Video Game Review: De Blob, Nintendo Wii

I have been waiting for the release of De Blob for what feels like forever. This past weekend I finally got my grubby little hands on a copy, and I could not wait to get my butt home to pop the disc into my Nintendo Wii and see what this long anticipated game had to offer.

De Blob starts off with your menus of course. You have the option to play in the Story Mode, or the Free Paint mode.

I of course jumped right on in to the story, saving the free paint mode for when the game pissed me off enough to quit it for a bit, and just have some fun free painting.

De Blob starts off with a small story which is easy to grasp. Evil Inkts have taken over the communities, and drained all of the color from the city! It is up to De Blob to restore color back to the city, defeating the evil inkts.

It just seemed so deliciously childish, but me having grown up on vivid colorful games was more than happy to restore the color back to the land, and crown myself a winner!

At first everything was simple and gradually as I was introduced to new worlds things got harder and harder, and seeing how the controls to De Blob sometimes have a mind of their own things can get touch, especially when you have a time limit.

You control De Blob using the nun chuck, and you make him jump by using the wii mote. Everything works pretty flawlessly except for when you are trying to maneuver De Blob (which is a ball of paint goo) up city buildings. Seeing how he sticks to walls, getting him to jump when you want him to jump sometimes results in him flying a few blocks away, thus ruining your chances at beating a challenge within the world you are in.

Mainly each city you have to 'color in' has a set amount of time, and time is ticking. At first I though I was going to hate the count down, but as you complete challenges or paint buildings sometimes you will release a clock which will give you an extra 30 seconds, 60 seconds, or 180 seconds. Before you know it, you have acquired around 20 minutes of time, leaving you more than enough time to complete the world you are in.

Ready, Set...

Paint!!!!
 
De Blob is all about painting the city, and it is a hell of a lot of fun doing. When you finish painting an entire block of buildings, a bunch of little dull white colored creatures will fall from the city's windows or out doors. If you roll over them and paint them they will give you a clock adding more time to your count down.

Paint is located throughout the entire world in either blue, red, or yellow. It is up to you to mix these colors in order to create other colors. Although this is not necessary for normal roaming and painting outside of a challenge, sometimes you will need certain colors to finish challenges.

Within each world, De Blob will encounter quite a few challenges that you will want to complete for extra time, and points. Some of the challenges are difficult, and others can be done in less than 30 seconds.

All in all though you are allowed to basically pick back up and start where you left off if you fail to finish a challenge within the allowed time frame. Harder challenges though in further boards will make you start all over again. Mostly though challenges are pretty easy, and if you fail you will finish them in another try or two. Seeing how the game is so fun though, you won't mind if you have to start all over again.

As you progress on, boards will add new twists that are supposed to make completing the level difficult. Enemies will be added to try and drain De Blob of his color. You see De Blob has enough capacity within him to add 100 paint points. Accidentally being hit by an Inkt, will drain him of his paint points.

These enemies though are easy to kill. A quick tap of the nun-chucks Z button, and a swift motion of the wrist using the wii mote, and De Blob will splatter them dead.

Other things to look out for are black patches of goo. If De Blob lands into any of these black patches by accident you will have to steer him quickly to the nearest water pond, or erupted fire hydrant.

Landing in the black ooze will drain him of paint points, however if his paint points drain to zero, he dies, and you must start over. Dying though is rather difficult seeing how water ponds, and hydrants are usually nearby the ooze spills.

Other than those 2 things though, there is no many huge and difficult challenges presented in the game. Younger gamers may have a difficult time near the end of the game, but all in all you can roll through the game in about 9 or 10 hours.

Re-play Value:
 
De Blob does have re-play value, because after each level you beat you will be given a score, and a medal. That medal can be either bronze, silver, or gold. If you finish a world with just a bronze medal, you will want to go back to re-play the level to try and get a better medal and score. The higher the score the more unlockable will be available.

Sounds:
 
Okay, the music in the game is pretty neat, and may be a little familiar to some of you. A new tune is unlocked with each level you beat. All of the tunes sound like the background music that would be played in an old Ren & Stimpy cartoon. I being a fan of the old school cartoon noticed the similarities immediately, and hey...it was cool by me.

Issues:
 
Although I enjoyed rolling my way through the levels and painting the town, the game does in fact get a little repetitive. You paint, paint some more. Mix colors, complete challenges, and that is pretty much it. It is a LOT of fun, don't get me wrong. Over time though things do get a little boring, especially seeing that the game lacks harder challenges.

The jump action that is performed by flipping the wii mote up is a little glitchy. Wait... it's a lot glitchy, and really began to annoy me the longer I played.

The camera controls are also screwy. You can maneuver the cameras angle by using the wii motes D Pad, but it does not work quite the way you would expect it to.

Overall:
 
Issues aside, De Blob is a pretty enjoyable game. Painting towns and restoring color back to drab gray cities was fun. Although a little repetitive, it was still worth the $49.99 I paid for it, and it is a game that I totally would pick back up every now and then.

It's a game kids will love, and adults will enjoy as well. Usually when a game fails to 100% impress me I would recommend a rent. De Blob though; seeing that it has such high replay value, I'd recommend you purchase it.