Bulb Boy shines again in Jar of Despair

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for sequel to 2015 cult hit creepy-cute horror game on Steam for Windows and Mac

It's been ten years since the little toddler with a glass bulb for a head faced off against the forces of evil invading his home, but now he's going to have to do so once again in Bulb Boy 2: Jar of Despair. 

In the first game, Bulb Boy awoke from a nightmare to find himself in an even more frightening reality, with his Grandpa-raffin and pet Mothdog missing and various horrible monsters roaming the house deep in the Electric Forest. Having conquered his fears and saved the day, nothing could ever make him confront such horrid creatures again... except maybe a sandwich? Yes, Grandpa-raffin is feeling snacky, so he sends Bulb Boy "into the eerie depths of the basement in search of a precious jar full of delicious jam." Naturally, it's not as easy as grabbing one from the shelf and hightailing it back upstairs. Instead, the young protagonist will need to gather his courage once more to "navigate through the dark, shadowy corners of the cellar and face sticky jelly creatures and their spine-tingling boss who wants Bulb Boy's head for his own."

As with its predecessor, Bulb Boy 2 features a delightful animated cartoon art style that would be perfect for a Saturday morning cartoon if not for all the nightmare-fuel jelly beasts it depicts, often in close-up "disgusting detail," each of them as grotesque as they are hungry for fragile-headed little boys. This is no stealth-survival game, however, but rather another wordless, largely linear combination of horror and classic-styled point-and-click puzzle solving inspired by Machinarium and Gobliiins. You'll need to keep your head in order to succeed – or not, in this case, as one of Bulb Boy's unique talents is being able to unscrew his glowing, oversized head when necessary and walk around without it, along with an ability to survive electrical shocks. As you progress, you will "slowly unfold a twisted story" filled with surprises, accompanied along the way by an original score and "mind-scratching sound effects."

Having waited a decade already, there's no need to delay any longer, as Bulb Boy 2: Jar of Despair has launched on Steam for Windows and Mac. If you're not sure it's quite your jam, you can try it out first through the playable demo that's also available. The game will also be coming soon to GOG and Epic along with a console version for Switch, though no target release date has yet been revealed.