de Blob

The Good
De Blob has a lot of charm, not only is everybody designed like something you would get if you'd take stop-motion pictures of a bucket of paint been emptied on the floor, but everything is also so cheerful and over the top. I had to laugh when we were assaulting a fun park filled with the Inkies, the reason was how overly cheerful all the little soldiers wandered into the battlefield after I took down the big guns, they were practically dancing. I always stayed around after completing all the objectives to safe as many of the little bastards as I could, I just felt sorry for them and wanted to see them cheerful again.

That "charm" could probably not exist if the people behind this game didn't make it so colorful, the entire goal of the game is to remove anything that is grey or boring by touching it while you are covered in paint. If you were to play through an entire mission and look back at what you have accomplished (preferably from the highest point you can reach), you would see a whole mess of colors. If you have perfectionism you should probably stay away from this game, there is too much to paint and it always ends with a big, colorful mess.

This game is probably unique when it comes to gameplay, so you probably have to play it for the experience alone, since there will probably never be a game like it (not counting Microsoft Paint). While a lot of games let you paint stuff, often with blood, there aren't a lot of games where paint is also your weapon and the only way to accomplish your goals. I will always support artistic and original games and if you do so as well, then this game can't possibly disappoint.

I really love it how certain buildings transform if you paint them, every map has a few special buildings that need to be painted by latching unto it and shaking the Wii remote, if you have enough of the right paint it will transform. Transforming these buildings affects the map, for example: painting a water pump will remove oil and painting a police station will decrease enemy presence. It is really a relief when you finally take down a Tank Depot and can finally rest easy, knowing that there won't be any tanks ruining your day anymore.

When I started playing this game I figured it was just an easy game for kids and that I would breeze through it like I was playing a Call of Duty game (four to five hours), but to my surprise this game took up my entire day. I started around 11 AM and I finished the game at 7 Pm, the difficulty curve was better than I thought. Nearing the end I really had to work hard in order to get all the points required to open the next part of the stage and some of the challenges started kicking my butt until I wore it as a hat.

The Bad
The controls are really annoying and the camera isn't a team-player, normally I would be a man and force myself to ignore it, but this game actually expected me to do a good bit of precision platforming with these controls. The problem is that Blob always attached himself to walls when you don't want him to and sometimes he suddenly just jumps twice as far into the nearest oil pit. There was also a moment when I had to carefully walks on a narrow pole when suddenly the camera changed position.

There is a timer for each mission and a much smaller timer for each objective you receive, personally I didn't really have a problem with this since I could easily make it to the end with at least twenty minutes left, but little children and non-gamers might have a problem with this. It doesn't even make any sense, why is there a timer, isn't getting the job done more important than getting it done fast?, and if it isn't, then why do I always have to paint everything in very specific colors?

Every time you score enough points gameplay is interrupted, so that the game can you show you what you have unlocked. I didn't mind this in Team-Fortress 2 because they did it when you died, but here you are just having fun when the game suddenly decides you have to stop playing for a few seconds, so it can show you a button appearing or a tank coming out of a building. By the way, do you remember how Ocarina of Time forced you to hear to a small story every time a new enemy showed up, of course not, that game understood that we'd ask for help if we needed it.

There are two types of gibberish: The type that actually suits the game and adds to the style and humor of it (Banjo-Kazooie for example) and the type that is just downright annoying (Grabbed by the Ghoulies) and this game certainly belong in the latter category. My biggest problem with the gibberish in this game is that it often sounds like normal English before descending into high-pact yelling again. Either hire voice-actors to speak English or use computers to stitch complete randomness together.

The Bottom Line
I had a lot of fun with De Blob and I am happy that I decided to play this game the entire day, even when considering this is the only day I'll be able to play games (I'll be busy with the Dour Day's Marches in Nijmegen). The game is fun and colorful and a few gameplay issues can't spoil it for me, this is one of the better third-party games you will find on the Nintendo Wii.

Casual gamers will probably have a ball with this one, but whether or not a core gamer will enjoy it depends on how much that person loves artistic games and if he or she likes the colorful graphics and cheerful atmosphere of the game.