iPhone App Review: World of Goo

iPhone App: World of Goo

Developer: 2D Boy

Price: $3

World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game in which the player manipulates small, lively 'goo balls' into geometric patterns in order to get through dangerous territory. The balls exist in one of two states: rigid forms making up geometric patterns, and 'free' balls that float around in those patterns. After dragging a free ball to a certain distance away from the set structure and releasing it, rigid links form, expanding the structure and giving the free balls more room to move about. In this way the player can build transport structures for moving goo from one place to another, typically a destination pipe. Watch out though - gravity applies here, and an unstable structure is in danger of collapsing to the ground. The single-player campaign offers levels with individual objectives, or the player may take goo balls 'freed' from completing a level into a multiplayer-capable mode where players are free to build various structures without restraints (other than gravity, goo stock and imagination). In all modes, the game proves colorful, charming, fun, and at times challenging - good thing the game offers the stymied player the opportunity to skip problem levels. For the completionist, 'OCD' challenges allow players to retry levels with new requirements, the fulfillment of which demands near-inhuman precision.

Overall, World of Goo is an expansive, thought-requiring and addicting game deserving of its many accolades. Recommended to any player with a little patience and ability to think geometrically. (Reviewed by Graham Rhodes, 5/19/11.)

(An HD version of the app, capable of upscaling to the iPad, is available for $5.)