Game Review: De Blob

De Blob

Platform: Nintendo Wii
Players: Main Single Player Campaign with Multiplayer Minigames
Official Website: http://www.deblob.com/
Genre: Quirky platformer

Concept/Storyline: At the beginning of De Blob, the player is presented with a happy, colourful city inhabited by Raydians, cute rainbow-coloured blob people. It is quickly invaded by dreary black and white aliens called Inkies, who drain all colour from the town and enslave the populace. A small band of rebels called the Colour Underground aims to restore colour to the city, liberate the Raydians, and fight off the Inkies. The player controls Blob, the newest member of the Colour Underground. Blob, pictured above, rolls through a series of levels, collecting colour energy and using it to paint the town and defeat enemies.

The levels, which make up different areas of the city of Raydia, are quite large, and the player is guided through them by other members of the Colour Underground, who give missions such as painting buildings a specific colour, racing from one location to the next, or defeating Inky enemies. However, the player can completely ignore the missions and simply paint the levels. As long as the player gains enough points via missions or painting, the next area of a level will open. This happens much faster if missions are completed, but if the player doesn't like a particular kind of mission or finds a particular challenge too difficult, it can be skipped.

Along with the main story campaign, there are unlockables such as short challenge missions, a free paint mode for every level, multiplayer mini-games, and media such as concept art and short movies.

Aesthetics: De Blob features slick, vibrant graphics that are just right for the Wii. Its menus and cutscenes ooze humour and style. The player is even able to scribble on the screen with the Wiimote when in the menus or on loading screens (which feature comic panels telling the story of the level as it loads). The levels themselves are cleverly designed, and are generally quite interesting and diverse. Blob can collect patterns throughout the levels that make the buildings even "funkier" and add to the visual interest of the game. Most of the levels are visually distinct from each other and have a particular theme (the sports district, the arts district, the hanging gardens). A few of the levels in the middle of the game have too much boring industrial architecture, but otherwise it's a treat to see how the city is transformed by Blob's painting.

The sound design in the game is top-notch. Each level unlocks a new jazzy track, and the player can select any unlocked track they desire to hear while playing. The tracks are dynamic, reacting both to the amount of colour energy the player's been collecting and to the colour the player is painting with. It's delightful to hear the music hum along when you are doing well, with licks from various instruments added as you switch colours. If you make a mistake that causes Blob to desaturate, the music grinds to a halt, slowly building up as you recover. Thus, the music design is both an auditory queue to how you are doing and a motivating factor to do well. Any gamer who is also a fan of music, especially jazz, should give this game a try for the music alone.

Controls/Interation: The game is controlled using the Wiimote and nunchuck, with the nunchuck used for movement and the Wiimote used for jumping and attacking. The controls are generally responsive and fluid. Blob paints an object by simply touching it while loaded with paint. A simple flick of the Wiimote jumps Blob, and it's generally not difficult to predict where he will land. A downward stroke launches a slam attack, used to quickly collect paint or to slam enemies.

There are a few issues with the control scheme. Sometimes Blob sticks to buildings too easily, so that when the player hopes to jump forward, Blob instead launches backwards. He can also occasionally get stuck on the scenery, especially when he has a lot of colour energy and becomes very large. Using slam attacks against many enemies or quick moving enemies can be difficult, because it's not easy or intuitive for the player to quickly select which nearby target to slam. I cursed a few times when attempting to slam an enemy, only to have Blob launch himself at a paintbot half a screen away. These issues are fairly minor to the overall experience of the game, though they unfortuantely crop up more often later in the game, as the challenges become more difficult and the player needs to be more precise.

The camera is semi-controllable and generally good. The game also does a good job of making main campaign accessible, while providing optional challenges for advanced players. The levels and challenges have forgiving time limits, which can be extended in various ways. It's not difficult to complete a level, but it's much more difficult to complete the optional challenges in the levels, such as rescuing all the Raydians and painting 100% of the level. Players who go the extra mile to do well on the levels and the mini challenge levels are rewarded with unlockables.

