Not all games will rock your world. Some are just a nice way to spend your time
If I had to describe the game with one word, there is no doubt in my mind:
Cute
ABahB is simply one of the cutest game ever. Simplistic, yet great graphics and nice music helps the effect, but the main reason is the friendship between a blob and a small boy. There is even a button assigned to hugging Blob! Alright, it has its gameplay reasons, but still.
The story is told through showing over telling. There is literally no dialogue, so to get the name of the planet, you have to check out the manual. Still, the story is so simple that you hardly need to. Gameplay is not explained either, which is a good thing to me, since it is easy enough to figure out through just trying buttons out. However, to give you some hints, there are often signs with a picture og the thing your Blob should transform into.
The game has four locations with ten levels each. In each level there are three treasure chests and by collecting them you get an item to decorate the location with. If you get all three, you also get a small bonus level. Then when you take the bonus level you get another item, along with a small clip from the art design. One of the highlights is a small film clip with a small kid hugging a sleeping bag (being the model for the boy hugging the blob).
My main problem with the game is that it is so terribly slow-paced. It is understandable considering how puzzle based this 2D platformer is, but it is still more slow than other puzzle platformers. You have to throw a bean to make Blob into something, then use that something, then press C to make him transform back, then often throw beans for the next task. The result is that while none of the levels are much bigger than levels in 2D Mario games, they take more time, much more.
And the fact that you need your blob so much is complicated by the intelligence of the Blob not being all that great. Say you've used him as a trampoline to get up on a ledge. Afterwards he is under the ledge. You throw a bean to turn him into an anvil. Instead of going around to jump up, he keeps jumping straight up, not achieving anything.
Very often you have to use the balloon transformation to make him go to where you want, which is slow, but it works fair enough. While the game is not too repetitive, the slowness occasionally makes it boring. And the music just increases the feeling of slowness. Still, the slowness does make it a rather relaxing game a lot of the time. Some times though, you will have limited time, which makes it frustrating how slow things work. You don't have a timer, but if you're too slow, an enemy will kill you.
What is even more frustrating is that the few times when it goes fast, like when the Blob turns into a rocket, the controls are a bit off, making it harder than it ought to be. Most of the time it is pretty easy though, and the puzzles do work well, so the game is not really bad.
The level design varies in quality, in fact I could easily review each location as an individual game. The first location has boring and lame levels, and if the whole game was like that, I would give it a 6.0. The second and third location had great levels though, and the fourth is fair enough.
All in all, A Boy and his Blob is a slow game that is ocassionally boring and occassionally frustrating, but good most of the time and a nice way to kill some hours, but not the most memorable game you'll come across.