World of Goo 2 is a Spectacularly Ooey-Goo’d Time

The first World of Goo released as a downloadable WiiWare title back in 2008, and I was absolutely mystified by it. It was one of the first indie games I was exposed to, and I didn’t know a video game could look and feel like that. It was like a Tim Burton or Henry Selick movie that you could participate in by simply connecting little Goo Balls together to solve a bunch of physics-based puzzles. The gameplay was addicting, the story perplexing, and the vibes were immaculate thanks to the visual and musical artistry of Kyle Gabler. It was a true one-of-a-kind gameplay experience that has since been ported to several other platforms over the years. The original game has always held a special place in my heart, so when the sequel was announced at The Game Awards 2023, I was over the moon with excitement. Finally, a new set of levels to play, new music to enjoy, and a new world of goo to explore. And it pleases me to no end to share that World of Goo 2 exceeds its predecessor by nearly every quantifiable metric.

Right from the start, World of Goo 2 feels like a return to a simpler time. The nonsensical boot up screen kicks in with lines of code like “manufacturing social responsibility…” and “embiggening prototypes…” then the iconic title music winds up before the grand splash screen of the title itself: World of Goo 2! Fans of the series will know what’s about to happen, but new players will have no idea what’s in store for them.

Before I dive much deeper, it’s worth noting that you have two control options for this game on the Switch: touch screen controls in Handheld Mode, or the gyroscopic “pointer” controls if you have a pair of Joy-Cons to play in Docked or Tabletop Mode. While the latter is more akin to the original Wii Remote IR pointer controls, I played World of Goo 2 almost entirely in Handheld Mode because the touch controls felt the most natural to me. Sometimes the screen would get a little cluttered and I couldn’t quite tap on the things I needed to move, but that’s when zooming in and out with a little pinch comes in clutch.

Much like the inaugural World of Goo, this sequel is broken into chapters (this time there are five) that are accessed from a literal hub world. Tap the chapter you want to play and you’ll be taken to a stylized overworld map reminiscent of those found in Super Mario World. Each chapter has its own theme and style, which gives players a good indication of the types of levels they will experience within. For instance, Chapter 1 is titled “The Long Juicy Road” and the levels are adorned with titles such as “A Goo Filled Hill” and “Chutes and Bladders.”

The levels themselves are (in theory) pretty straightforward. Get a certain amount of Goo Balls to the suction pipe by building a bridge or a tower for the Goo Balls to travel on. World of Goo 2’s very first level is actually a redux of the previous game’s first level – you just gotta build a tower to suck up them Goo Balls. The familiar Talking Signs also make a return to give advice (or warnings) to the player as they try to wrangle the Goo Balls, and if you make a mistake you can “undo” a move by clicking on one of the little white flies that are buzzing around the level. But, as you make your way through the levels and chapters, World of Goo 2 reveals itself to be significantly more challenging than what came before – a fact made all the more evident when you can see what a “perfect run” looks like at the end of each level.

You see, the most basic criteria to complete each level is to simply get the minimum requirement of Goo Balls to the finish line, er, pipe. The finish pipe. Once you pull the lever to end the level, you’ll be graded on three metrics: how many Goo Balls saved, how many moves taken, and how much time it took to complete the level. However, there are additional challenges to beat. Instead of a minimum 11 Goo Balls, a perfect score is 29 or more. You took 20 moves to reach the end of the level? Try to get it done in 15 or fewer. And you spent 3 minutes assembling the perfect Goo Structure? Nonsense, you only need 24 seconds.

I’m not sure how the developers determined these ideal goals for players to hit, but it certainly adds to the game’s replayability. I never went back to try to get a perfect score because I like to take my time figuring out the puzzles, but every now and again I would achieve them by accident and be rewarded with an “OCD” flag to show I managed to do the seemingly impossible.

While we’re on the topic of the levels, let’s talk about their design. World of Goo 2 is obviously an extension of the first game, but it’s also an evolution. You have your Common Goo Balls that stick together to form geometric structures, but once they’re connected you can’t pull them apart (unlike the green Ivy Goo Balls that can be stuck and unstuck as many times as needed). Other returning Goo Balls are the red Fuse Goo Balls that look and burn up like matches, and the pink Balloons that can make your structures float in the air.

World of Goo 2 also introduces many new types of Goo Balls, such as the translucent Conduit Balls that can channel Liquid Goo into the cannon-like Launcher Machines that will ingest the liquid and transform it into more Goo Balls. Then there’s the yellow Cheese Balls that can be used to manipulate the terrain to make it taller or wider, which is great for closing gaps for your Goo Bridges, and illuminating Light Goo Balls that help you see in the dark. There are few other new types of Goo, but the Liquid Goo is perhaps the biggest new mechanic in World of Goo 2.

Liquid Goo is a significant portion of multiple levels, and it’s presented in all sorts of unique ways. Sometimes it’s a near infinite source of Goo Balls if you can conduit the Goo into a Launcher Machine, other times it’s a sentient mass with eyeballs that you have to corral into a grinder. Liquid Goo is also flammable, so you have to be careful not to let it catch fire and destroy your Goo Balls. The game also just straight up has lava in it, too. So, yeah. Be careful.

