::A Geek in Korea::

World of Goo

World of Goo is the new hot wunderkind game on Wiiware at the moment. It started as an indie game project called Tower of Goo.It was developed by a small group of people and is outshining the best games on the entire Wii platform at the moment. It’s really outstanding.

It’s a physics based game where you manipulate “goo” as building points. Gravity, stability, and the various different abilities of Goo compete for your attention while you try to reach a point on the level. You have to reach this goo extraction point so that you can collect the delicious Goo for the Goo Corporation. Each level has a completion goal, a higer OCD goal for an even greater challenge, and the better you do, the higher your Tower of Goo can reach! Others can see your dominance via the Internet as well.

It’s the most expensive game on Wiiware, at 1500 points. It’s totally worth it. It’s the game I was most looking forward to playing after Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and Bomberman WiiWare, and it’s delivered BIG TIME. The music, gameplay, and presentation rival the best disc based games. It’s also got really challenging game play that keeps you coming back.

Right now, I’m stuck on the first “real” level of the game. I’ve got to use building Goo and balloon good to keep above a pit of spikes, but below a ceiling of spikes. The balloons need to be grabbed and placed EXACTLY so that I don’t rise and fall too much, and I have to build strategically to have enough left over to win the level. Right now I’ve played the same level for about 30 minutes and failed at different points every time. I’m oh so close to beating it, but I have to perfect my strategy.

It’s very rewarding to figure out how exactly to tackle each level. Even if you get stuck, you can use a limited number of “skips” to go on to different areas. I simply refuse to do that yet. I have not been beaten! There are 48 levels in the WiiWare version. The game is also available via Steam, and from the 2D boy developer’s website (Support their game directly if possible!).

It’s amazing that this is this developers first professional game. They’ll have a high, hard hill to climb if they want to top this venture. I’m eyeing the television every chance I get because I want to go back to playing it.

Now that my most anticipated remaining game of 2008 has come out, I don’t know what else I am looking forward to on Wiiware or on the Wii in general.