The Wii is flooded with cheap games that have little substance to them, but in the midst of all the shovelware, there are stars that are thrown into the same mix, and become highly underrated. DeBlob is one of the games that streatches beyond your average video game.

deBlob is an cute and loveable creature who seems to love spending his time in the wilderness. But his species (at least I assume they’re the same) has recently come under opression by the INKT Corperation who is stealing all the color from the community. They employ robots who suck the color out of plants, buildings, and even the earth itself. They pollute the water with ink, and even capture the citizens of Chroma City and take them to processing plants to have the color drained out of them. The game even goes so far as to make the Inkies (who are the baddies), portrayed as Nazis, with their leader standing high on a platform as legions of Inkie soldiers all march in rank below. deBlob and his new found buddies, who have formed the Color Underground, are set with the task of rising up and destroying the evil regime that as conquered the land. And they mean to do it, by bringing color back into the world, and freeing the Rayidans of their prison.

The gameplay is easily one of the most capturing aspects of the deBlob experience.  It’s easy to control, as you move around with the thumbstick on the nunchuk, and you quickly raise the wiimote to jump. You can lock onto enemies by pressing a, and pressing c lets you know where the neareast enemies and items are.  The main goal of this 3D platformer is to run around painting everything you see. To paint, you first must attack a paintbot, which will give you paint points. After that anything you touch will decrease your paintpoints but you’ll also color the object. There are three colors you can get; yellow, blue and red. Mixing these will aslo result in an aditional four colors; green, purple, orange and brown.

The missions given to you vary from time trials, to coloring bulidings with specific colors, to destrying enemies. Enemies take different ammount of paintpoints to kill, and some can only be defeated by being a specific color. In some cases, you’ll have to fill up on a specific color to take control over special bulidings on your quest to gain adventage over the Inkies.

The music is the second most appealing aspect of the entire game.  DeBlob features an soundtrack that bleeds color itself, and actually encourages you to succeed. When each stage starts, you’re given very ambient music. But, while you’re actually painting, you’re given more music, small riffs of awesomeness for each object you paint, and different instruments corespond with your current color. As you continue to paint more and more of the city, more “layers” to the main soundtrack are unlocked, and by the end your listening to your own concert that you’ve helped to create!

The INKT Corperation doesn’t just have foot soldiers on hand to stop you, they emoploy a wide variety of weponry that will make you think twice about running in somewhere, paint rollers blazing! While you do have to lock on and attack enemies to defeat them, they will shoot at you with globs of ink. Once you’re hit by the ink, you’ll turn black and your paint points will start draining. Once you reach zero, its over for you. Also, remember, anything you touch will revert to it’s normal colorless self while you’re inked. Your only saving grace in this case is water. Water will also drain you of your ink points over time, but while it absolves you of all color, it will never take you below 10 paint points.

All in all, the games cutscense will give you a few good chuckles, and the gameplay is highly addicting, so you’ll deffinitely have fun. And while the game is relatively easy, it does get a little difficult as you progress. The end boss wasn’t very hard, but still gave a bit of a challenge. And really, he took more time than anything. You won’t mind when you look at the clock to see a few hours pass by, because you’ll actually have a sense of accomplishment, as there are many side goals to complete that will take some searching. Plus, you’ll just be amazed at how much fun you had that you didn’t even realize how much time had passed.  This really is a game that anyone can enjoy, and it comes at a great price. So be sure to check it out!

You can check Cheap Ass Gamer for the lowest prices around! (At the time of this post $19.99)

Is the whole creepy kid thing a little over done?
Hit the jump for my Dementium : The Ward review!

Dementium the Ward is a FPS/ horror game that’s kinda like Doom meets Sillent Hill. It is hard to think that a handheld game can be scary, but with the great graphics and awesome ambient sound, it really puts you in the game. As for the controls, it does an alright job, they could’ve put more shortcuts in, but there’s nothing that inhibits gameplay. You play the role of a man who seems to be going into a crazy house, pushed along in a wheel chair by an unseen force. Then you wake up on a bed, not knowing who you are, and all you have is a flashlight. As you wander the halls of the psych ward, trying to find out who you are, you quickly notice that something is way wrong with this hospital. It’s full of zombie like monsters, and little parasitic worm things that cry like babies, plus a crazy guy in a wheelchiar with a mini-gun. The game is divided into seventeen chapters. Some of them are way short, others will take you a good half hour maybe more. At the end of the chapters you either find out a little more about yourself or a introduced to a new monster. Unfortunately there are only about seven different monsters and they’re not that bright. I would have also liked to see some changes in the monsters’ behavior, or even more grotesque enemies. When your fighting you can switch between your flash lite or a weapon of your choice, my favorite is the buzz saw. The hospital is really massive, but on a down side the floors are really repetitive. Big yes, but no where to really explore. There is a map for each floor, if you find them, which is similar Silent Hill, where it will tell you if the door is blocked or locked. It won’t show you a blocked path however (they could’ve made this aspect better by allowing you to draw on the map). During your wandering around there are puzzles to solve, like trying to figure out a combination lock to get a new gun or even finding all the pieces to a photo to give you a door code. The game cuts you a break by giving you a note pad to help you, which I thought was really cool. The end of the game leaves the story wide open for a sequel, which Renegade Kid has said that they would love to make part two. This game has many great things; the sounds, the looks, and overall fun. The bad things about it are just holding this game back. It’s just too short and repetitive, which make for really low replay value. It could be a great game but instead it’s only a OK game. Still better then some, but it could be Great. So here’s to hoping they make a “second phase”.