de Blob

Developer: Blue Tongue Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Release: 2008
Platform: Wii
Genre: Platform

de Blob was criticized by its release time for the unruly camera it casts and the tricky jumps that follow. But what 3D platformer doesn’t have those? If even the modern pinnacle of 3D exploration, Super Mario Galaxy, still has some… Well, maybe having jumping mapped to a shake of the Wii Remote instead of a button has really made it worse after all.

Criticism was even higher on the “lack of checkpoints” issue, since the levels are behemoths which can take more than 2 hours to complete when you’re tackling them for OCD awards. (Now that’s a real problem.) But how could such a game keep track of each and every tree, light post or bench you have painted—and with which color—when the Wii is already suffering with drawing distances and such?

Joking aside, no wholehearted love for de Blob could let its flaws go overlooked—and they were actually game breaking for some. But de Blob is so unique in its premise and that same premise is so vividly realized that anyone who enters its world put a smile in their face right off the bat.

Art direction is slick throughout the entire game, from the Pixar-esque terrific CGI vignettes, to the loading screens disguised as interactive comics, to the world full of character begging to be explored. Or putting it better, “the world that bursts with character the more you mess with it”, since the place only truly blossoms through player agency.

Reviving places is not as cinematic as in Ōkami but doing so still packs a punch

Yes, it has some “challenges”, “objectives” and other stuff that make for calling it a “proper” game; but those are entirely optional and gladly they don’t necessarily get in the way of the real meat: wandering around splashing the city with colorful stains and being a jazzy soloist while at it—each color is tied to a musical instrument and “painting” also means messing with the terrific live band soundtrack, turning de Blob into a real synesthetic experience.

de Blob is a modern, more laid-back Ōkami; its death-and-resurrection tale is painted—literally—in less epic fashion than in its Eastern counterpart, sure, but that is for the better here. Perhaps it’s the case that very feel-good mood has kept a well-deserved cult following from rising since not even the game takes itself too seriously.