Good quality games don't necessarily come from big companies. You can also find great titles made by the so called indie developers, and World of Goo is an excellent example.
This amazing mixture between a physics puzzle and a construction game has been created by two former EA employees who decided to found their own gaming company. It has been widely praised by critics and received nominations for several different prizes. And believe me, it deserves all of that, and even more.
World of Goo reminds me in a way of Lemmings: it's full of a bunch of cute small creatures and requires construction skills. Your aim consists on rescuing the Goo balls scattered all over the screen on each level by building all sorts of structures with them (ladders, bridges, poles, etc.) that let you overcome different obstacles such as hills, spikes or cliffs, not to mention gravity itself. The exit to each level is represented as a pipe, and sometimes you get hints about how to approach the puzzle.
Graphically speaking, World of Goo looks like one of those easy yet addictive Flash colorful games you play online. It's all designed with simple, rounded lines, bright colors and smooth animations. The game's physics are something completely different. Goo balls are represented as extremely malleable, sticky blobs and behave exactly like that. Also, you'll have to take weight and oscillation very much into account if you don't want your structure to tear down to pieces before reaching the exit.
Summing up, World of Goo is an extremely creative, beautifully designed construction game that all puzzle fans will love, for sure - even if this demo only lets you play the first chapter of the game.
World of Goo is a cute puzzle game with lots of creativity involved: build the right structure and you'll be able to complete the level!
