Possibly one of the finest games on Wii since Super Mario Galaxy.
There have been some complaints that the game lacks any sense of direction or incentive to be playing, which really is complete drivel in all fairness considering that there is a plot and a reason for your painting the town red (and indeed all manner of other colours) which is pretty clear from the beginning of the game. You are Blob and you are a revolutionary sent to scupper the plans of the fascistic INKT who are stealing the colour from the world.
Your ultimate goal is to free the slaves called Graydiuns of each stage and to bring colour and fun back to a now grey and unexciting world. To free Graydiuns and convert them to your cause you must paint blocks of buildings various colours. This is the most basic part of the game and you can go around the town freely, painting anything you come across by rolling over it or by jumping into it. You are't equipped with any paint to begin with however and Blob is nothing more than a hollow translucent ball at the start of the stages. To gather paint you must destroy Paintbots, each one of three primary colours. Take out two or more Paintbots of differing colours and those will mix to produce another colour, for example attacking a blue and yellow Paintbot one after another will mix those colours to produce Green paint. Therein lies De Blobs tactical side as the missions dotted around the stages in the form of your revolutionary buddies require you to paint building in specific colours to achieve points needed to progress to the next section of the stage. As well as paining missions there are also timed speed runs where you must follow flares to the finish line and also rampage missions where you have to dispatch the INKT guards all within a specific time limit.
Obstacles in the game include the likes of the INKT forces of varying varieties, each requiring specific tactics to defeat, although most just requite a simple Z-targeting and jump to take care of them. There are also traps such as hotspots which you will need to find switches for to turn on and off and black ink which graudally drains energy as well as ruins your paintwork. Each of these elements are thrown in to make the missions that much more challenging and to give the game a more purposeful feel and the player a sense of achievemet when they complete the various missions and stages.
The graphics in De Blob are of the sort of Saturday morning cartoon variety akin to Bluetongue's Spongebob Squarepants outing, although the quality of the characters and the framerate is comparable to Super Mario Galaxy. That said the environments certainly aren't as lush as SMG's or as varied. Seeing as the main task is to turn drab grey office blocks into works of art there isn't a huge amount of scope from which to draw inspiration from. This is forgivable however as the whole idea of painting everythig around you soon becomes an incredibly addictive experience that simply does not need mind blowing graphics to achieve greatness. The humour and charm gone into producing the game and not to mention the excellent cutscenes is also commendable and keeps you hooked, you look forward to seeing the next comedy moment as a reward for completing a stage.
Soundwise Bluetouge have done a fantastic job utilising fmod technology. Before you begin a level you can select the type of music you want to have playing in the back ground and when you sart the level the music is eerily subdued - however splash a bit of paint on the wall and you might here some vocals, a bit more in a different colour then some saxaphone and so on and so forth until you have built a town that looks and sounds alive with Graydiuns cheering you as you go and dancing in the streets. It can be quite heartwarming stuff.
If any issue is to be brought to task it would be that of the control system, in particular the jump mechanism which relies on a quick flick of the Wii remote. Granted this is what we expected most platformers to be like on the Wii at some stage, however it can be a little imprecise and when you are trying to line up the perfect jump it can all go horribly wrong very easily. Why it is that you can end up sliding down walls sometimes and jump off them at others is a question you may find yourself asking as you curse the TV. That said it is still only a minor issue and rarely does it spoil this great game.
De Blob is not goign to be for everyone, and don't let my opening headline fool you into thinking I consider this as highly as Super Mario Galaxy - it is a completely different game. What it does feel like though is a pure Nintendo game - if this had Kirby or a Pokemon or even a character from the Super Mario Bros roster then this game would probably be getting higher scores from some - as it stands though Bluetongue have come up with a game that stands up well against in-house Nintendo products and even recalls some of the classic Rare moments. It's that good and I thouroughly recommend this title to all Wii owners.