A Colourful Adventure
| Platform | Presentation | Controls | Variety | Audio | Depth | Value & Fun | OVERALL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wii | 9.00 | 6.00 | 8.00 | 9.50 | 6.00 | 8.00 | 7.56 |
| General Information |
|
Multiplayer Importance: Very low Television set-up: 19" Sylvania CRT, SDTV 480i, composite cables. |
| Gameplay Description |
| In de Blob, you control "Blob", which is rather self-descriptive. As Blob, you aim to paint the town red, quite literally as you platform around levels. By doing so, you can progress further through the level and unlock new challenges, until you reach the goal to complete the level. |
| Dedication Meter | 5.00 |
| It's not quite as simple as just move and jump, but it's close. | |
| Presentation | 9.00 |
|
There's not really a point in the game where you could point and say that the textures here are bad, or this part looks dated. It's a matter of style, and de Blob is oozing with it. Of course it's not the most technically advanced game to come along, but the point is that it doesn't need to be. Unique art-style, silly and enjoyable cut scenes and a real sense of injecting life into the world is all done and done well and the game wouldn't be have of what it is without it. Niggling issues are that the enemies aren't always easily discernable from the Graydians, which you are trying to help, nor the missions always made properly clear where you're supposed to go. |
|
| Controls | 6.00 |
|
The bump in the road for de Blob are the controls. You'd think that at this point, it wouldn't be hard to get down running and jumping, but it still manages to be a serious challenge to many developers. The first thing to note is that the curse of waggle is not avoided here. The waving of the Wiimote is used as a substitute for buttons and no more, outside of pointer control for menus. This includes a shake of the remote to jump, as well as shaking it to fill paint targets and shake off enemies. It's not just annoying, it's also awkward and altogether less responsive. Enemies are defeated by locking on by holding Z, then jumping. Z-targeting is far less intuitive than one would hope, and lacks proper methods for switching to a correct target. The further into the game, the more of a problem this becomes as enemies become more tightly packed, and more specialized to the point that targeting is not just preferred, but necessary. Additionally, the camera poses further issues. You're often weaving between buildings and the camera is prone to getting itself into bad angles and sudden shifts, including mid-jump. Another tendency is for it to get high angle, which poses an issue when trying to progress upward and not being able to discern height. Ultimately the game holds together, and there's no game-ruining issues, but as a sum, they total more than a slight irritant. |
|
| Variety | 8.00 |
|
The developer has given a proper effort in stretching the game's premise as far as keeping things fresh. There are a few different types of missions and several different enemies with which to contend. Each mission is made to be short--at most 3 minutes--and without much running around. You're either painting certain sections specific colours, hitting a target with a set number of paint points, clearing out the enemies in an area, or making your way to a specific place, any of which must be done on a time limit. Enemies attempt to hit you with ink, thereby wiping out your current colour and lowering your paint points. If you paint points reach zero and you're inked, it's game over. From grunts to tanks to bikers, things are made as varied as you could hope for the limited capacity of the combat mechanics. Outside of the story mode, you have separate timed challenges that are essentially larger missions meant to try and reach a high score, such as painting as many billboards as you can then reaching the finish within the allotted time. These are a very welcome addition. |
|
| Audio | 9.50 |
| Managing to leave out voice acting in a charming way, the gibberish talk from the characters makes the presentation all the more charming, though it may be off-putting to some. The standout here is the music, where it's integrated into your success in the game. The better you're doing and the more you're painting, the more the music fills in and picks up. From dull and dreary to match the grey scene, once livelier becomes rejoiceful and energetic. Rather than a generic licensed soundtrack, de Blob does gaming music right with its own soundtrack, its own personality and does it in a way that befits the medium. | |
| Depth | 6.00 |
| Ultimately the game is simplistic. Perhaps marred by limited difficulty in this regard, there's only so much you can do to make a platformer with no pitfalls complicated or challenging. Anything that may have pushed the boundaries of what you needed to learn to do in the game perhaps was left out as to not make things frustrating due to the inadequate controls and camera. | |
| Value & Fun | 8.00 |
| Despite everything possible being done to delude the uplifting experience, de Blob still manages to be fun. There's not much to it, but there's enough, and it does all it can to make you smile. The content is sufficient, without being overly short or overtly prolonged. de Blob's longevity is in that it presents itself as a completist's title, leaving several categories to reach 100%, though not necessary to play through the story mode and still have a worthwhile time. | |
| Overall | 7.56 |
| It's not a revolution, it's not going to blow you away, and it's not trying to do so. Don't expect the world from it, and you'll have a fresh and fun time. | |
Posted by Ellyoda Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:19:53
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:18:14
Nice review will write a short review once I finish my 7 games.
Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:16:58
I disagree on the controls and camera. They are fine.
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