World of Goo

World of Goo : A structure-based puzzle game where the player erects long objects by taking a lubricant-like substance and forming it in a matter that makes it hard.

Story : Something about an evil corporation and their grand scheme, and a whole lot of “goo balls” that seem to have nothing to do with this grand scheme. The cutscenes, which look like some kind of cross of Emily The Strange and a stoner Flash cartoon (but I guess that’s what you expect from this kind of game) are pretty neat. But my oh my, how defeating the evil corporation has become the hip thing to do in video games nowadays, what with this, de Blob, Mirror’s Edge and a few other games I’m forgetting. Did that many people think Beyond Good and Evil was a more original game than it really was?

The goal in a level of World of Goo is to construct structures using the aforementioned goo balls in a manner that creates a path to a far off pipe that consumes the leftover balls, which will hopefully be enough to meet a minimum requirement needed to pass. All the while, the physics engine of the game challenges the player to create apparatuses that are structurally sound enough to not collapse (or to deliberately collapse, catch fire, explode, inch up a wall, or whatever the level is asking for.)

The challenge in reviewing World of Goo is that the game makes every possible joke that can be made about the game for me, sans the sexual innuendos that I just leaped at the opportunity to get out there at the beginning of this review. Each level has a couple of signs that mention the gimmicks of each level, and then promptly makes fun of them. Whether it’s calling detachable goo balls insecure or breaking the fourth wall, these signs (which on average, are funny about 3 times out of 4) cover every possible joke that could be made about a game called World of Goo, with a particular fondness for computer nerd humor. There’s even a 9/11 joke in there.

I’m serious, a world trade center joke in an E-for-Everyone-rated video game! It’s not a very offensive joke, mind you. In fact it might be the friendliest, most charming September 11th rib you will ever hear, and I wouldn’t put it past a family member of a victim to smirk when they see it.

Going back to the gameplay, the developers at 2D Boy (all two of them) manage to squeeze out a lot of mileage with this whole goo idea. Each level has its own gimmicks, and the variety of goo types mix up the gameplay just enough to keep things fresh. Only on a few questionable areas did I find a puzzle with a solution that didn’t make sense. One area required that I put enough weight on a block to push it down. I assumed I could just put all the goo blobs on it and the deed would be done, but it was not to be; only after a large tower was built did the weight acknowledge the existence of these feverish blobs. But that said, I only made myself resort to looking up solutions to certain puzzles online about two or three times, and otherwise found myself accomplishing each challenge on my own, with the same sense of accomplishment and pride that came with solving a puzzle in Braid…

…except without the nonsensical Manhattan Project subtext, and much more replay value. The game keeps track of how fast you complete a puzzle, with how many moves it gets completed and how many extra goo balls you finished it with. The extra balls you collect go in this side area where you’re instructed to simply make the largest tower possible, passing by clouds that represent other player’s towers. Interesting in theory, but being that I can’t see the names of the people I’m passing, then I may as well be trying to topple some predetermined fake scores, like the Top Ten fake, deliberately small high scores every arcade game has, begging to be dethroned by the player after a couple to fill them with a sense of pride that lasts until the machine shuts down for the evening and erases any new data.

But I digress. World of Goo is a fun, unconventional puzzle game, one with an aura of flair and freshness around it. Since most puzzle games these days are a retread of matching or aligning tiles, it felt fresh to see a new concept brought to the table. And after the time I spent putting down Star Wars : The Force Unleashed for its abuse of physics, World of Goo gave me a bit of faith that maybe something more special than bodies acting like ragdolls can come out of this high-tech mumbo jumble.

Pros : Costs 1500 Wii points. Getting 2000 Wii Points is the same price in Canada as 1400 Xbox points, so you can get this and an NES game for more or less the same price as Braid, and this game is much more worth it.

Cons : There comes a point where the game asks you to manipulate boxes, and you’ll wish that rotating the Wiimote could in turn rotate the boxes, instead of having to watch them spin on their own axis. No online scoreboards for a game that begs for them. A few moments had me yearning for the quicker, more accurate controls of a mouse. In other words, the game’s biggest faults are with the Wii system itself, and I wonder if these are corrected if you play the game on Steam. Also, since blobs intend to overlap each other, it takes some fumbling to grab the blob you wanted – not fun in high-pressure situations. The “whistle” doesn’t always work. But I still loved the game anyways. 

4 stars

So I guess Braid is going to be my new whipping boy after all. I’m sure if I tried hard enough, I could sneak a Braid joke into a Resident Evil 4 review or something.

Never skipped a level!