Today, I beat a game I had wanted to play ever since I heard about the Wii version:

• World of Goo
  

  8 hours playtime

  1 of 8 achievements

I had actually forgotten about this game until I came across Dikki Painguin in TKO for the Third Reich and read that the music in that game had been repurposed for World of Goo (it even kept the percussion meant to simulate a moving train, even though nothing even resembling trains is in this game, much less the part it plays in).

Anyway, this is a physics puzzle game. I specified that because, unlike traditional puzzle games, physics puzzle games will have different results if you try the same solution with often unintentional slight differences, and this can sometimes be the difference between whether or not you beat the level. World of Goo is pretty good about avoiding this, but it isn’t immune to it; that just comes with the territory.

The way the game works is that you have a set amount of goo balls, and you have to use them to build a structure to reach a pipe. Goo balls that are part of the structure can’t enter the pipe, and you need to get a certain amount of goo balls into the pipe to clear the level. The challenge comes with trying to build a stable structure; if you aren’t careful, the structure you’ve built will collapse, and you’ll have to start over.

My biggest issue with the game is that the difficulty curve is inconsistent. The game seems to be more focused on adding new mechanics than doing anything clever with them, especially in Chapter 2 and 4, and when you consider that Chapter 5, the final chapter, is only three levels long, that’s pretty much half the game that can be cleared without much thought. Even Chapter 1 has harder levels than Chapter 2 and 4, but don’t worry; the game gives you a certain amount of skips so you won’t have to play the levels that actually require puzzle-solving (I never used any skips, by the way).

To be fair, the game attempts to rectify its general lack of challenge by having Obsessive Completion Distinctions for each level (usually “beat in X moves” or “get X goo balls in the pipe”), but even these will occasionally lack challenge (I got a few without even trying). For example, in Water Lock, the OCD is to get all the goo balls in the pipe, but this level introduces a launching mechanic (which, by the way, is never used again); in other words, all you can do is launch the box with the goo balls toward the pipe and hope they are in position to go in, and if some don’t go in, you have to wait for the box to get back into position to try again. It isn’t hard, just repetitive and annoying.

Another issue I have with the game is the nature of how the goo balls move. If they’re idle and you get the structure near them, they’ll try to jump on, but since this is a physics puzzle game, the structure will often bob away, sending the goo to their untimely demise. The ones that are on the structure will go in random directions across the structure, making it harder to grab the type of goo you want when the situation arises, notably in Misty’s Long Bony Road (where there’s a bunch of normal goo and only four skull goo) and Horizontal Transportation Innovation Committee (where there’s a bunch of normal goo and only one balloon).

On a similar subject, I don’t like how the game handles undoing moves. Rather than have a button with X amount of undos per level, the resets are represented by firefly-like creatures that will fly around the stage and blend in with the bright background. And, of course, they’ll get in your way. I lost count of how many times I was about to use a goo ball to extend my structure, only for me to click on a reset firefly by accident and have to redo what I had just done.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this game, but maybe I’m just not a fan of physics puzzle games.