World of Goo: A Blast of Fun for Wii
I’ve made two game purchases this weekend and I’m actually surprised by the one that’s gotten more hours. While I do plan to get to a Gears of War 2 review later on –especially after standing in the rain Thursday night for it— I want to reflect on an unexpected new game that I picked up for Wii called World of Goo, that’s actually been around for a while but finally makes its way to a console.
World of Goo is Wii Ware and can be downloaded via the Wii Shop Channel on your internet connected Wii console. I didn’t really expect too much. Wii Ware and Virtual Console downloads have been kind of a mixed bag for me. Sometimes they are decent and VC games have some nostalgia value but so far nothing outrageously noteworthy has come across the platform via download.
World of Goo is a 1500 Wii Point investment — about $15.00—that’s worth every penny and is infinitely more enjoyable than many of the full price titles I’ve bought for Nintendo’s cute little bank-busting console.
The concept is simple, you’re dropped into a level with a quantity of gobs of goo. By grabbing the globules with the cursor you can stretch and build them into structures with the goal of reaching a pipe opening somewhere in the level.
Sounds overly simple, but it’s one of those deliciously addictive games that quickly begins an obsession. Each level is its own, self-contained physics puzzle. With each progressive stage you are introduced to a new and slightly more complex scenario as well as additional objects that can help you attain your goals. You’re also given different colors of goo at various stages that all have unique physical properties that have advantages and disadvantages.
Every level has a wooden sign or two with cryptic “hints” from the mysterious “Sign Painter” who talks in vagaries and tends to drop into tangents like how many minutes of cardio he’s putting in weekly.
There are 5 “chapters” in the game all with many levels so there’s plenty of game play. The puzzles are challenging without being frustrating and the satisfaction of manipulating the goo is infinitely enjoyable. The game has a freshness, charm and humor that I haven’t seen in eons in a commercial title. The graphics are simple, but clean, crisp and eye-pleasing.
World of Goo is the brain child of an independent pair of developers that produce titles under the name 2D Boy. If this is exemplary of the type of quality that we can expect to see from them I certainly will be first on board to pony up and give them more chances.
While World of Goo is available (or soon will) on the PC,Mac and Linux platforms as well as Wii Ware, this game seems to be made for the Wii Remote. I’m sure that it will still be a fun title utilizing a mouse, but part of the charisma of the game is the real sense of physical manipulation you get from using the Wii-mote to pull and prod your goo and other items around the screen. If you don’t have a Wii console I certainly wouldn’t hesitate checking it out on your PC or MAC, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the Wii version.
World of Goo is the kind of initiative we need to see more of from independent publishers for the Wii and really is just the right thing to come along now if like me you’ve lost some faith in the real longevity and value of the Wii Ware and Virtual Console titles being released. Don’t hesitate, check this game out and fill your life with goo for while.
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Tags: Game Reviews, Wii
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December 18th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
[...] before coughing up the cash. Latest example: World of Goo. Heard great things. Even Scuzzbuster raved about it on this site. But, no offense to Scuzz, I still want to try it before dropping the dollars. Make [...]