As a young lad, my favorite activities were coloring or doing paint by number sets. Not one for original creative expression, the ability to have a blank page in front of me, yet with comforting lines to give me some sense of artistic direction provided hours and hours of fun. It's this mixture of focused play and free wheeling coloring fun that makes de Blob such a charming adventure even in the face of its flaws.

The citizens of Chroma City are under siege by the monochromatic INKT Corporation and its army of "inkies". INKT has decided to roll into town and suck all of the color out of the world, enslaving the poor, hapless Graydians in the process. It isn't long before a revolutionary movement appears and with the help of de Blob, an amorphous blob of er...something, capable of taking on and transferring whatever paint he can get his blobby mitts on, the movement starts taking back Chroma City—giving back as much color as they can.

The game is broken up into ten sections, with each section a new part of town desperately in need of a Candace Olson style makeover. Each section is introduced with hilarious cut scenes that usually revolve around the INKT Corp. testing its latest and greatest weapon in the war against color. Once in a section, you'll have to amass a certain amount of color energy before the master clock runs down so that the gate to the next section opens, and ultimately the exit is unlocked allowing de Blob to return home. Amassing color energy is as simple as painting every surface in sight by jumping, rolling or otherwise putting de Blob's paint splotched tuckus upon it.

Getting de Blob up and painting is painless as you simply use the Nunchuck thumbstick to roll over the various paintbots sprinkled throughout a level via or using the Z button to target a paintbot (or any enemy for that matter) and then jumping on them with a flick of the Wiimote. Paintbots exist in primary colors only, with combinations needed to make secondary colors. Water fountains and pools abound to wash de Blob clean should a new color be needed or if he gets colored in health draining ink. As de Blob grabs more color, he gets bigger and can paint more things before needing a refill. The paint gauge also acts as a health meter with things like ink and sustained baths making de Blob smaller and smaller until he needs to use one of the various extra lives scattered around the world.

To direct the player's artistic visions, de Blob uses a fantastic combination of challenges and free painting. Challenges are all time based and consist of races, painting challenges where certain structures need to be painted particular colors, good old fashioned combat where de Blob has to take out a gaggle of enemies or landmark reclamation challenges where he has to hit a landmark with a certain number of paint points of a chosen color to turn it back to its original state. Each challenge rewards the player with color energy for opening gates as well as more time on the clock. Challenges aren't too difficult and can usually be completed in one go, however if you fail, any painting progress made during the attempt remains. This is particularly helpful for the painting challenges as if you managed to paint all but one building in the first try, all you have to do it hit the last building on the second try and the challenge is complete. Finishing the challenge on the first attempt rewards you with more color energy, but the lack of a penalty for failure goes a long way towards keeping the game moving.