World of Goo Review – Gooey in the Center

<p><em>World of Goo<&sol;em> is a different kind of puzzle game and one that went on to win many awards back when it originally released in 2008&period; It was originally only released on PC and Nintendo Wii before eventually being released for mobile platforms as well&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s only fitting that it be released on the Nintendo Switch as well given the nature and design of the system&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s the best of both worlds&comma; allowing both TV play and the ability to enjoy it in tablet mode&period; Moving goo balls is as exciting as ever this time around and includes all of the original game with the addition of the new soundtrack mode&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d played some of <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> on the Wii when it originally released and also checked it out on a friend&&num;8217&semi;s iPad at their request&period; I can say with full honesty that this is my favorite version of the game though as it incorporates what I enjoyed about both of the available playstyles up to this point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The premise of <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> is deceptively simple&period; You just need to manipulate different kinds of goo balls across the 47 levels to reach the pipe that represents the end of the level&period; This pipe will suck up goo balls and a set number of them are required to complete the level&period; Sometimes you&&num;8217&semi;ll be manipulating the same kinds of goo balls in a given level but other times you&&num;8217&semi;ll have different kinds at your disposal&period; Regardless of the available types&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to manipulate them to create different kinds of structures to reach the ends of the different levels&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll work against the different environments with these structures in some very interesting ways&period; It can be difficult at times but when you take a step back and just look around the level&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to figure out what to do&period; It may take some patience but one thing that always got me through the more difficult levels was remembering that I had everything I needed at my disposal to complete these levels&period; I just needed to figure out how to set up the goo balls or how to combine the abilities of the goo balls I had available in the level&period; You can also skip levels if they prove to be too difficult and simply come back to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123149" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123149" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123149" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;24024046&sol;2017032323372100-C4E9854DE59E1AAD6BFE8091E8A5B77D&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123149" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Like the other games from publisher Tomorrow Corporation&comma; you control the game by using the left Joy-Con in the way that Wii Motion Plus remotes worked on the Wii and Wii U&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s technology inside the Joy-Con controllers that can sense movements&comma; positioning&comma; and use the data to determine where your on-screen cursor should be&period; The game will begin by having you play the controller on a flat surface for calibration purposes and then you&&num;8217&semi;ll simply hit the &&num;8216&semi;minus&&num;8217&semi; button to center your on-screen cursor&period; Should you ever need to re-center it&comma; all you have to do is tap the &&num;8216&semi;minus&&num;8217&semi; button again and then you can get back into the action&period; It controls very well and I really enjoy these controls&period; I personally think they work much better than the Wii version not only for accuracy but also in terms of comfort&period; Since you don&&num;8217&semi;t have to mess with a sensor bar&comma; you can sit much more comfortably when you play&period; I like to have my hand and arm rest on my leg or knee&period; It makes it easier for precise movements without having to worry about bigger movements&period; If for some reason you want to play with touchscreen controls then you can&excl; The Nintendo Switch has a multi-touch display just like mobile devices so you&&num;8217&semi;re able to enjoy the game however you want&period; I personally really enjoy playing with the Joy-Con but did find myself utilizing the touch screen controls on occasion when I wanted to be lazy and just sit back and be more comfortable&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also obviously going to be the most precise when you&&num;8217&semi;re touching the screen directly but again&comma; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have any issues with the Joy-Con controls&period; I needed to re-center the cursor here and there but it just takes the push of a button to re-center so it&&num;8217&semi;s not really much of an issue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I was surprised but how much story there was in <em>World of Goo<&sol;em>&period; I never got very far into the game in my previous times with the game but I&&num;8217&semi;ve nearly completed the game on the Nintendo Switch&period; The story is told through cut scenes mostly and progresses throughout your time in each world&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s essentially a struggle between the goo balls and the World of Goo Corporation and it has a few twists and turns that pretty neat and unexpected&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a lot like the stories of platformers where the gameplay definitely takes priority but it&&num;8217&semi;s still nice that the developer included a story in a puzzle-styled game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123150" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123150" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123150" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;24024131&sol;2017032323380700-C4E9854DE59E1AAD6BFE8091E8A5B77D&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123150" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Kyle Gabler created the soundtrack for <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> and I think it&&num;8217&semi;s so funny that it works so&comma; so well within the game&period; Many of the tracks were created for short films and other games but Kyle ended up throwing them all into this game and they just somehow click with the atmosphere&period; The music sounds very epic and also bouncy and poetic at the same time&period; It achieves a lot for the game&&num;8217&semi;s atmosphere and despite being created with different uses in mind&comma; it works really well for strengthening the atmosphere that the graphics and gameplay work together to build&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics may be very simple for <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> but they&&num;8217&semi;re creative and uniquely their own&period; The levels feel very confidently designed and help flesh out the tone of the game&period; The goo balls are easy to discern from each other&period; The goo balls are very cute as are the other visuals in the game&period; The graphics add a layer of deception to <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> because they make the game look almost too cute and casual when in reality the gameplay can get pretty tricky&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some puzzles can be very difficult and I even found myself checking a guide once or twice&period; In these scenarios&comma; I was usually overthinking everything though and would feel dumb once I learned the solution&period; This is definitely a game that just requires patience and thinking&period; You have every tool you need to solve these puzzles&period; You just need to visualize everything and think of the possible solutions and try them out&period; Sometimes what you think won&&num;8217&semi;t work will actually be the solution so you&&num;8217&semi;ll just need to trust your gut&comma; experiment&comma; and try what you&&num;8217&semi;re thinking&period; You can always hit &&num;8216&semi;Retry&&num;8217&semi; in the pause menu if you want to start over&period; This helps relieve some of the pressure and helped ease me into trying things that I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t fully confident would work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123151" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123151" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-123151" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;24024213&sol;2017032323485200-C4E9854DE59E1AAD6BFE8091E8A5B77D&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123151" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of Goo&comma; Tomorrow Corporation<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of content to enjoy here&period; There are 47 levels spread across four different worlds and there&&num;8217&semi;s a more difficult way to play too&excl; The &&num;8216&semi;Obsessive Completion Distinction&&num;8217&semi; flags are earned by rescuing more goos&comma; completing the levels under a certain time frame&comma; or by beating the levels in other different ways&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s going to be more difficult but it&&num;8217&semi;ll be perfect for anyone wanting to prove their skills in <em>World of Goo<&sol;em>&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also the &&num;8216&semi;World of Goo Corporation&&num;8217&semi; level which is where your extra goos will go when you complete a level&period; If the level only requires you to send four goos through the pipe but you manage to get eight then that&&num;8217&semi;s four goos that&&num;8217&semi;ll get sent to the &&num;8216&semi;World of Goo Corporation&&num;8217&semi; level&period; In this level&comma; you can stack up all the goos stored here into a tall tower to showcase your skills in <em>World of Goo<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of content to enjoy in <em>World of Goo<&sol;em> and it&&num;8217&semi;s a very worthy purchase on the Nintendo Switch&period; Not only is it only &dollar;9&period;99 but you&&num;8217&semi;re also able to play it with motion controls or with touch screen controls&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also going to be a co-op mode added in a free future update that is supposed to be available within a week or so from the release&period; That should either be today or some time very soon&period; You can also enjoy the soundtrack at any time by accessing it in the main menu which is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s some very difficult puzzles in this game but with each and every one of these you&&num;8217&semi;ll experience that &&num;8220&semi;Aha&excl;&&num;8221&semi; moment&period; These moments are what make this game so beautiful&&num;8211&semi;despite that sticky goo scattered all over it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;