World of Goo

Overview

World of Goo is a physics based puzzle game released as a part of the Nintendo Wii's WiiWare downloadable service, the iPad app store, PC/MAC, and Linux. On the Wii, the game is released as a WiiWare title in the US, but it was released as a Wii disc in Europe and was slightly more expensive on disc. The PC and the WiiWare versions were released on October 13th, 2008 and are identical for the most part. An iPhone version of the game, after frequent wavering from 2DBoy, has been slated for release as early as March 2011. World of Goo is an independent game and was reportedly made by only 3 people, 2 of which were the main contributors.

Story

The story centers around the World of Goo Corporation, a satire of big businesses that seems to be exploiting goo balls for profit by turning them into popular products such as tasty beverages. The corporation has set up pipes throughout the goo balls' home world in order to collect them. The goo balls work tirelessly to reach these pipes, as they constantly seek adventure and see the pipes as "warm and inviting." The goo balls sucked into the pipe during each level are collected at the World of Goo Corporation, where they build a tower to the sky for unknown reasons. The goo balls remain blissfully unaware of most of what is going on during the story, but the player guides them through a quest to stop the World of Goo Corporation.

You're about to enter a whole new world... of goo

The story begins in The Goo Filled Hills, a pastoral island home to many goo balls. Eventually, they escape the island using large balloons in hopes of finding new adventures. The story then shifts to Little Miss World of Goo, a land where beauty reigns. There, a giant statue is injected with "Beauty Goos" in order to regain its beauty, and through that its ability to power the World of Goo. The next world, titled Cog in the Machine, follows the journey of the goo balls through a factory where outsource work is done for the World of Goo Corporation. Eventually, "Product Z" is launched at the factory, which converts the 2-dimensional world into 3D. An error message appears telling the player that he/she is incompatible with this new world, prompting him/her to seek tech support in the next level, the Information Super Highway. In this world, the goo balls find themselves inside the internet. They first upgrade the woefully outdated internet to support modern graphics, and then proceed to MOM, a spambot who teaches the player how to destroy the World of Goo Corporation. This is done by "undeleting" all of the deleted spam in the history of the internet and sending it to the World of Goo Corporation. This succeeds, blowing up the corporation and returning the world to 2D. At this point, although the main objective for the player seems complete, as the corporation has played the role of the villain, the goo balls continue their tireless quest to travel higher. The player is taken to the epilogue level, titled The End of the World. Here, the goo balls take on increasingly difficult challenges, during which The Sign Painter loses faith in their ability to succeed. In a twist ending, a sign left in the final level reveals that each and every goo ball has been sucked up by the pipes and transported to what was once the World of Goo Corporation. The sign then complains that a layer of smoke from the explosion of the corporation is blocking him from seeing out of his telescope, which he is currently operating in the center of the level. The player helps by attaching flying fish to the telescope in order to raise it above the smoke, allowing The Telescope Operator (Which The Sign Painter refers to himself at this point as) to see far, eventually spotting a faraway world seemingly inhabited entirely by goo balls, suggesting that this world may have been what the goo balls were seeking during their quest upward.

Gameplay

Place goos to raise beauty ball, good times for all!

In World of Goo, you build structures using balls of goo in order to get from your starting position to a pipe that sucks in excess goo balls that you haven't used, sometimes of only a special type. These extra goo balls go to the World of Goo Corporation where the player can use them to create other towers and compare these to their friends. Goo balls come in many varieties, including standard, flammable, "dead", explosive, and many other types as well. There are fly-like creatures called time bugs flying around the screen, and clicking on any one of the time bugs will cause your last action to be undone. These can only be used in certain levels and only a few times per level. New concepts or goo types are typically introduced through the enigmatic Sign Painter, who leaves painted signs in most levels in order to help the player progress.

Length

The main story mode takes around 6-7 hours to complete It and includes 48 levels over 5 chapters, with each introducing more kinds of goo balls and a harder difficulty. After you finish the story mode, there is also a freeform tower building mode called the World of Goo Corporation in which the aim is to make the highest tower possible using the extra goo balls you have rescued during story mode. In this mode, other players' structures are represented as clouds in real time.

Additional replay value is also found trying to accomplish the "OCD" (Obsessive Completion Distinction) challenge on each level, which usually involves solving the level with a certain number of goo balls remaining, in a certain number of moves, or within a time limit.