Conclusion/Recommendations: De Blob is a stylish, fun game that is easy to complete but difficult to fully master. It's definitely worth renting, and has enough replayability to be worth a purchase. I'd recommend this game to gamers who are fans of art or music and to most fans of platforming games. This game should appeal to a broad audience of all ages. It's not recommended for gamers who think that colourful games are "kiddie" games or gamers who prefer very challenging platformers. This game does have a very mild anti-Capitalist bent to it, though one would have to be fairly sensitive to be offended by its message. If you're interested in supporting high quality, innovative third party games on the Wii, I strongly recommend that you purchase De Blob.

Note: Images used in this review are available for download at the game's official website.

In Praise of Nice Guys

I just learned that an old friend of mine, now in his early 40s, recently met his special lady and got married. I spent the next hour grinning from ear to ear, because this friend is one of the most genuine, sweetest men I've met. He's like a big brother to me, and for years I've been disappointed in hetero womankind for not realizing what an amazing catch he is. Now I can happily welecome his lucky wife into the Spouses of Nice Guys Club. We married Nice Guys and we've never regretted it.

I mean, I understand. Mysterious people, challenging people, charmers with a dangerous air to them... those people can be very alluring. I've been on the crazy roller coaster ride of a relationship that sparks like crazy. It's exciting, and you feel like you're in an adventure or a romance novel. It can be all-consuming and exhilirating, but also exhausting.

A nice guy probably won't have a mystery to hide or an air of intrigue. But he will listen, really listen, when you've had the shittiest day and you just need to vent about it. He will cook or wash the dishes, and he probably likes to cuddle. When he makes love to you, he wants to make sure that he pleasures you. He might be a bit shy or a bit nerdy or geeky, and he'll probably cry sometimes when he's sad or upset. If you deserve a nice guy, you know that those things don't make him any less of a man. In my books, they make him more of one, because the greatest courage is being true to yourself even when society comes down on you for it.

So here's to nice guys. Not the Seth Rogan schlubs that the movies want you to think are the nice guys, but the real ones. They aren't perfect, but who is? I've seen far too many of them overlooked by people who have swallowed the stupid message that nice guys are "friendship, not relationship" material. Forget that shit, single people, and go snog a nice guy today!

On the Edge of Spring - Toronto Photos

Taken on a walk to the grocery store, through York Cemetary and the North York Civic Centre.

My Little Piece of Obamarama

The hubby went to a convenience store trade show for work, and brought me home some Jones "Orange You Glad for Change" Cola. Jones is funny. I'm pretty sure they're the company that produced the "Pink" soda I bought a few years back. The stuff actually tasted like pink!

Poor Canada, we're suffering from major Obama Envy right now. We had an interesting Prime Minister when I first moved up here. Jean Chrétien was a former boxer who, upon discovering a guy lurking in the PM's residence late one night, took him out with a statue to the head. Chrétien's record was mixed... he kept Canada out of Iraq, but he also presided over some major scandals and financial boondoggles. Still, I wonder if Canadians are missing Chrétien a bit. Our current PM, Stephen Harper, is a wolf in sheep's clothing, combining cutthroat politics with an exceedingly bland personal image.

So many Canadians are looking over at the USA, wishing we had an alternative with more colour and more compassion. Unfortunately, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has a personality that's about as compelling as that copy of The New Yorker sitting in a California dentist's office. Though I'd certainly prefer his politics, boy I'd love to have an Obama instead. Guess I'll have to settle for my Jones Cola.

On Video Game Reviews

Why write video game reviews? Franky, I've been dissatisfied with the reviews I've read over the last few years. It seems like today's world diverse gamers and cross-genre titles is difficult for mainstream reviewers to handle. Recently, I've seen reviewers give an RPG a low score simply because it had turn-based combat, and they preferred real time. I've also seen sites mishandle their Wii game reviews simply because they prefer a traditional control scheme or because they want to see HD graphics in every game they play. As a reader, I don't care if you don't like turn-based combat or using the Wiimote. I care whether the game implements turn-based combat well or whether the Wiimote control scheme is intuitive and fun.

I'd like to write the kind of reviews I've been missing. My reviews won't use a numeric system to measure games, but will break the games down by control, presentation, and fun factor. My goal will be to introduce readers to unusual games that they may not have heard about, and to give an honest assessment of the games' strengths and weaknesses. Because this site is aimed at the wider community of gamers rather than the hardcore gaming crowd, I won't always review the latest releases. You should still be able to buy the games I revew, hopefully at a discount!

I hope you enjoy my reviews, and your comments are welcome!