World of Goo

World of Goo is now available for the iPad. I reviewed World of Goo almost two years ago on my old site, so this is a revisit of my original review.

Like all the best games, the premise is simple. You are in command of a horde of gooey blobs and are charged with the task of cajoling them into forming structures to get from Point A, to Point B. It’s part Lemmings, part Worms, all fun.

There is a sweet spot in gaming, where the difficult level falls perfectly between challenging but not so difficult it stops being fun. Obviously everyone has a different opinion about where this point is, but for me World of Goo is perfectly pitched although one has to wonder what sort of fiendish mind created a level like “Blustery Day”?

Each world contains new species of Goo Ball with unique abilities such as sticky, reusable, explosive, drippy, flammable, etc. Along the way you can find messages left on wooden signposts by the mysterious Sign Painter- a source of some of the engaging but incredibly silly humour. The signs also hint at a far weirder subplot of the game which is best not to even try to explain.

The game is stunningly designed, and beautifully illustrated. Each Goo Ball seems to be a living, breathing entity babbling away in some unknown language, you get a pang of guilt every time you accidentally let one of the little fellas drop into a churning ocean or raging fire.

The Danny Elfman style score is elegant, and sucks you into this bizarre world. Such was the popularity of the music, that co-creator of the game Kyle Gabler released the score as a free download.

What is so amazing about the overall polish of the game, is that it was made entirely by two guys. New marketplaces like the iPhone App Store and Wii Ware has allowed tiny indie dev’s to turn out games that are far more inventive than anything the major studios have every managed. This can only be a good thing for players.

I first reviewed this game for the Wii, but this iOS port is perfect, and is to my mind the definitive version of the game. I’ve bought this game three times now- on the Wii, the Mac and now iOS, the iPad version is far and away the best I own. If you own an iPad, you should buy this game. It’s as simple as that.