World of Goo

World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game from independent studio 2D Boy in which the player builds fragile structures out of sticky goo balls and tries to get them to a suction pipe – a simple idea grounded in real physics that produced one of the most acclaimed indie games of its generation. The game guides the player through dozens of levels, each functioning as a standalone building puzzle with its own type of balls and its own constraints, tied together by a darkly comedic story told through terse, sarcastic captions with no spoken dialogue. As the game progresses, puzzle difficulty gradually increases and the player keeps discovering new types of balls with their own abilities, from flammable ones through floating ones to ones that can be detached and reattached elsewhere. The game released in October 2008 simultaneously as a downloadable version for Windows and, a month later, as a WiiWare title for Wii.

The PC version was the one 2D Boy developed the game with from the start, and the controls reflect that – balls are moved and connected with the mouse, which is more advantageous for precisely building structures than the pointer-based motion controls used by the Wii version, especially for more complicated structures requiring fine angle adjustments. The PC release also wasn't bound by WiiWare's limitations, such as a cap on the downloadable file size, so it could afford a somewhat larger scope without needing to cut or compress anything due to console capacity.

In terms of content, it's the same game with the same chapters, the same levels, and the same story, since neither version contains spoken dialogue, so the difference lies purely in technical execution. 2D Boy also distributed the PC release without any DRM protection, which in 2008 was still an exception among smaller studios and earned the game additional goodwill among players, who could freely copy it between their own computers.

Why play it: For players who value the freedom of no DRM – 2D Boy released the PC version without copy protection, which was an exception among small studios in 2008, while in terms of content it's the exact same game as elsewhere.