De Blob (Wii)

[The Mole]

After being majorly let down by Samba De Amigos poor controls i moved onto De Blob.

The contrast in this area is vast, as the controls here work flawlessly.

For those of you that do not know, De Blob is a platformer which has aspects of Katamari and Tony Hawks games in it.

The idea is to paint the city. The colour has been zapped and you need to restore it. To do this you slam into paintpots which then give you 10 paintpoints of that colour. This means you can bump into 10 things and paint them that colour before the paint runs out. The core gameplay is you going from city to city (they are all interlocked by gates (which are closed katamari style till you mean the required points level) and beating the objectives to gain time. Time is essential here, because if it runs out all your hard work is wiped. You gain bonus time by beating the objectives and you gain medals depending on how much of each city you colour.

The game throws up some interesting dynamics. These come in the form of water and black ink. You touch any water and your blob is wiped of all colour. You touch any black ink and your blob is turned black and starts to shrink till you get to water to get rid of that black ink.

Thats the story mode.

You also have a freepaint mode and a multiplayer mode

Needless to say its great fun just bounding about the city painting. The game throws up a semi unique graphical style that works very well. Further to this you get to choose a mood before you start each level, each mood is a different type of music. Only 2 mods are available as the start with many more to unlock.

This game is a gem, like say Boom Blocks, Eledees, or even the katamari games this is sure to gain a hardcore following with very poor overall sales. Why is that? the game is just not mainstream enough in my opinion it screams hardcore but those that do pick it up are sure to love it.

Sorry the impressions are brief, a certain Nintendo DS Sonic RPG is taking up a lot of my gaming time at the moment

[Miguel007]

After being majorly let down by Samba De Amigos poor controls i moved onto De Blob.

The contrast in this area is vast, as the controls here work flawlessly.

For those of you that do not know, De Blob is a platformer which has aspects of Katamari and Tony Hawks games in it.

The idea is to paint the city. The colour has been zapped and you need to restore it. To do this you slam into paintpots which then give you 10 paintpoints of that colour. This means you can bump into 10 things and paint them that colour before the paint runs out. The core gameplay is you going from city to city (they are all interlocked by gates (which are closed katamari style till you mean the required points level) and beating the objectives to gain time. Time is essential here, because if it runs out all your hard work is wiped. You gain bonus time by beating the objectives and you gain medals depending on how much of each city you colour.

The game throws up some interesting dynamics. These come in the form of water and black ink. You touch any water and your blob is wiped of all colour. You touch any black ink and your blob is turned black and starts to shrink till you get to water to get rid of that black ink.

Thats the story mode.

You also have a freepaint mode and a multiplayer mode

Needless to say its great fun just bounding about the city painting. The game throws up a semi unique graphical style that works very well. Further to this you get to choose a mood before you start each level, each mood is a different type of music. Only 2 mods are available as the start with many more to unlock.

This game is a gem, like say Boom Blocks, Eledees, or even the katamari games this is sure to gain a hardcore following with very poor overall sales. Why is that? the game is just not mainstream enough in my opinion it screams hardcore but those that do pick it up are sure to love it.

Sorry the impressions are brief, a certain Nintendo DS Sonic RPG is taking up a lot of my gaming time at the moment

Fantastic impressions Mole. My copy from Play has turned up today, the wait to get home and give this a try is unbearable.

[ezee ryder]

Just had a short session on this and I absolutely love it. If you own a Wii, you really have to at least to try it out and see for yourself what a cool little game this is.

The Mole pretty much explained how the game works and the main mechanics. They really do work well, bouncing around from building to building couldn't be more easier. Jumping is controlling soley by the flicking up the Wii remote then guiding de Blob using the control stick on the nunchuck. You can target enemies/objects with the Z button and then move down the Wii remote to slam on them, again it works really well. The only minor gripe I have is with the camera which occassionally doesn't go where you want to but is easily centred by a press of the C button.

Apart from the main levels/areas there is still loads to do. When you finish a particular level/area you unlock a couple of more challenges which again are really fun. I had to one challenge where I had to paint buildings a certain colour within a time limit and then escape down a "hatch". It took me a couple of tries (it was quite challenging!) but I eventually got it done and then guided de Blob away to safety

Oh and the game isn't just as simple as get the colour by jumping the paintbot, it goes a little more deeper than that. You only have 3 different coloured paintbots, which are the red, yellow and blue. You have to use them to create different colours (e.g jump on a red one and then yellow one to change de Blob to orange) and you will be required to this quite alot to complete certain objectives, its great as it adds a little more depth to otherwise simple but fun levels.

Once again The Mole is right when he said this will probably gain a small hardcore following due to it not being mainstream enough, shame really as it is really good game. Infact I would go as far as saying it is one of the best games on the Wii, give it a try folks!

[Ady]

I'm surprised there isn't more talk about this game on here - it's fantastic!

I picked it up this Sunday past and have been playing it ever since. It's a very polished and well made 3rd party effort.

It's best feature of course is the audio. With each stage, you pick a soundtrack before you begin. The game starts in silence, but as you add colours to the world, it builds up the soundtrack, with each paint colour representing a different "instrument" which is added to the overall track as you splash away. Getting inked, then reverts the soundtrack to a minimal pulse, awaiting your colourful reinterpretation.

