I’ve been intrigued by de Blob ever since the first Wii videos and info were released. When I heard the game was coming to the iPhone, it seemed like a logical step. The iPhone’s tilt and touch controls fit the game’s style and theme nicely. de Blob looks to be a solid hit for the Wii, but does it translate well to Apple’s mobile device?

Simply put, this is the best iPhone game I’ve played. The concept, gameplay, graphics, and sound all come together perfectly. In de Blob, you’re a little rolling creature (de Blob, duh) who’s given the task of ridding the world of the evil INKT Corporation who is trying to remove all traces of color. You roll around sucking up paint globs like a sponge and coloring anything you touch. There are various colors to collect over the game’s 16 stages to mix up your palette for painting buildings, trees, grass, streets and other characters in the world.

During the course of play in each stage, you’re given various tasks to complete, such as racing to a certain point in a certain amount of time, defeating a certain number of INKT agents in a timed sequence (tapping on the agent will make your Blob jump on top of the INKT agent), etc. These all work out very well, especially with the game’s great control scheme. You can either tap on the screen where you intend to go to use the tilt controls to maneuver through each stage. I personally found the tilt controls better as you weren’t obstructing your view of the screen with a finger. You can calibrate the default “rest” point and sensitivity for the tilt controls each time you play, so you don’t have to worry about always turning the iPhone in the wrong direction.

There is a good deal of depth to this puzzle/adventure game. Many sequences require your Blob to be a certain size and color. By collecting more and more paint globs, you can increase your Blob size. If you get too big for a certain task, you can go sit in some water to remove your color and reduce your size. Sitting in the water also applies when an INKT agent grabs you, after which you’ll remove all color from anything you touch until you get clean in a pool. You’ll need to know your color wheel and understand combining colors, such as blue and red to make purple, to complete certain tasks.

THQ did a terrific job of taking advantage of what the iPhone offers to mobile gaming with de Blob. The tilt controls are the best I’ve seen in any iPhone game. All other developers should take this an example of perfect controls. The gameplay is fun and fluid and will provide you with hours of fun in the Revolution mode (aka Story) and Free Splash mode (aka do whatever you want). If you own an iPhone, this should be at the very top of your purchase list. It’s definitely a must buy.

Verdict: Buy It NOW

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