Pong and Beyond

615th played so far

Genre: Puzzle/Platform
Platform: Wii
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Blue Tongue Entertainment
Publisher: THQ

I’ve been keeping an eye on De Blob since, I believe, just before the start of this blog, as an interesting game that seemed so different from everything else.

Not to mention that the original version of the game was based on the area around the railway station in Utrecht, a place I’d been traveling to and through over the years for various reasons (mostly education related) and I was wondering whether I could see any of that in the final game.

Our Thoughts

The basic premise of the game is simple – just spray as much of the area with paint. You get some choices in colour – the primary and secondary colours, really – and there is a lot of just colouring buildings going on that just involves bouncing around the level.

If that’s all there is to it, the game would have gotten boring – even with black paint and water (washing off the paint) it would have been straight forward. It’s the missions that guide you through the world and give the game purpose. Not all of them are required, which means that the more annoying ones (with jumping puzzles…) didn’t feel too punishing.

Aside from the fairly unique mechanics, what really sets the game apart in my mind is its setting. The basics of it – a police state that says everything has to be colourless – isn’t that special, and we always tend to associate dictatorships like that with greys and browns. However, it sets it in this weird and happy world, one that you really make happy and beautiful. All the city’s inhabitants are simple blob creatures – with a helmet on if they’re a police officer, that sort of stuff. You colour them as well as you colour their buildings. Then there are the weird paint receptacles – cute spiders with paint on their back that you stomp to increase your paint reserves. They’re all cute and create a nice atmosphere that feel like it encourages bouncing around.

Final Thoughts

The concept for this game is quite interesting, something fairly unique, especially when placed in these action/adventure style 3D levels. There’s a lot to do and find and it takes a long time to run out of these. I really enjoyed the game and its challenge.