Adding colour to this grey world of de Blob is actually addictive
de Blob is an action puzzle title that allows players to explore and liberate an alien city from the evil, monochromatic I.N.K.T. Corporation that has taken over the city and outlawed all colour and fun from daily life. Playing as de Blob, gamers will embark on a quest to re-animate the city of Chroma, and bring spunk and character back to the oppressed, by splattering buildings, landmarks, and citizens with colour.
With the amount of mini-game compilations and ports of old games with tacked on motion support, it’s about time that the Wii got something that is unique and addictive, THQ’s answer to this is in de Blob, a game that lets you splash the grey world with all bright colours, is it enough to entice you to play?
De Blob isn’t just a game that hands you a paintbrush though; it’s a platformer with puzzle elements that should please about anyone. Essentially the story is quite comical, sort of like a Pixar movie with its cutscenes before each level. The game itself lets you control a blob that is incidentally called Blob. He’s pretty colourless to begin with; the way you get coloured is to run into these machines that have sucked up the colour from the city. You can mix colours to get the ones you need, some challenges require that you be a certain one and have a number of them to turn specific buildings back to their former glory.
It’s not that simple though; as you progress you’ll come across many hazards such as ink, water, spikes and the Inky enemies themselves. Combat is a simple case of locking on with the Z button and pulling up the Wiimote, as is smashing a machine that unleashes the entire colour back into an area, these unlock after a specific milestone has been reached. The same applies to opening gates to progress through the level, you need to reach a score by doing challenges that are sometimes easy and sometimes tough, though it’s never too challenging considering its target audience.
The formula becomes somewhat stagnant after a while, the game is fun for sure but it becomes a bit repetitive with what to do, go and do the challenges that are usually similar such as colour a building purple or racing to a point within a time limit. It becomes predictable and even though the difficulty rises throughout, it’s never to an impossible point. Of course, this is only a problem for those looking for a tough game…but thinking de Blob is one is a mistake.
The presentation of de Blob cannot be denied, it looks simply stunning and while it doesn’t run in 480p, it runs smoothly and most areas transform colour in real-time with no slowdown, its impressive and while the character models look somewhat dated, it doesn’t hinder the experience at all. De Blob proves that graphics simply don’t matter as much with its gameplay.
There are some nice multiplayer modes in Blob Party. The first “Paint Match” lets you and 3 other players paint as much of a level as you can, you can also paint over another player’s colours to steal their points. The second mode is called “Blob on the Run” and in it only one blob can paint while the others must slam him to win the ability to paint. The third and final multiplayer mode is “Blob Race” and in it you must watch for the flashing colours and be the first to reach and paint each building. It’s a lot of fun and will keep you busy for a few more hours after the story mode.
The Verdict
De Blob is definitely different, and in a good way too. It has some great ideas that are implemented well, it may wear thin after a while but when that happens…just play some multiplayer and paint the town red!
