Game review: World of Goo

World of Goo is one of those little known games that becomes a darling to the critics. This will most likely be the game to pick up those Best Game No One Played awards. It's one of those games with a simple premise but it takes it in a lot of different directions. It was developed by an independent game developer and became a darling at E3 and it took attention away from some bigger games in the show.

First off the game is a puzzle game. You play God in a world made up of Goo Balls. These are little round blobs with eyes and spend all their time moving back and forth like Lemmings. Just like Lemmings if you aren't careful you can send them to their doom. In each level you are given a simple objective. Make a structure out of the Goo Balls to get them to a pipe where they will get sucked up. Of course each level is going to have a different number that need to make it for you to complete it.

Where the difficulty lies is in the physics system. If you build a structure that leans too far to the right then before you know it it will come crashing down on you. Or if you are trying to make one over some deadly spikes you have to make sure it doesn't dip too far down or that will be the end of your little Goo Balls.

You are collecting them for the World of Goo Corporation. The only person helping you along the way is a mysterious person known only as The Sign Painter. In each level there will be at least one sign you can click on that will give you a general idea of how to complete the level and what the different Goo Balls do.

In regards to that there are many different kinds of Goo Balls. There are ones that are one-time use, there are ones that can be grabbed and used as many times as you want, there are some that behaving like balloons, and many others.

There are a total of 48 levels in the game and they range from really easy to frustratingly difficult. Each level has a minimal goal but it also has a harder goal they dub as OCD (Obsessive Completion Distinction). As of this review I have not completed every level and I probably won't be able to any time soon.

The game has a definite charm. The graphics are very colorful and unique. When you grab onto the Goo Balls they much a fun little "wheee" sound and when you place them they say a word in their little Goo Ball language. The music in the game is also done very well. It fits with the charm of the rest of the game and doesn't distract you from your playing.

Now the biggest downside of this game are the controls. If you are playing on the PC you use the mouse to move your cursor and to click on and move the Goo Balls. If you are playing on the Wii you point your Wii Remote at the screen just like you would the mouse. Now I have only played the PC version so I can't speak for the Wii's controls. But what I can say is in some levels you are required to be very fast. The cursor doesn't respond as fast as it should and sometimes with tons of things on the screen it's hard to get it to lock onto what you need. Sometimes you'll find you've clicked on the wrong thing and the next thing you know half of your remaining Goo Balls are dead or your structure has collapsed. This did make me want to bang my head against the wall a few times but thankfully you usually have a choice of a few different levels you can play and you can go back to the tough ones and try them later.

The game also tries to have a bit of a community feature. For each level you complete you earn Goo Balls that go into your stash. You can then use those to build your own Tower of Goo. The only objective here is to build it as high as possible and make it so it will stay standing. Then you are shown clouds floating through the sky with the names and countries of other players and how tall their towers are. It is fun when you build yours up and see that Sven from Norway is 2 meters shorter than you. But one wrong move and your whole tower will come crashing to Earth and you can almost hear Sven laughing at you all the way from Norway.

So do yourself a favor and pick up this game if you are at all interested in puzzle games or just want something cute to help the hours tick away. For $20 you can't go wrong.

My score: 8.0/10