The wonderful world of Chroma City has been conquered, overrun by terrible baddies called Inkys. They suck the color out of everything in favor of monochromatic boredom and enslave the inhabitants called Raydians. Your character, de Blob, was out of town when the attack occurred and now he and a small crew of “Color Revolutionaries” who evaded capture are now charged with bringing color back to Chroma City and to drive the Inkys out of town.

Simple kiddie fare as far as the story goes but much like the PS2 cult hit, Katamari Damacy, the magic is in the execution. As de Blob, you go around smashing the bots that steal color (called simply Paintbots) and suck the paint into yourself at which point you go around and slam yourself into anything you can find. Walls, buildings, bridges, fences, boats, signs, trees, whatever. If it needs color, you provide it. You bounce around from area to area bringing life back to the city and if you do a good enough job, you’ll be rewarded with the city coming back to life, the citizens freed and happy, and the Inkys quite upset.

The game is basically visual candy as you smear paint over everything leaving grey buildings a vibrant mess of color while paint trails and splats follow you along as you roll to your next piece of art. The simple characters are widely expressive as you and your pals grin and grimace their way to victory and your fellow townspeople are incredibly dull and depressing locked in their metal prison, moping around until they get some color smacked into them and proceed to hop, cheer, and dance around like multi-colored jumping beans. The Inkys themselves are comedic, yet threatening in their authoritarian attempt at stopping you from completing your guerrilla mission of mercy.

The music is just as impressive as the visuals as at the beginning of each level you set de Blob’s “mood” (their way of picking a song for the level) and as you start to color the land, the dull, quiet lifelessness of the world begins to disappear and the game’s music slowly starts to build until your TV’s speakers blast with joy and happiness as the inhabitants of Chroma City engage in a perpetual block party of freedom. While you paint, your colors will give accents to the music when you hit things. Some colors will tweak the horns, some will play up the guitar, and brown gives a nice turntable “scratching” effect.

Another good aspect of the game is the challenge. It’s exactly as easy or as hard as you make it. The main levels can be done in a fairly simple matter as you complete your objective but there are many other side challenges to complete and awards to win if you so choose via missions from your fellow Revolutionaries whether you be ordered to free famous landmarks by the leader of the group, Prof. or mix it up and bash some Inkys hand to hand via a challenge from the group’s strongman, Bif. Each completed challenge raises your color level and brings the city closer to life. Between challenges you can roll around carefree and do things your own way, sometimes even completing challenges before you get orders. You don’t HAVE to paint every single thing but who in their right mind wouldn’t WANT to? That’s the job, right? Of course when you decide to dilly-dally, time management can become an issue as you don’t have all day before the Inkys catch up with your group and haul you all away to some dark drab dungeon somewhere. And beyond that, after clearing a level you get access to a few side challenge levels which are short but a bit tougher than the average. Not necessary to complete the game but a little extra challenge for those who choose to accept it never hurt anyone. Much.

The platforming in the game goes from fairly non-existant to quite tricky as the Inkys devise deadly Ink traps, flaming heat griddles, sharp spikes, and electric panels to stop our hero. Inkys also advance as troops range from silly, easily squashable foot troops to heavy troops with Ink cannons, swift elite soldiers that can only be beaten by certain colors when squished, imposing tanks, and even Ink turret placements. Don’t be fooled. The game may look cute and innocent but can put quite a hurting on you if you’re not careful.

Controls are quite simple as you roll around using the control stick on the Wii Nunchuck and jump via a quick shake of the Wii Remote. Other, more advanced techniques are taught to you as the game progresses via your friends. The game is mostly responsive and definitely a lot more polished than a lot of 3rd party Wii games but sometimes during some tight platforming you might be wishing your jumping wasn’t in the hands of a shaky remote. The camera is also fairly reasonable with a few snags here and there which is pretty par for the course in any 3D platformer.

de Blob is quite simply one of the best 3rd party games available for the Nintendo Wii and any Wii owner wouldn’t be taking too much of a risk giving it a try. Very highly recommended.

So in other words, this means that what little time I had for anime has diminished even more. There will be an update with comment soon as I try to get through my ever growing backlog of shows.

I don’t know what this is really about, but for $20 I’ll probably get it. Apparently it’s a puzzle game involving octopuses or something. Double wallet whammy because the release date coincides with Brawl. If anyone else is thinking about getting Octomania, maybe we could have a match when it comes out.

Source: Kotaku

*Cue girly scream of joy*

Waiting until 2008 is going to be an eternity. I’m adding to my list of must buy games. If you have a Wii, it would be a crime not to. Anyway, expect an animu post later tonight or tomorrow.

Pop a few bucks in for a chance to pick up a Wii in a UFO catcher. I can’t help but wonder how much damage those consoles sustain after dropping out of the claw. How does the warranty work if you do defy the odds and win a defective console? Multiple droppings would no doubt mess up all those delicate electronic parts. Crane games are okay for plushies and figures but a no-no for expensive electronics. When will people learn?

Currently listening to: Kosaka Riyu – Danzai no Hana ~ Guilty Sky~