Goo-balls! It's Fun to Say, and They're Fun to Play With!

World of Goo was only $5 this past weekend on Steam, and I couldn't resist. Reviews have all been rather positive, and it's even received awards (see Outstanding Achievement in Game Design). A big discount on a critically acclaimed game? I was already salivating.

The World of Goo is a place full of fun levels and melodic music matched wonderfully with a distinct visual style; it's like a moving action comic from the mind of Tim Burton. And pair that with the sound effects from Worms: an aural delight.

The basic mechanics involve hooking together or tethering little balls of goo to each other to form towers, pyramids, or bridges and the like to transport said goo to a massive corporation. So really it's a physics-based builder with a heaping load of humor packed into a small package. But it can also be frustrating like any puzzle with simple mechanics and complex solutions; fast-stacking is not my favorite.

I can see why scores tend to be high for it. It's an above average game people of all types can grab hold of very quickly. I'd be interested to see a haptic version if it could ever happen and hope my fingers wouldn't get sticky.

-- "Self realization. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said, 'I drank what?'"