de Blob - 8/10
De Blob – Nintendo Wii – Rated G
THQ/Blue Tongue
A Review by Stephen Heller
It’s not every day, hell it’s not every month I find a new Wii game that screams at me “PLAY ME”. With a plethora of party games, inadequate ports and general shovel ware, de Blob took me by surprise as a hit from a third party developer for the Wii. It’s unique visual style, genuinely funny story and colourful setting got me interested right away.
Gameplay – 8
You play as de Blob, a cute little guy who is stuck in a grey, colourless world. The I.N.K.T corporation has taken over the city and drained all it’s colour, making the citizens mindless drones and prisoners in a world with no meaning. You are part of a resistance, and it is your job to restore colour to the city, one block at a time. The story is played out in great rendered cutscenes, with humor that caters to all ages. Many of the older gamers will see some kind of regime likeness to the I.N.K.T corp, which shows how diverse the story is.
There are 10 worlds, and all are rather large and littered with challenges. You make your way around the city jumping from bulding to building, adding colour to the world and rescuing the citizens. Challenges range in difficulty and variety, some will require you to paint an entire block one colour before the time runs out, others will require you to paint all the park benches. The challenges are quick and fun, and are the core to the game. You will have to paint certain things certain colours, which will find you having to find a enemy who has a paint supply, attack the enemy, and mix colours to find the desired one. It’s fun and always keeps you thinking and keeping an eye out for where you are heading next
At it’s core de Blob is a platformer, and as most will know the success of a platformer is largely based on good controls. Thankfully de Blob has very tight controls, the nunchuck’s analogue stick is used to move the player, the Z button is used to lock onto enemies. The D-pad changes the camera, although the auto-cam does such a good job you will barely need to use this feature. The C button auto-centres the camera, and to jump you swing the remote down. This is my only gripe, the few moments in the game when de Blob utilizes the Wii’s gesture functions they work well, but why we can’t have a designated button for jumping I don’t know. Not very often, but sometimes when running on a tough challenge, I’d miss a jump as the Wii wouldn’t register the gesture. It’s frustrating, and while not a deal breaker, it certainly is a let down on an otherwise extremely good control system.
Graphics – 9/10
It’s a match made in heaven, the Wii and de Blob. The visual style is unique, shiny and detailed and bursting at the scenes with colour. It has an undeniable charm that is translated through not only it’s stellar looking cutscenes, but then translated into fantastic looking character models, environments and an impressive frame rate. There is no real draw distance so to speak, but the cities are rather large, full of buildings and characters and the game doesn’t seem to slow down at all, even at it’s most hectic moments
Audio- 7/10
The audio is a good as can be expected, but nothing that really stands out. The characters all make fun noises, but after rescuing a couple hundred citizens and hear them screeching “YIPPEE” in high pitched voices might make you want to scratch a chalkboard with your nails just to change it up a little.
When starting a level you get to chose what style music you want to listen to, can be rock, reggae, funk etc. It’s a nice feature, and by finishing levels and completing challenges you unlock more song styles.
Paint blotches sound great, enemies also sound decent, it’s nice to listen to, but not memorable like some other games out on the Wii.
Value- 8/10
The story mode will take quite a chunk of your time, and if you are like me and got addicted to completing every challenge you could find, it will take you many many hours. If you live with friends or family, I think that everyone in the household would get a kick out of this game, regardless of their age or gender. It’s a fun game, and with enough challenge for the “hardcore” crowd to keep them busy, yet easy enough for the “casual” gamers that populate the Wii Install Base, there is plenty bang for buck in de Blob
The Final Verdict
More third party developers should be releasing games like de Blob. What we have here is one of the most original games released on the system, a visual style that is good looking and technically sound, gameplay that caters for everyone and tight controls. With room to move with minor tweaks and improvements I hope we haven’t heard the last of de Blob and his funny cast of characters
8/10
De Blob News
De Blob Reviews
De Blob Videos