World of Goo – Review
Review by Lewie Procter
World of Goo is as close to perfect as it gets.
Please get it.
It’s genuinely incredible.
I played the original tech demo for World of Goo (Tower of Goo), a few years back, and thought to myself “Wow, this is really neat, I wonder what could happen if they made a proper game out of this, I bet it could be fantastic.”
That’s exactly what 2D Boy have done, and it is fantastic.
It feels, and plays, like a very contemporary update to lemmings. It even has moments where you get to destroy everything on screen as a cathartic release from failing a level, before you give it one more go. The controls are brilliant, the animation is lovely, and the presentation is brilliant. The music is brilliant, it feels like it’s not quite right, but that is part of the charm. Reminds me of Worms actually.
It is literally just about getting things from A to B. Although it’s very post-portal. That’s not a criticism at all, it has a lot of similarities with portal, but it really has it’s own identify.
It’s genuinely hilarious. Not just hilarious though, hilarious in a very game-y way. It has a wonderful character, ‘The Sign Painter’, who is consistently surprising, and consistently brilliant. Some of the scenarios are very witty, and very knowingly used.
All the humour, style and polish in the world won’t make a fun game if the game isn’t fun to play.
Luckily, World of Goo is fun fun fun fun fun.
The puzzles are very well constructed. They are always fair, and always logical. If you are anything like me, you’ll spend about half the time working out what you have to do, and half the time working out how to do it. There is a lot of trial and error involved, but experimenting with different solutions is always a joy. It’s very conducive to group play, taking turns.
World of Goo is a triumph of game design, and a breath of fresh air. Exactly what WiiWare needs, and a commendable indie effort.
It’s an obvious conclusion, but thinking with Goo is the thinking with portals of 2008.
