De Blob: Paint the town Red .. Orange, Green, Blue … [Video]

Posted on February 2nd, 2009. Written by Arron.

De Blob. It was one of the first games to ever appear on the store, and it was (to be fair) highly anticipated. I avoided picking it up until now because of it’s such high pricing. So now that I have, How does this game really play out? Hit the jump for a full video look …

Designed by Universomo, and published by THQ Wireless Inc, De Blob is a colourful action puzzler which sees you trying to save a mono coloured city from devastation … by completely re-painting it. Critically acclaimed by almost everyone, the game is a port of the best-selling title of the same name for the Wii, but does it really live up to it’s name?

Gameplay
Initially you play as mono-colour blob of stuff. Throughout the game you’ll pick up various ‘leech bots’ which will cover you in a layer of paint. Each time you paint yourself, your blob will grow bigger in size. The aim of the game is to paint re-paint the cities buildings in all different bright colours, and save the city from it’s once monochrome self. To paint a building you simply .. run into it. The more building you manage to paint, the more points you will score … but it’s not all as easy as it sounds.

Some building will require you to be at a certain size, and be painted in a certain colour to paint them – Just got a little more challenging, right? Also, as well as this, you’ll also encounter various enemies who will obstruct you. The enemy I encountered the most were these pesky bots called ‘Ink Agents’. Ink Agents have guns filled with black ink, and if you get too close to them, they will shoot you, covering you in black ink. The important part is, once your covered in black ink, you cannot paint buildings. Once covered, the game will alert you to go and wash the ink off in one or more of the numerous water fountains. To kill enemies simply tap them. If your close enough when you do, you’ll jump right on top and spat them.

On Screen
On the in-game screen in the top left you have your current score, and top right is the amount of time you currently have left to complete the level. You’ll also see on the left your ‘Number of Layers’. This is the number of layers of paint you currently have painted on you.

Similarly, on the right is the percentage of the level you have completed. Finally, to pause the game at any time simply hit the ‘play’ symbol bottom left. Just as if you were unlocking your iPhone, simply slide the slider left to pause the game.

See it an Action:

Controls
De Blob can be played using two control methods. Touch and tilt. In the video above I demonstrate the ‘touch’ method, for easiness of filming, but having tried the tilt option, both hold their own pro’s a cons. You’ll see in the video that some elements of game play are directed more at tilting, while others (like killing enemies) are meant to be carried out by touch.

Visuals
Just like it’s Wii counterpart, De Blob for iPhone and iPod touch has extremely polished graphics. Its in the details right? Well it certainly is with De Blob. Strangely it feels like it has been somehow influenced by Japanese ‘Anime’ … but not in the usual sense. I can’t describe it, it just, does. The game features very smooth movements of characters, and objects, and colours are extremely vibrant.

Price
Originally this game was priced at a whopping £5.99, and after some controversy with the game rising dropping and rising again, on Oct 28th, THQ Wireless saw sense and dropped it to £2.39. Would I have bought it at £5.99? No. This game is worth more than £2.40, but as much as I like it, I wouldn’t of paid £6. it’s probably worth about £4 being fair, so as it is now, it’s still a pretty great deal in my opinion.

Overall
With it’s quirky graphics, vibrant visuals and solid gameplay, we highly recommend you take a look at De Blob. Not only is it very polished, it’s the whole feel to the game. I’ve not played the Wii version personally, but if it’s anything like this touch port, bring it on!

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0.8
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2.1
Download size: 8.8MB
Released on: 08th July 2008
Retails for: £2.39/$2.99

Compatible with: iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G