by Amr (@siegarettes)

• de Blob 2
  
• Developer-  Blue Tongue Entertainment, Blitworks
  
• Publisher- THQ Nordic
  
• PS4, PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Switch, Wii
  

[TRANSCRIPT BELOW]

When I started de blob 2 I expected a breezy puzzle platformer full of cities ready to be painted. What I was greeted with was an opening that dragged its feet, was a bit too wordy on the tutorials, and took its sweet time getting to the playful coloring bits. It was all well and good from there, with the dynamic soundtrack and simple puzzles providing a pleasant whir of activity.

Then I hit Blanctown.

This is where we find that the villain, Papa Blanc, has removed all the color from the neighborhood to turn it all white, kicking out people who used to live there, and turning it into a gated community. To put a stop to him I needed to find underground protesters, take back cultural centers like the library and theater, take down his brainwashing centers–on of which happens to be a church–and uh, go to the Senate to make an appeal against him before the election?

I mean, Papa Blanc sure does sound like a politician doing some heavy gentrification, if you ask me.

This is of course undone in the next stage, where after showing Papa Blanc rig and win an election he–in an act of dramatic both-sides-ism, reveals himself to be COMRADE BLACK.

Still, this a surprisingly involved political plot for a kids game. And while its ideas are ultimately decoration, de blob 2 shows a better acknowledgement of the mechanisms of resistance than the average “shoot people until your revolution bar fills up” that most games employ. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll destroy plenty of dictator statues and propaganda machines along the way. But by setting conflicts in cultural centers it shows an understanding that the struggle happens as much in people’s hearts as on the streets.

A bit shallow, but it makes it more interesting than the plethora of other games tackling the subject.