It's a very nice feature which really adds to the feel of the game. So far, all the tunes seem to be Funk-based, which is cool but it would be nice to hear other styles mixed in, too. Some House or Electro would work well in this game - and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like House music!

[merf]

just got round to playing my bargain Play copy of this.

really nice game with one almost totally game ruining decision, why the blody hell make the jump a waggle ? jumping is a precision button based thing.

i lov the concept, art, music but this stupid bloody waggling is just mental, how could they have thought it as good idea ?

just completed the first level and quite enjoyed it, will see if the control kills it for me though, can see it could if the levels get trickier and need precision.

[paulus]

Its Really Good!

Was dubious after paying only ?17.99 delivered, but its excellent. It has an original graphic style and seems to be the b#stard child of Mario Galaxy and JS Radio!



If you have a Wii and ?18 spare then get on over to Play.com sharpish!

[merf]

persevered and controls not great but not a killer I first thought.

this really is a charming game which has clearly had some love poured into it. the music is brilliant and really adds to the experience.

if it can't sell at £18 and gain some nice vibes here then its doomed.

looks like the calls that this has cult classic written all over it are going to be proved correct.

[Pookmunki]

I've spent plenty more, on plenty worse, plenty of times...

Serious contender for Wii GOTY, echoing the above, it's obvious a lot of love has been poured into this. I think the last game to give me that 'one more go' feeling was Crackdown

[JohnMcL7]

I'm really surprised to read praise for the controls which at best are bearable and at other times incredibly frustrating. The 'waggle' for the jump and smash is just downright irritating and a poor choice, given the amount of jumping you have to do I find my arm gets sore after playing for any length of time. While the gesture is recognised most of the time, other times it isn't causing my blob to fall to his death or fail to do some other life saving action. The mid-air directional controls are flaky as well especially after wall jumping where the blob seems to at times just launch in a random direction which is not helped by the camera suddenly swinging just before the jump.

None of this is helped by the Z targetting which seems fairly random as well, I just can't seem to rely on it. There are some strict timed levels where all this put together really shows up the issues in the game.

A bit more testing on the collision areas wouldn't have hurt either, it's not quite aligned with the scenery in some areas. I've managed to get completely stuck a couple of times when the blob has slipped through a gap that you can't move out of, there's no respot option which means you're stuffed if this happened. I was trying to get the last few parts of a level done after spending over an hour on it getting everything when my blob slipped between two crates and became completely stuck. The only option was to restart from the beginning of the level - if someone can probe me wrong here please do as this is my biggest issue with the game.

However I don't regret buying the game, the reason the above issues are frustrating is because the rest of the game is so good. It's so satisfying colouring everything without getting tedious, I really enjoy coming into an area and changing it from a monochrome dullness to bright vibrant colours. The humour in the FMV is great and actually worth watching rather than skipping as I normally do.

The compass is extremely simple and works well, rather than have a minimap you hold down A and it will show you the nearest paintbots (for colour), water and then a context sensitive icon. This could be the nearest challenge, a challenge objective, a nearby enemy or the nearest unpainted object.

Definitely one of my favourite games for the Wii and a bargain at 18 pounds.

John

[The Mole]

I know personally why i found the control system good, it was because it was workable for the game.

I could list so many Wii games where the control system has spoiled the game and in many cases, made it un playable. This could have easily happened here, but i found the setup to be easy enough to get to grips with and very workable for the tasks the game has instore.

The game is not without some minor flaws as you pointed out, but at £18 even £28 the game should be along side Smash Bros Brawl and Boom Blox in every Wii owners collection. Its such a shame for the developer that this has sold so badly (it only made 19 in the Wii chart in the UK) as its a unique and enjoyable title which will no doubt be passed over for a sequal and we will no doubt instead get another below par mini game collection

I have come to the conclusion Wii owners do not want quality games, they want cheap rubbish they can play for an hour then let gather dust.

[JohnMcL7]

I don't find the controls workable for the game, in fact there are some levels which seem to specifically highlight the problems - one of the early sprints means you have to wall jump, Z-target to paintbot, then wall jump and another z-target to another paintbot. For the main levels the controls are ok as the game is generally forgiving but the other two additional levels which are usually strictly timed need tight and precise controls which the game simply doesn't have.

John

[merf]

it does stick out like a bulldogs wotsits, they have poured so much love into this but the controls do suck. I can't believe nobody in the whole of the dev & testing process didn't mention them.

I'm playing inspite of them but with a decent control scheme this would have been amazing.

The general open world levels are tolerable and just about function, but some of the sprints, like where you have to go up stairs early on, are rendered pointless. I gave up on that challenge as got so frustrated.

[The Glider]

Finally came to the end of my play time with this, which was around 17 hours or so. A thoroughly enjoyable game, although I did have problems with the jumping which has already been mentioned. What did everyone think of the save system? I suppose I've been spoiled with playing games that have the 'save anywhere' option, but I would've liked maybe a mid-leval save to have been available.

[ItsThere]

I encountered a sticking bug 45 minutes into a level.

I was so annoyed I didn't play it again.

[The Glider]

Same here. I got stuck a couple of times under some pipes & had to replay a couple of levels right through.