In addition to the Launcher Machines, there are other machines with their own functions. Some will spew pure Liquid Goo without transforming it into Goo Balls, while others still will shoot water like a fire hydrant. You’ll even encounter machines that act like rocket boosters to propel Goo Structures across (or above) the level. The inventiveness and ingenuity on display here make the original World of Goo look like a simple tech demo by comparison – and I loved the first game! I figured World of Goo 2 would at least capture the spirit of what came before, and maybe add a few extra things, but the sheer amount of new mechanics baked into this sequel makes World of Goo 2 an absolute delight to play.

World of Goo 2 is also a pretty significant jump from the first game in terms of visuals. Yes, the art style is the same, but the fidelity has been properly upgraded to a more modern standard. The physics engine is wonderfully interactive, with some later levels even adding a gravity manipulation twist, and the Liquid Goo really looks… gooey. The way it glops and sludges around is really satisfying to watch, and when it catches on fire it just looks sensational. But there are also a lot of little touches in World of Goo 2, like how Goo Balls leave behind a trail of residue on whatever surface they touch, or the way that Liquid Goo can get caught inside the hollow parts of your Goo Structures. I’m also a big fan of how visceral it feels when your structures collapse in on themselves and how violently the Goo Balls explode when they get destroyed. You can tell a lot of time, care, and attention went into every aspect of this game, resulting in a more immersive experience.

While the level of polish is quite high, World of Goo 2 still runs really smoothly on the Switch’s hardware… for the most part. There were a few levels in some of the later worlds that started to chug because of how many things were happening on-screen – namely some of the levels in Chapter 3, which takes place on a moving train. The game just couldn’t handle all of the weather effects, the motion blur, the physics, and the number of moving Goo Balls in play. The game also straight up crashed in one of the final levels in Chapter 5. I had to build a massive bridge over two lava spouts to harvest 100 Goo Balls, and with how many times I was undoing my moves and restarting the level, the game finally broke. But I rebooted and everything worked swimmingly after that, so I’d imagine a quick patch after launch could fix that right up.

Honestly, though, none of these performance hiccups detracted from my gameplay experience, and I’m sure World of Goo 2 runs at peak efficiency on PC. My only real complaint is a string of levels in Chapter 4 that were super dialogue heavy with no way to speed up or skip the dialogue lines. These levels were unexpected in how they were presented and really enjoyable to play, but they destroyed the pacing of the game for me. And while I could maybe forgive that for a first playthrough, you can’t even skip the dialogue if you replay the levels to get all of the Goo Balls, so you’re just stuck listening to all of the things you heard before. If the developers are reading this, please make a fast forward option of some kind for these levels! It would really help to keep things moving along.

Regarding the story, the World of Goo series is definitely a gameplay first franchise. Yes, the art style is wildly imaginative and the hand-drawn cutscenes are quirky and delightfully disturbing (parents feeding their infants bottles of Goo, people using Goo-based makeup products, etc.), but the gooey physics-based puzzle gameplay is still the core of the series. That being said, World of Goo 2’s story goes in some shocking directions.

The World of Goo Corporation has rebranded as The World of Goo Organization, with a new sustainability initiative to “rejuvenate” the world. It’s a fascinating turn to take from the previous game’s sharp commentary on consumerism and corporate greed, but it’s no less scathing in its critique of the hollow activism from a global company that caused the environmental issues the in-game society is now facing. Goo Balls are a resource to be exploited, and The World of Goo Corporation poisoned the earth and its citizens all in the name of profit. How convenient, then, that they are now an “organization” dedicated to fixing the problems they made, while in reality they are just looking for new ways to maintain control over society and make more money. Same song, different verse. That’s capitalism, baby!

There’s actually way more to the story that I won’t go into here, because I don’t want to spoil how it all shakes out, but I really appreciate the direction of this game. It builds beautifully upon the groundwork laid in the first World of Goo, enabling developers 2DBOY and Tomorrow Corporation to craft an even more compelling narrative. World of Goo 2 is very much a reflection of what we’re seeing happen to our own world in 2024 – albeit, a reflection you would see through a twisted funhouse mirror.

Lastly, I want to highlight the World of Goo 2 soundtrack, because this score is a banger. Kyle Gabler is back as the composer, but this time he is joined by Jonny Trengrove, and together they have crafted one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve heard all year. Themes from the previous game can still be heard in World of Goo 2, but there’s a ton of new stuff in there as well, and the composers play with a variety of different musical genres. Whether it’s energetic polka-style tracks, ethereal orchestral passages, or crunchy synth beats, they all share the same DNA, blending together to form a moody musical soundscape that feels as diverse and connected as the Goo Balls you encounter.

The music making duo also worked with musicians from their community, with each musician recording their individual contributions that Gabler and Trengrove then stitched together in the final edit. I think that’s not only a great way to include your fans in the creative process, but it also makes World of Goo 2 sound larger than life. It really is quite impressive, and I can’t wait to listen to the soundtrack on repeat once it releases.

I really could go on and on about how much I love this game, or how impressed I am that a sequel I never imagined would happen managed to one-up a game that I’ve always considered to be perfect. World of Goo 2 is a game filled with wonder and whimsy and all manner of surprises. It took me 8 hours and 28 minutes to complete without skipping a single level, and I legitimately wish I could wipe my memory so I could experience it for the first time again. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 16 years for another entry in this deliciously gooey franchise, but I am more than happy with what we have been served up this time around.