De Blob

de Blob is a 3D Platformer where the player controls Blob. Blob starts out each level with 10 Paint Points (out of a maximum of 100). Blob's paint points are increased by collecting paint from Paintbots scattered throughout the environment. Paintbots are found in red, blue, and yellow; Blob can mix those colours to turn green, purple, orange, or brown. Touching water causes Blob lose his current colour.

The game is organized into 10 levels. Each level is divided into sections by gates, which require a certain number of points to progress. The player can earn points in many ways, including by painting blocks of buildings, freeing Graydians, and completing missions given by members of the Colour Underground. These missions include painting buildings a certain colour, following certain paths through the level, or destroying INKT facilities with Paint Points.

Told through a combination of pre-rendered cinematic sequences and in-game dialog, de Blob tells the story of Chroma City, its invasion by the INKT Corporation and its subsequent liberation by the titular Blob and the Colour Underground.

Chroma City, once a lively and colorful place filled with its equally vibrant and diverse citizens known as the Raydians, is suddenly invaded by the INKT Corporation. This alien corporate military dictatorship, led by the villainous Comrade Black, is committed to eradicating color through its "War on Colour." As a result, Chroma City quickly falls to the invading army of Inkies and color-draining Leechbots, transforming its landscape into a barren, colorless wasteland. The citizens are captured and transformed into "Graydians," imprisoned in uniform gray suits that are marked only by a barcode on the back of each one. The Graydians are forced to endure menial labor and serve as a resource for ink, which is extracted from their sadness.

de Blob was originally developed as a downloadable game for Windows by eight students of Game Design & Development at the Utrecht School of the Arts and one student studying Game and Media Technology at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. At the time of conception, sections of Utrecht were being rebuilt and the principal task in creating the game was to convey how the railroad station area of Utrecht would look in 10 years. It was primarily intended for short-duration play, keeping people entertained for at least a few minutes at a booth while learning about the city's plans for the station. The city of Utrecht adopted Blob, de Blob's protagonist, as its mascot.

Two versions of the game were released as freeware in late June 2006 through the Utrecht School of the Arts website. There was a Dutch version, called "De Blob", and an English version, called "The Blob" ("de" is the Dutch cognate of "the"). It was created using the OGRE graphics engine, the FMOD audio engine, and the Open Dynamics Engine for physics and collision detection. The developers also stated that they had used 3D Studio MAX for modeling-level designs, Adobe Photoshop for textures, and Reason and Sound Forge for audio.

de Blob received positive reviews overall. IGN called it "one of the best third-party efforts to come over to Wii in a long time". but it remains fun throughout". Nintendo World Report claimed "de Blob is defined by its pure unadulterated fun", rating it a 9/10.

Eurogamer described de Blob as "excellent and thoroughly original". Edge rated de Blob an 8/10, calling it "a game for meandering in, for absorbing and messing around with". GameSpot rated the Wii version an 8/10. Official Nintendo Magazine awarded the game both a rating of 92% and its Gold Award, stating that "de Blob is an absolutely flippin' awesome videogame".