THQ offered us the opportunity to play de Blob yesterday, and we, needless to say, jumped at the chance. This intriguing title was not playable on the Barker Hangar floor, but was inside THQ's suite, and we're grateful to them for letting us at it.

de Blob is played with the Nunchuk and Remote combo; you move your blob around the streets of the city with the Nunchuk's control stick. Flicking the Wii Remote will make your blob jump; if you've locked onto an enemy or paint with Z, you'll stomp it (absorbing the paint in the latter case); otherwise, you can use the Remote flick to land on a building. Stomping paint changes the color of your blob. You can mix your blob's current colors with other primary colors to create secondary colors.

When you hit the side of a building, you'll paint it the color of your blob. Your blob will then start sliding down the side of the building until you either hit the ground or flick the Remote again to ricochet off—hopefully to another building; you'll get more points if you can combo a long chain of buildings.

An interesting mechanic we weren't really able to explore it much in the demo due to time constraints was the size of your blob, related to how much paint you've consumed. Being a certain color and a certain size allows you to hit special color-and-size-coded points which reportedly unlock challenges, and the size of your blob affects his physics as well.

When you've completed the level, you're scored on how fast you've painted the town as well as how colorful you've made it (using different colors will help you out here.)

In the time I had to play de Blob, I was unfortunately unable to master much of the game, only managing some small combos and not really feeling like I was really in control of the ricochet action. I suspect it's a game that takes a little longer to master than I had. Still, it looks promising, and I look forward to checking it out when it releases early next year.