World of Goo 2 review: a fitting meta sequel to a classic

Once upon a time, a game like World of Goo 2 didn’t need to exist. A creative studio like Tomorrow Corporation could create a successful game, make a name for itself off that success, and move on to its next project. These days, however, IP has become as good as gold and audiences are hungrier than ever to see them mined for all they’re worth. Sequels, remakes, remasters — if your hit game isn’t franchising, does it make a sound?

Leave it a studio as fiercely satirical as Tomorrow Corporation to critique that insatiable hunger in a meta sequel. World of Goo 2 doesn’t just deliver a new set of ingenious physics-based puzzles. The left-field release serves as a commentary on World of Goo’s own legacy, imagining an alternate timeline where the series never stopped feeding the flame it sparked in 2008. As sharp as that vision is, World of Goo 2 is hampered by a few bum gimmicks and sloppy controls that bog down the high-concept sequel.

More, more, more

Like its 2008 predecessor, World of Goo 2 is a puzzle game that’s all about physics and engineering. Levels have players building wobbly structures out of goo balls in order to reach a pipe. That simple concept gets twisted and turned in dozens of ways with additional goo types and level gimmicks like lava. The twist this time is that there’s an emphasis on liquids, as players often guide geysers of thick oil around mazelike stages. That little tweak makes a 16-year old formula feel as creative as ever.

Tomorrow Corporation is at its most creative here, turning levels into Rube Golberg machines. In one, I need to find a way to push around a giant goo ball and grind it up to make smaller ones. Another has me carefully building bridges out of matchsticks over pools of lava. The tension of the original game is enhanced by ideas like that, as unstable goo towers now teeter over unpredictable obstacles, and minutes of work can up in smoke in an instant.

Not every new idea works. Its most frustrating challenge puts me in a pitch black room where I need to move around three light-up balls as I build a sprawling structure. It’s not only a deeply frustrating puzzle, but the only one like it in the entire game. A times, it feels like Tomorrow Corporation has been sitting on a wealth of puzzle twists since 2008 and just threw scraps of each in. New mechanics aren’t always clearly introduced and they disappear as soon as they start to make sense. It’s throwing the goo at the wall and seeing what sticks.

That scattershot approach may very well be the intent. While all seems normal at first, everything takes a surprising turn in its fourth chapter. Much like The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, another surprise sequel that takes aim at an IP-hungry industry, World of Goo 2 has something to say about the franchise that never was. I won’t give its surprising levels away, but the chapter pokes fun at a gaming industry that’s constantly milking good ideas dry to fulfill a consumerist appetite that can never be appeased. It’s a delightfully absurd twist that makes the entire project snap into place.

Tomorrow Corporation has often chipped away at this idea in its work. Little Inferno, for instance, has players buying trinkets from a catalog and feeding them into a fireplace to get more money to buy more trinkets. It’s an endless cycle of consumption that distracts its participants as the outside world burns at the hands of greedy corporations. World of Goo 2 shares some of those themes, all while appraising its own legacy. Will anyone remember World of Goo if Tomorrow Corporation doesn’t keep making sequels well into the 2100s — even if the studio runs out of good ideas along the way?

Judging by World of Goo 2’s quiet launch, which garnered little fanfare despite the original’s once-great reputation, the sequel may have answered its own question.

Sticky situation

Though I love World of Goo 2’s satirical edge, actually playing through its stages can be frustrating. Its biggest roadblock is its messy control schemes. I played the Nintendo Switch version of the game, which features only touchscreen or motion-control options. I started with the latter, which initially seemed like a great way to play. There’s a tactile joy to grabbing a goo ball with my Joy-Con and physically placing it in a tower. That quickly became untenable, though, as my motion calibration kept drifting off-center every 30 seconds. While it can be recalibrated with the click of a button, it eventually wasn’t worth the frustration.

Touch controls (or mouse, if you’re on a PC) is a better option, but still imperfect. Some later levels have me trying to grab specific goo types as hundreds swarm around the screen. In one of its last levels, I needed to quickly grab some balloon goo balls to keep a long, fragile structure from dipping into lava. When I went to grab it, I instead kept picking up the regular black goo around it. Another great gimmick-turned-annoying has me flipping over a cube to change the direction of gravity. It’s a finicky task that’s only made more difficult by clumsy touch controls. I wound up skipping a handful of stages that I knew how to solve, but didn’t feel like struggling through for 20 minutes.

Small aggravations like this add up. There’s an undo button, but it’s presented as a tiny fly that buzzes around the screen, sometimes blending in with the background. Tapping it rewinds time in what feels like an unpredictable manner. Sometimes it undoes more work than I wanted, other times it barely goes back at all. Considering how easy it is to stumble into an accident due to the controls, having an unreliable backtrack is frustrating.

While it can be a mess, Tomorrow Corporation doesn’t skimp on its signature presentation (aside from some stilted, robotic voice acting that’s already raising some AI accusations). The orchestrated soundtrack is a highlight and the whole game looks like an interactive cartoon full of wobbly structures. A late game twist even sees the developer experimenting with some new art styles as it lampoons other genres. “Look what we could be doing if we didn’t have to pump out a sequel,” it screams.

Perhaps it’s a self-created problem; it’s not like many people were really begging for a World of Goo sequel. Even so, World of Goo 2 is the legacy-appraising send-off that the series deserves. Its inventive puzzling serves as a friendly reminder that the 2008 classic deserves its place in gaming history, even as a decade and a half of shiny new games pass it by. It’s still that foundational goo ball in an industry that keeps building higher and higher, even as the structure starts to sway. Without it, everything would fall apart.

World of Goo 2 was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch OLED.