World of Goo
A physics-based puzzle game unlike any you’ve ever seen before!
What do you get when two former Electronic Arts employees break off to form their own indie game development studio? You get an amazing little company called 2D Boy. Founded by Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel this little indie studio has created a masterpiece with their first title World of Goo.
World of Goo takes place in a surreal world that’s right out of a Tim Burton film. I’ve heard people mention comparisons to Lemmings and Enigmo but while it does vaguely share some elements from those games it’s a completely a unique experience all its own.
The main idea of the game is to use available Goo Balls to build structures across chasms, around obstacles, through twisty tunnels, and so on in order to reach a pipe located somewhere in each given level. For each level there is a minimum amount of Goo Balls that you need to get into the pipe in order to complete the level. Once you get your structure close enough to the pipe the suction coming from the pipe will suck any remaining Goo Balls that aren’t part of the structure into the pipe. Any extra Goo Balls that are left above the minimum amount required for each level are filed away for your own personal use in the World of Goo Corporation area (more on that later). So much like in golf, where you want to get through each hole by making the fewest shots as possible, you want to try to get through each World of Goo level by using up the fewest amount of Goo Balls as possible.
There is a wide variety of Goo Balls which makes each level unique and challenging. There are Goo Balls that can only be used once while there are others that you can detach from your structure and use again. If Goo Balls are of the latter type you have to be careful that you’re not detaching a Goo Ball that could collapse your entire structure! There are also Goo Balls that are flammable, elastic, and even some that act like projectiles flung from a slingshot! There are also other strange objects, particularly in the latter levels, that are vital to helping you complete certain levels. These include building blocks, helium-filled balloons, and braces.
There are 46 levels spread across four chapters and an epilogue. The design of the levels range from amusing to truly bizarre. Some are extremely challenging so you may find yourself heading to Google to search for hints. I needed help with a few levels but was able to complete the large majority of the levels on my own. Along the way the mystery behind the mysterious World of Goo Corporation will unfold little by little. A mysterious figure only known as the "Sign Painter" provides vague hints in the form of riddles for each level. And all this is accompanied by a fantastic musical soundtrack and some great sound effects. Each species of Goo have their own distinct sound effects. For example, the clear, water-like Goo make a "plop" sound when moving them.
If you’re wondering what you do with all those extra Goo Balls you’ve earned that’s where the World of Goo Corporation area comes in. It is here where you can build your own tower of Goo with all those extra Goo Balls. As you build the upper right-hand corner of the screen will display the height (in meters) of your tower, how many free Goo Balls you have left to use, and where the height of your tower ranks in the community of World of Goo players. At one point I got my tower up to thirty meters tall which put me just outside the top ten thousand in the world. Woot! Clouds floating in the sky represents the height of other players towers and mousing over them will reveal statistics about the player’s tower and their country of origin. This area is not necessary to complete the game but it’s a fun way to see how you measure up with other players and it’s great for bragging rights! An internet connection is required to make full use of this area of the game.
If you can move, left-click, and click and drag with a mouse, by any means, you will be able to play World of Goo. The only time a keyboard is needed is when you create a profile the first time you start the game. You type in your name and that’s it. For those that need or want windowed mode you can activate it by pressing "Command-F’ in the Mac version. As far as I can tell you only have to do this once because the game will keep starting up in windowed mode after that until you press that key combination again. I imagine most people would want windowed mode whether they need it or not because it allows you to easily access your instant messenger, email client, and web browser while playing if desired. If you want to change the resolution of the game there is no in-game way to accomplish this in the Mac version. You need to manually modify the "config.txt" file using TextEdit (or something similar). You can locate this file by right-clicking (or Control-clicking) on the World of Goo application and selecting "Show Package Contents". Then navigate to Contents/Resources/Game.
World of Goo is a truly entertaining and revolutionary game. I highly recommend it to anybody, even if you typically don’t like puzzle games. The game is available for $19.95 for both Windows and Macs with a Linux version coming soon. A free demo version is available here.
System Requirements:
Macintosh
- Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard / Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (or better)
- Intel Core Duo Processor or PowerPC processor
- 512MB RAM or more
- 80MB hard-disk space or more
- Any 3D graphics card less than 5-years old
- Keyboard and mouse (keyboard only needed to create profile)
Windows
- Windows XP/Vista
- 1.0 GHz or faster processor
- 512MB RAM or more
- 80MB hard-disk space or more
- 3D graphics accelerator
- DirectX 9
- Keyboard and mouse (keyboard only needed to create profile)
Paul Natsch
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