de Blob - new impressions

Speaking of enemies, there are some pretty nasty ones in the late-game levels we tried out. There’s the Elite Inky - who’s impervious to de Blob’s attacks unless Blob’s a particular color. Introduced by a hilarious cutscene reminiscent of classic slapstick animation, this guy will quickly wash the color away from any careless gamer’s Blob-session. There's also the Jet Bikes, who zoom around Chroma City on hoverbikes shaped like fountain pens, causing all sorts of airborne mischief. And then there arethe heavily-armored Leeches that’ll suck the paint out of de Blob’s gelatinous little body - yeah, it does seem kinda creepy.

These baddies represent a significant 180 from the pushovers you’ll find in the opening stages, which seems to be the general trend with de Blob’s difficulty curve. Mission objectives late in the game are similar to the early ones, but require judicious use of advanced techniques like air-braking, using lock-on to leap across long distances and steering in mid-air. Between juggling a variety of enemies, making use of these maneuvers and the rapidly escalating tempo of the soundtrack (the music gets crazier the more you color the stage), de Blob’s later levels are frantic, fun and clever.