Some gameplay issues keep de Blob from being an instant classic, but it oozes (literally) personality.

User Rating: 7 | de Blob WII

The Good: Riveting plot/premise, accessible to all ages; strong art direction; unprecedent use of dynamic music

The Bad: Tacky jumping controls x unpredictable camera = leaps of faith; no checkpoints

Much like modern Pixar/Dreamworks animation movies de Blob has something for everyone. It may look/sound silly for a hasty observer, but adults can quickly relate to the INKT army and their Hitler-ish leader invading a colorful country to steal their colors--and pretty much their citizens' lives alongside it.

The setting allows CG movies to shine throughout the game, but not only that; from the stances of the heroes/enemies to the comics-alike loading screens everything in the game is permeated by an undeniably strong sense of place and character--merits of a cohese and thoughtful art direction.

Gameplay-wise de Blob offers city-sized playgrounds for a player willing to explore and make a mess out of them. The objective is to take paint back from evil robots spread around a given location and return the cities to their former glory--the more colorful the better. Once certain score thresholds are reached new areas will be unlocked until you can move on for good and call it a day--at least for story's sake, since you can always get back to a level in the free modes that start to become available as you advance in the main one.

Inside those levels allies will propose a decent variety of challenges--follow a trail within a time limit, paint a whole block a given color, smash a group of enemies or reclaiming a big landmark, for instance--that will mostly lead you naturally towards the aforementioned score thresholds; but the cities being so huge and so inviting to exploration only makes the lack of checkpoints a more evident problem, since at times you can even get past the 2-hour mark to get a level done.

Gameplay can also be hurt by the camera x jumping issue that plagues almost every 3D platformer since the genre's very beginnings. A homing button helps that a little but it can become a real pain in tricky sections or when you're doing timed objectives.

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Goods and bads aside the game really sets itself apart of other peers--and pretty much any other game for that matter--in sound design. The music themes are vivid, the real-life band that executes 'em make them shine even brighter but it digs deeper in: dynamic sound design is simply unprecedent here. Each instrument is tied to a color; and for each theme (and each dynamic instrument) hundreds of improvisation cues were recorded. The in-game result is a delight: as you paint the landscape a choosen color the related musician "starts improvising" over the visual changes you're causing. As soon as you switch colors--or mix another to get a third one--the "musician" changes on the fly, lending the soundtrack a neverending row of possibilities and paying a proper tribute to how a funky/jazzy live band should always sound. The cover percentage of an area also tops new layers of music over the minimalistic arrangements that throw you into the level by the beginning, coming to a full bloom by the climax endings and creating yet another attachment with the presentation overall.

If judged by the tight platformers guide de Blob can't be taken too seriously; but maybe that's just the wrong way to look at it. It has much more to offer to be simplified by inadequate meters.