Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We thought we had missed the opportunity to post the full list of Amazon Black Friday Wii deals, but we've checked this morning and every item isn't sold out! In fact, a lot of stuff is still in stock! Bless Amazon for making it possible for people to grab a huge deal without waking up at 2AM or waiting in line in the dang cold.

We may regret sharing this with you, as we have yet to get in on the $10 Resident Evil 4 or NiGHTS, the $26 de Blob, or the $8 Perfect Shot. But it's the holidays! 'Tis the season to be sharing, Fred.

The Black Friday game deals that Amazon has revealed so far are among the most compelling anywhere -- and that's not even taking into account the fact that you don't have to face the teeming masses of retail zombies to get your hands on them. All you need is a finger hovering over the F5 key and a credit card nearby.

Amazon sent a partial list to Kotaku, with the promise that there will be lots more cheap games to buy come Black Friday. The standout among the Wii offers is the Animal Crossing/WiiSpeak bundle for $40, but we'd feel like victorious Black Friday navigators if we managed to score a $26 copy of de Blob or a $30 Wario Land: Shake It.

Oh, and they'll have Wii systems and copies of Wii Fit starting midnight (we assume PST, since that's when Amazon usually updates their deals).

Move over, Paul Hogan. Aussies have a new hero: de Blob.

Even though the game wasn't a commercial success, the game won the hearts of gamers and critics alike. In fact, it might as well be Australia's favorite game, as the title has dominated the Australian development awards. Every year, the GDAA (Game Developers Association of Australia) bestows honors on outstanding games and this year, a majority of those awards were dropped on THQ's title. Among those nods were several big ones, including best console title, best gameplay, best audio, best graphics and the GDAA's game of the year award.

In the shadow of recent releases like Mega Man 9, Samba de Amigo and Wario Land: Shake It! rolls de Blob, a game that might have been easy to forget about despite the compelling visuals. But when people start throwing around high review scores and phrases like "best third party game" (in a while, at least), we stop and take note -- and there's a great deal worth noting.

Eurogamer (80%) thought de Blob was colorfully delightful, though flawed: "The premise is delightfully daft, and some superbly animated sequences help set the tone with a style and tone evocative of LucasArts' legendary Day of the Tentacle. [de Blob is] a game we'd heartily recommend to anyone who thirsts for a 'proper' Wii game, whatever that is. Admittedly, some of the control and camera niggles ultimately detract from the overall enjoyment, but not so much that they should put you off trying this excellent and thoroughly original game."

Gameplayer (100%!) found something for everyone: "This is because de Blob is, in many ways, what you want it to be - there's no single, 'on-rails' way to either play it or complete it. Whilst progression does rely on a deftly implemented learning curve, and increasingly challenging elements of strategy, the route to the end can vary greatly. Want to barrel through as quickly as possible? Go for it! You only need to attain a certain amount of points to advance. A bit of a score whore? Do your best to find all the hidden bonuses! Meanwhile, the obsessive-compulsive out there may wish to colour in everything they encounter and go for the 100% effect – no problem!"

Matt Casamassina of IGN (84%) thought it looked fantastic: "de Blob is a game whose graphic look seems perfectly suited to Wii and it really is an excellent style. I love the contrast between the monochromatic cities and the colorful main character who drenches them in bright primary colors. I think it's worth stating, though, that Blue Tongue has matched all that style with a technical showpiece for Nintendo's little system. The platformer boasts an exceptionally clean, polished look complete with well-rounded architecture, beautifully animated characters and objects, some of the best particle effects I've seen in any Wii game to date, gorgeous graphic effects like depth of field blur, shimmering water transparencies, heat distortion and bloom, and more. All of this at an astonishingly rock-solid fluidity of 60 frames per second."

Nick Hager, producer on de Blob, isn't too jazzed at the idea of MotionPlus. It's not that he doesn't like the tech, he just has a problem seeing the majority of people that enjoy Wii on a regular basis want to play with the new peripheral.

"While it's definitely intellectually stimulating from a development perspective to play with those ideas - and I think it does appeal to a set of gamers out there - I think the majority of people that play on the Wii want something very simple that they can just immediately get their heads around," Hagger said. Does he mean the casual crowd that bought Wii Fit and played it once? Is he talking about the people that nabbed the system only for Wii Sports?

