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de Blob
Reviewed on: WiiAvailable on: Wii, Nintendo DS
De Blob has finally spattered onto Wii's everywhere, but is it as good as the premise suggests? Samo sure thinks so!
Genre: Platformer
Release: 2008-09-25
Distributor: THQ
Do you remember the last time you played a game that was different? I mean something unique. Something that didn’t feel like it was cut from the same cookie cutter as every other game in the FPS genre or action RPG genre, just with its own paint scheme. I really can’t. I try to think of games that were different but Mass Effect was just Knights of the Old Republic 3, Bioshock was just System Shock 3 and Gran Turismo 5, well....
I’m referring to the games industry’s ability to regurgitate old games and ideas. Look at this year’s release list, Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, Project Gotham 4, Devil May Cry 4, The Sims 3, Red Alert 3, Soul Calibur 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Ninja Gaiden 2, Saints Row 2, Gears of War 2, anything published by EA, anything with ‘Tom Clancy’s’ in the title and of course Spore which was just flOw 2, pick any MMO 2, Command & Conquer 74, Civilisation 193 and Galactic Civ 3. Yes we are living in the year of the sequel , the hangover bred by the success of a healthy industry. Because healthy industries have lots of parties.
Another video games indsutry party...
Thankfully there are a couple of developers nominated as the designated driver, and they seem to have one or two great ideas on the way. The most significant is Little Big Planet, but it looks like those developers drove home drunk after drinking too much punch - it has big potential to flop. I genuinely hope it doesn’t but hey, who knows. The other is de Blob, a great Dutch idea - and we all know the Dutch weren’t drunk, they were stoned, so it’s got to be a winner.
THQ thought it was a winner too, so they bought the rights to the idea, but after deciding that the Dutch were too stoned to actually develop it, they handed it over to a trustworthy bunch who don’t drink.....much. The Australians. Yup, de Blob was developed right here in Melbourne by Blue Tongue Studios - Yug actually visited them for his preview earlier this year.
Blob is happy, his work is done
The premise of de Blob is pretty simple: the evil INKT, led by the nefarious Comrade Black, have opressed the residents of your home, Chroma City and are forcing their monochromatic ways onto the once colourful and cheerful Raydians, turning them into Graydians (duh, geddit?) and sucking the colour out of the place as they do so. You, de Blob, are the hero of the colour revolution, a paint covered ...uh... blobby thing, and you bounce from street to street, building to building re-colouring the once-vibrant world. The story is told out in vivid Pixar-like cutscenes with a beautifully twisted humour, mixed with interactive comics that double as the loading screen. A loading screen that has really been thought through, with the Wiimote becoming a really neat sort of texta, enabling you to draw on the screen itself.
de Blob is a platformer at heart and its structure is closer to Banjo Kazooie than anything else. Yup, that means you need to play each section in one sitting, losing your progress if you choose to quit and restart. This is no bad thing, because like Banjo Kazooie, deBlob is one of those games that is very, very good at making time disappear. Especially if you’re like me and like to get sucked in, take your time and try to do as many challenges and complete as much of the level as possible. The idea is to paint as much of each level or section of the city as possible, gaining the maximum amount of points and freeing as many Graydians as you can. There are also a series of challenges along the way which range from wresting landmarks from INKT’s control and colouring certain buildings.
Now where did those Inkies go.....?
The control scheme is fairly simple and at the core of one of deBlob's few real flaws. It’s too simple. You move around with the nunchuk analogue stick, use the Z button to target and a flick of the Wiimote jumps or slams down on things. I can’t help but think they missed a trick here though, the Wiimote has no bearing on the direction of your jumps and using the stick to guide as well as the ‘mote to jump is counter-intuitive. Too often I’d flick the Wiimote with a direction, wishing Blob would respond, but no, just a straight up jump. The other downside to the simplicity is often the game can feel a bit clunky and cumbersome, not good when you’re meant to be this dynamic blob that bounces from building to building at high speed.
Here!!
Flaws aside though, deBlob is one of those games that never sets out to be perfect and is all the better for it. The storytelling is wonderfully tongue in cheek, the characters, environments, sound and gameplay have a joyful brightness, a joie-de-vivre missing from most games, heck, since Banjo Kazooie. You might call it a bit kiddie but it’s really a fun-for-all-ages game, any gamer could get into this and have a lot of genuine good fun. That’s what is really at the core of de Blob. Fun. It’s not meant to be technically brilliant, even though the tech level for the Wii is pretty darn good. It doesn’t set out to be macabre or shocking. It just wants you to have fun.
It’s clear the dev team had fun making deBlob and that comes out in the finished product. There’s a startling amount of polish, repolish and attention to detail. There’s an atmosphere and a magic that make deBlob such a rich and vivid experience. Even the sound design is unique with the music starting out as a simple, sparse bass riff at the start of a section and then layering in new instruments each time you paint with a different colour. The music is a sort of eclectic mix of underground Jazz and is more than in the running for best original sound track this year. It’s nothing short of absolutely superb. I know I won’t be getting the main menu theme music out of my head for weeks to come and that’s no bad thing, it’s a great track. There were times I found myself seeking out as many different paint bots as possible just so I could hear the whole music track.
Colours, colours EVERYWHERE!!
de Blob is a flawed game. The control scheme is a bit off and the later levels get too repetitive but the way it oozes class, polish and style all while not taking itself too seriously is its ticket to greatness. I have no qualms or reservations in calling it the best game for the Wii this year, by some margin. Looks like creativity in the great sequel factory we know as the games industry isn’t dead just yet.
Final Verdict
Fun. Good, clean fun for all ages. Great tongue in cheek story with an atmosphere and style that is unique, rare and altogether inspired. The best Wii game this year. Easily.Pros
Attention to detail, amazing sound design and music track, great story, great environments, gameplay that is genuinely fun and accessible.
Cons
Controls are slightly off, can get a fraction repetitive.
