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I have this sinking feeling I'm one of the only gamers who has finished THQ's clever, funny and innovative Wii platformer "de Blob."

Even though the game is gimmicky and repetitive, I loved "de Blob" from start to finish. Its hooks never got old for me, and coloring everything around me became an obsession.

But I've detected that almost everyone around me has given up on "de Blob" or, at the very most, declared it part of their back log for 2008. That'd too bad; they're missing out.

I did finish "de Blob" and hope THQ has the sense to give Australian developer Blue Tongue a chance to work on a sequel. There's plenty of room for improvement.

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"de Blob" is a game built on a gimmick. It's a very good gimmick, but a gimmick.

One of the most common complaints I've heard about THQ's eccentric Wii platformer is that people are burning out on its coloring book gameplay after a few hours.

That hasn't happened to me, but after hearing people's complaints, I thought I'd issue a couple of recommendations for "de Blob" players:

* Pay attention to gate openings; if the final gate unlocks early, you can exit right away and move on!
* You do not need to complete all the challenges
* Coloring everything is for completists only; each level requires only a fraction of 100% coloring in order to move on
* Don't forget you can press B mid-jump to air-brake and fall straight down
* Finish a stage, turn it off; gameplay doesn't really change level-to-level

Follow these rules and you should find "de Blob" remaining surprisingly fresh.

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One of the problems with playing games early is you're often seeing them in loud environments.

That's been true for every time I'd played new Wii game "de Blob." Because of that, I never experienced the game's music. That music has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the released game, now that I'm playing it at home.

"de Blob" doesn't just have an eccentric, varied soundtrack to match its splashy visuals. The music is interactive and changes on-the-fly while you play, altering styles based on player preference.

At the start of each stage, "de Blob" asks you to choose which style of music you'd like to listen to. There are several styles (i.e. Unstoppable, Funky, Blissful, etc), with secretly many locked away.

Let's say you choose one full of guitar. As you start coloring the world, your work will introduce new elements to the music. A small guitar solo here, a trombone blast there. It all blends so seamlessly in to the backdrop that you almost wouldn't notice you're causing those changes unless someone told you.

It's all very cool, and adds another layer of adorable charm to "de Blob." And if my words didn't quite convey what I'm talking about, check out this video at IGN.

But here's a question -- what's with Wii games going out of their way musically? "Mushroom Men," another Wii exclusive, also has interactive music. Is there something about the Wii that inspires the musicians at developers?

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After Nintendo unveiled their MotionPlus add-on for the Wiimote at E3, rumors suggested several companies were upset they weren't tipped off about the device.

MotionPlus finally will allow for 1:1 motion control, a criticism leveled at the Wiimote since its release.

Nick Hagger, the producer of Wii's "de Blob," however, told me MotionPlus could lead to unneeded complexity to motion controls.

"I think if we had the MotionPlus to start out with, maybe the control scheme would have worked out a little bit differently," said Hagger in a phone interview late last week. "I think the temptation with having Wii MotionPlus would have been to push it more in a gestural control scheme. 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."

Do you agree with his assessment of most Wii players, readers?

"de Blob" arrives on store shelves today.

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"de Blob" is my most anticipated Wii game in 2008. Every time I've played it, I've walked away with a smile.

Even though the Wiimote feels like the perfect mechanism for "de Blob," I can't help but wonder how the paint mechanics would look with more power behind it.

Luckily, "de Blob" producer Nick Hagger told me it's a possibility.

"It's definitely something that we have been thinking about," he said. "We always want to keep the game fresh, so the ideas that we've got for taking it to other platforms…it'll be a very different experience from what you're seeing on Wii. If we are going to be taking it to another platform, we'd be looking at a very different experience, and of course using the massive power that a next gen platform could offer."

Before that, however, "de Blob" drops on Wii. Look for it next Tuesday.

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Positive Surprises At THQ Wii Event

Gamers, Stephen's right.

Some of 2008's most promising third-party (and non-licensed) Wii games are coming from a most unlikely source: THQ.

I don't think it's unreasonable to say I went into THQ's Gamer's Day two weeks ago with tempered expectations, but "Deadly Creatures" (which I wrote about last week), "Battle of the Bands" and indie-favorite "de Blob" turned my assumptions inside out.

And that's a very good thing for gamers wondering if Nintendo was going to be the only company who could figure out how to make the Wii work. My time spent with these three, however, convinced me that's not necessarily the case anymore.

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I played a game a couple of weeks ago that I summed up in my notes as "Grand Theft Auto: Coloring Book."

A note like that indicates either that someone spiked the punch at the THQ Wii event where I played it or that the publisher has a game coming that is just that innovative.

It's actually the latter. The game is "de Blob." It was one of seven Wii games shown at a THQ Nintendo-platform love-in held a few weeks ago in Manhattan.

I played and/or watched three of the seven, each of which left me a far better impression than the games I played at a THQ Wii launch event a little over a year prior. That earlier event, held in late 2006 at a fancy candy shop on Manhattan's east side, featured waggle-added Wii versions of "Cars" and "Avatar" games.

At this 2008 event in an impressive penthouse near the top of a midtown Manhattan hotel, I was witnessing original content, some of it showing a lot of promise.

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