Is 1:1 movement really that much of a leap for the casual crowd that are looking for a simple experience? We'd think not, because it's basically the same deal: moving the Wiimote to afftect things in-game. That's what got most into the console in the first place, so if the tech works a bit better, how is it deterring the extremely casual crowd away from the system?


[Via Joystiq]

The first reviews are appearing for de Blob, and they're really good. We should all buy it, in other words, but it's worth mentioning that a couple of retailers are willing to bribe you to purchase your copy from them. Best Buy, for example, is offering customers a free and also very yellow de Blob T-shirt (pictured here). It's rather nice, in our opinion. We'd definitely wear it in public, and we're extraordinarily fashionable people. Meanwhile, Circuit City is giving away copies of the de Blob soundtrack, which is happy and catchy and jazzy.

Wherever you purchase it from, we just hope de Blob sells some copies. We're tired of the myth that the Wii lacks quality third-party releases, but also tired of people not buying said games.

[Update: Brits take note: de Blob is a measly £18 at Play -- thanks, Nigeria!]

Well folks, just as stated, we've got a new Mega Man game to play this week. What's even better is that along with the sure-to-be-awesome Mega Man 9, we've also got some solid retail releases. And there's a surprise or two with this week's Virtual Console releases, as well. Head on past the break for the info. This week is going to be chock full of gaming goodness.

For some reason, this French-language trailer for de Blob got a wide release on the web, one which we are helping to propagate, which only serves to make our surprise at its spread more ironic. We can't help it, though -- de Blob is just such a joy to look at that we want to share any video content we see. Check out de Blob doing the Robot! Watch him get down, watch him get down!

Also there's the fact that the French narration makes the game seem so classy! Of course, all we know of French, we learned from that one Muzzy commercial.

THQ sent out a series of new screens of their amazingly beautiful platform(ish) game de Blob, as well as character profiles for the maliciously monochrome INKT army who removes color from the world, except for conveniently-located, regenerating paint supplies. Comrade Black here is the commander of the INKT forces, as evidenced by his impressively tall hat. He seems to have yet to be promoted high enough for pants, however.

The INKT troops have a variety of weapons at their disposal, including a spider-like robot, various cannons, and hoverbikes. But not ... pants. Maybe in the sequel the Blob can help return appropriate, covering garments to the world.

It took us a long time to figure out exactly how to describe de Blob in terms of existing games, but we think we've finally nailed what seems so familiar about it: it's part Sonic Adventure (the good parts, with Sonic in them) and part Jet Set Radio. Not just in terms of the art direction and the painting motif, but in terms of bouncing quickly around a cityscape seeking out surfaces to cover.

This video of a speed run through a level accentuates that Sonic/Jet Set Radio vibe. Also we still dig that art style as much as we did the first time we saw it.

With de Blob's release getting closer and closer (September), we're starting to see more and more media on the title. This, to us, is a good thing. And informed public is a good public. Also, we want to see stuff get all painted up.

This latest bit of media is an interview with Nick Hagger, the game's producer. He talks about the sinister corporation that's sucked all of the color out of Chroma City, the way Blob can acquire color and roll about, as well as his gang of cohorts. It's an insightful look at THQ's upcoming game and we suggest you check it out.

Even though our cruel overlords didn't paint a pretty picture regarding THQ's upcoming de Blob, we're still interested in the title. Maybe it's the great multiplayer or the wonderful visual style, but something has us fascinated with the title. And, in that spirit, we'll continue presenting you with new media from the game. The latest, which is an exclusive trailer, can be found here.

The latest Nintendo of Europe release schedule contains fairly awesome news for the neglected continent, as there's finally a concrete release date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nintendo's wildly popular fighter is hitting stores in the region on June 27th, and there's more happy tidings, with WiiWare and Nintendo Channel set to launch on May 20th and May 30th respectively.

There's little else in the list that both interests us and has a specific date (de Blob and Blast Works have both had a vague "Q2 2008" slapped next to them, though it appears that Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors will be out on May 9th), but heck, why are we yammering to you about this? Check out the latest European dates for yourself past the break!

[Update -- Corrected date for Nintendo Channel]

Some ripe, juicy screens from THQ's de Blob are available for you to gnaw on, providing us with further reason to need this game. And, hey, even though Joystiq didn't find the game to be all that great, we're still hopeful that it will be the fun experience we've been expecting it to be. If the single-player bombs, there's always the multiplayer, right?

Check out the new images in our gallery below.