sounds pretty cool by design…but I couldn’t shanghai a neighborhood 8-year old in time for this review to test said coolness.

I offer the above criticisms with a fair amount of regret, which – once again – I believe could be tackled with subsequent patches and/or additional pre-release testing. Camera work is easily remedied, also physics of character movement. Level design…not so much, but dialog…certainly. In its current iteration, de Blob 2 is simply an average, but inspired game capable of a great deal more.

Last but not least: de Blob 2 is available across a slew of platforms…including portables. Logically, there are significant discrepancies between them (i.e. 2D vs. 3D).