A Boy and His Blob ooze onto Wii

In 2005, Majesco Entertainment sought to revamp and revitalize the NES classic A Boy and His Blob with a new version of the game for the Nintendo DS. That project never came to fruition, but Majesco hasn't given up on the endearingly amorphous ooze just yet. Today the publisher revealed plans to launch a new A Boy and His Blob on the Nintendo Wii later this year.

Development duties for the new A Boy and His Blob have been entrusted to WayForward. It won't be the studio's first time revamping a retro franchise; in 2007, WayForward created Contra 4 for the DS. And though the company has specialized in portable development going back to the Game Boy Color, it also has experience working with the Wii on last month's WiiWare release Lit.

As in the 1989 original, gamers will need to navigate tricky obstacles with the assistance of a multitalented blob sidekick. When fed different flavored jelly beans, the blob gains special abilities such as changing into a ladder, trampoline, parachute, cannon, or other forms helpful for solving a variety of puzzles. The Wii game features 40 side-scrolling levels, unlockable bonus content, and a mix of new and old jellybeans to spice up the gameplay.

Majesco has pegged A Boy and His Blob for a fall release in North America, whereas European gamers have been told only to expect the game "later this year."