When not in challenges, you gain color energy by painting objects, but also for painting all of the buildings in a block, or all of the trees in a section, or using color combinations within a block of buildings. Painting all of the buildings on a street or on a block liberates the poor Graydians lurking inside, and by rolling over them, you free them from their gray suits, gain color energy and also add time to the clock. In another great design move, your painting progress when not in a challenge is affected by your painting in a challenge, so if, while in a rooftop race, you happen to paint all of the buildings in a street, you'll still liberate Graydians and if you take time out of the race to color them, the time you gain goes towards time on the master clock and time on the challenge clock. The result is a nice combination of directed play and free play where one never suffers at the hands of the other. Add to this the fact that many challenges lead you to the next challenge and you have a world where you can roam around all you want, however the challenges are there to help direct you, should you need it.

The open level design goes a long way towards mediating the chief complaint about the game, namely the imprecise controls. de Blob navigates through the world by rolling and jumping, the jumping done with a swing of the Wiimote. de Blob can stick to walls for a short amount of time, and then jump to other walls, however his jumping ability isn't as high as you would hope and even though you can steer him in mid air, making some of the trickier jumps can be frustrating, especially when trying to complete a challenge. You can use the B button to apply the brakes which certainly helps to keep from rolling off of a rooftop, but even with this, the jumping isn't nearly as precise as it needs to be. During the earlier levels when you have nothing but time on the master clock, the controls aren't a problem, however as the game progresses, your frustration with the controls will only grow as the time on the master clock diminishes.

As de Blob travels throughout Chroma City the INKT Corporation will throw all sorts of obstacles in his way including soldiers, jet bikes, tanks, ink cannons, electricity panels and flame panels. All enemies can be destroyed by Z targeting them and jumping on them, with larger enemies requiring more paint points to destroy and certain soldiers needing matching colors to be taken out. Panels need to be disabled via switch lest de Blob lose some size or an extra life. For the most part, combat isn't a problem as you can target a new enemy as you're rebounding from the last enemy however there are still plenty of tense moments, particularly when trying to navigate the environmental hazards while fending off enemies and working to complete a challenge at the same time. The game has automatic saves for when you need to use an extra life, with de Blob coming back at the last gate he traversed, however once those extra lives are gone, or if you find yourself unable to complete a level before shutting off the Wii, you'll be painting the level from the beginning.

Whatever frustrations you find with the controls or the save system will be wiped out by the beautiful colors, fantastic music and undeniable charm of the game. Once a section of town has been fully restored and the Graydians are dancing around to your choice of music it's hard to feel anything but pride to see all that you've restored. As de Blob travels around he'll collect painting styles which combine to create not just colors, but patterns so that buildings are awash in musical notes, spirals and other shapes along with the chosen color. Taking the time to get to the top of a building and looking around at the fully restored level is one of the best parts of the game and only helps fuel your desire to go and paint some more. The game is able to remember all of your painting choices too, so if you get to the exit of the level and decide to go all the way back to the beginning, everything will be just as you left it, painted or not.

Once you've finished a level, depending on how well you've done, you can either replay the level to obtain the various medals such as the speed run goal or rescuing all of the Graydians or you can take part in new challenges that tax the puzzle and racing parts of your brain. You can also go back into the world in the glorious free paint mode and just paint like crazy. In free paint mode, there are no enemies and no clock so you can just paint and paint. It is incredibly relaxing and well worth the price of admission. It also provides a nice combination of activities for parent-child gamer teams with mom or dad tackling the harder levels and then handing over the controls for younger players to get their paint on. Doing well in the game and the challenges also unlocks extras such as concept art and trailers as well as the game's split-screen multiplayer modes.

de Blob isn't perfect but the things it does right more than makes up for the faults. Yes the controls can be imprecise and some may balk at the unfriendly save system but the colors, the whimsy and the style keep things entertaining. Most importantly, the game is just plain fun. Oozing with style and Day-Glo colored antics, de Blob takes platforming and transforms it with a beautiful new coat of paint.

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