Wii specific features

• The Wii version of World Of Goo allows 4 player co-op simultaneous game play.

PC/Mac specific features

• Online leader boards for every level were once hosted by 2D Boy. These, however, have gone down with no sign of return. Records are currently held by fan-made leader boards.
• The PC version features no DRM system at all.
• A level Editor has been completed by fans, and fully supported by 2D Boy.

iPhone/iPod Touch Version

Despite initial troubles with development, World of Goo was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch

on April 14. The version features a pinch to zoom option to compensate for the small screen. World of Goo is playable on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3rd generation iPod Touch, and newer iPod Touch models. Customers who purchase or have already purchased the iPad version of World of Goo will receive the iPhone and iPod Touch versions for free.

iOS Version Differences

• Unlike the other versions of the game which allow the use of 300 goo balls, the iOS World of Goo Corporation only allows the use of 200 goo balls due to hardware limitations.
• Welcoming Unit, Product Launcher, and Deliverance have been altered so that less goo balls appear on screen. The removal of these balls is relatively inconsequential, as they do not effect the completion of the levels.
• Super Fuse Challenge Time has been altered to require the collection of fewer goo balls. This is likely due to the level's strict time limit being too difficult when using iOS controls.
• Other minor optimizations were implemented, involving removing minor visual flairs that do not effect gameplay.
• Upon completing the final level, players access a bonus level in which they may "purchase" a blimp called the Mighty Blimp from a lone goo ball, subtly mocking the micro-transactions that have become ubiquitous in iOS games (particularly the Mighty Eagle from Angry Birds). Once purchased, this blimp floats around on the title screen. If clicked, the blimp is seen up close, trailing a banner that reads, "I bought a blimp." Once the game is exited, the blimp vanishes until it has been purchased once more.

Android Version

World of Goo launched for Android on November 28, 2011. It is compatible with Android phones running Android 2.2 and up, along with all Android tablets. The release includes OpenFeint integration.

Soundtrack

The whole World Of Goo soundtrack composed by Kyle Gabler can be downloaded for free here.

1. "World of Goo Beginning" − 1:09
2. "The Goo Filled Hills" − 0:25
3. "Brave Adventurers" − 1:07
4. "Another Mysterious Pipe Appeared" − 1:18
5. "World of Goo Corporation" − 0:17
6. "Regurgitation Pumping Station" − 3:40
7. "Threadcutter" − 0:55
8. "Rain Rain Windy Windy" − 2:45
9. "Jelly" − 2:38
10. "Tumbler" − 1:52
11. "Screamer" − 1:36
12. "Burning Man" − 1:49
13. "Cog in the Machine" − 4:03
14. "Happy New Year (tm) Brought to You by Product Z" − 0:54
15. "Welcome to the Information Superhighway" − 1:56
16. "Graphic Processing Unit" − 1:06
17. "Years of Work" − 3:39
18. "My Virtual World of Goo Corporation" − 1:05
19. "Hello, MOM" − 0:06
20. "Inside the Big Computer" − 2:21
21. "Are You Coming Home, Love MOM" − 3:02
22. "Ode to the Bridge Builder" − 1:25
23. "The Last of the Goo Balls and the Telescope Operator" − 1:00
24. "Best of Times" − 3:41
25. "Red Carpet Extend-o-matic" − 4:04
26. "World of Goo Corporation's Valued Customers" − 0:13
27. "World of Goo Ending" − 1:09

System Requirements

Minimum System requirements:

• Supported OS: Windows® XP or Vista
• Processor: 1GHz or faster
• Memory: 512MB RAM
• Video: Any 3D graphics accelerator less than 5 years old
• DirectX® Version: 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 100MB

Mac System Requirements

• OS: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later
• Processor: Intel Core Duo
• Memory: 512 MB
• Graphics: 64 MB

Trivia

• A demo including the entire first chapter of World of Goo was released on October, 15th 2008 after high demands for it. A demo was initially to be launched in early 2009, rather than before the official game's release.

• World of Goo won Spike TV's Best Independent Game of 2008 Award [sponsored by MT. Dew].
• The developers for World of Goo released the figures and it appears that the game had a 90% piracy rate comparing number of units bought and number or players online.
• The Mac Version of World of Goo was included in MacHeist 3.
• World of Goo was one of the games included in the first Humble Indie Bundle.