Painting the town never took such a literal meaning until De Blob reared its head on the gaming scene. Based on a freeware student project, De Blob is a unique combination of unique game-types all fused into a hyperactive adventure game for the Nintendo Wii and DS.



What started as a university student-project is now a possible bargain-bin candidate. No, I’m just kidding (well, sort of). THQ is well-known for publishing fairly good games, and even if this is for the Wii, there’s a chance that this could be moderately good. I still have grave reservations about this game, though. Nevertheless, players will be taking on the role of a pudgy, rolly blob, who will execute their adventures as a half-ball, half-paint brush and full-on style innovator.

The story is quite simplistic: black and white ink blobs have zapped all the life and color out of the town and it’s up to De Blob to bring back color, groovy music and lots of fun. Now don’t get too bedazzled by the description. While the actual gameplay consists of rolling, hopping and gliding around – with paint splashing everywhere and the city being painted in color – the pace can be somewhat dull. Maybe some of the latter levels prompt for faster or more challenging gameplay. But from the outset...there’s just a lot of bouncing off buildings while they’re splashed with eccentric designs that spawn from a stolid pallette of colors.

One of the highlights of the game, however, is the fact that the music alters and engages the player based on how much is painted and what colors are used. It’s definitely nothing quite as nonconcentric as EA’s trailer music for Mirror’s Edge. But from what has been on display, so far, the music could prove to be one of the game’s strong points.

For those of you out there who could care less about a game unless it had a plethora of enemies to engage, then fear not, for De Blob has many an ink-blot that need dispatching. The “combat” (if you really want to call it that) is typical of the old-school, head-bopping mechanic. Players will use the Wii-mote to engage the evil ink-blots with simple bouncing/rolling maneuvers. Aside from the combat and painting the city, there’s some side-quests that players can go on throughout the 10 available story missions, including time-attacks and various races. There’s also five additional multiplayer modes for up to four-players. These modes range from racing, to paint-tag.

I would hate for this preview to come off as seeming like its positing De Blob as a dull and single-digit I.Q. game, but it’s tough to write about this game in any other way. The story, characters and cinematics – from what’s been on display – seem as if they could make for an excellent Saturday morning cartoon. But unless Blue Tonque has something special hidden within the gameplay context of De Blob, this may end up falling well below the level of being mediocre.

Nevertheless, if things start to look up for this exclusive Nintendo title, we’ll be sure to notify you here at Blend Games. Otherwise you can look for De Blob for the Nintendo DS and Wii to hit store shelves on September 22nd.

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