For anyone interested in imaginative and stylish gameplay experiences, Australia-based Blue Tongue’s De Blob should be on your radar. In what can best be described as a mixture of Tony Hawk Pro Skater’s “Graffiti” mode and Mercury Meltdown’s color-blending mechanic, De Blob is one of those games that immediately grabs your attention with its unique style and look.
You control an adorable little anthropomorphic blob of goo who must re-paint a world turned black and white by the evil and oppressive INKT Corporation. Across 10 stages, you’ll complete various assigned missions and time trials which ultimately result in a world of vibrant colors and happiness. And isn’t that all we really want?
Last month when I first saw a demo of the game running on the Wii (it will be coming to the Nintendo DS, as well) , I was immediately impressed by the game’s style and direction. In what’s clearly a departure from what appears to be a crowded sea of disappointing, forced shovelware, De Blob stood out as an inventive and endearing addition to the Wii’s library. I finally had a chance to get my hands on the game at THQ’s Gamer’s Day, and I’m pretty pleased with how it’s coming along.
More after the jump.
To get it out of the way what you can clearly see with your own eyes, De Blob looks gorgeous. It has a clean, colorful look that seems to hit that sweet spot with Wii’s hardware, and its creative design puts the game neck-and-neck with any of the system’s first-party titles. Subtle touches like splatters and trails of paint that smear the environment give the game a remarkable appearance, especially when in seen motion. Undoubtedly, Blue Tongue has done a tremendous job of creating a living canvas in which to splash and smother with color.
The core of the game is simple, and that’s to simply bring color to the now lifeless, black and white world. When you begin the game, your blob is a lifeless grey, which simply won’t cut it. By target different colored paint bots with the Wii nunchuck’s Z trigger, you can then hop on and smash them using the Wii remote to acquire that given color. Once slathered in one of various primary colors, you’ll then tag the world’s grey buildings to truly give them life. In many cases, colors must be mixed to accomplish specific goals. To create green, for example, you must find and mix yellow and blue paint bots. Finding any water will rinse the blob back to his default grey color, and nasty black ink is bad news that can quickly drain your health.
Moving the blob is easy and fun, with basic motions controlled with the nunchuck’s analog stick, and jumps are accomplished the flick of the Wii remote. Jumping feels good and responsive, and you can even readjust the blob mid-flight by tweaking with the analog stick. The blob can also wall jump, so flicking the remote at the right time will have you bouncing around from building to building; done correctly, you can paint an entire city block without touching the street. Truth be told, there aren’t any mechanics here that really seem to have required the use of the Wii’s motion controls, but the flick controls do give you a nice level of interactivity that you might not ordinarily get by simply pressing a button.
The noise at THQ’s Gamer’s Day event was earsplitting, so it was hard to really get a feel for De Blob’s sound, but the more private demo I was given last month revealed some remarkable sound design decisions. Each color, it seems, is mapped to a different instrument and harmony that will flesh out the game’s jazzy soundtrack. As a result, adding different colors to the world will have an evident impact on the game’s music, as you add layers of horns, vocal harmonies, bass, and more.
Thus far, De Blob has really done a lot to impress me, and I’m looking forward to spending more time with the little, rolling ball of goo when THQ ships it this summer. If the game can offer enough variety in terms of missions and types of gameplay (I spent most of the demo painting areas while racing against a clock), THQ might be one of the few Wii publishers to give the first-party a run for its money.
Contest:
11:04 AM on 04.07.2008
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Whaaaa?
That said, this looks really cool.
2/10
Riiiiight?
<.<