The genius of Thomas Crapper excepted, indie games are one of the best ways of killing the odd half hour; in fact the wealth of high quality indie games is one of the best features of the current PC market. Here, then, is one of the most polished and inventive of these titles laid out on the reviewing slab like a slice of fresh-laid fudge-dragon... oh hell. Can we start this over?

   Anyway, World of Goo is a delightful, quirky thing which tells the story of a group of balls of, er, goo, as they pick themselves up out of the primordial ooze in a quest for freedom, brave new worlds, chocolate, or whatever the hell it is that little blobs of goo with eyes actually want. After playing this game through I still don't understand what it is they want but I'm pretty sure it's rather sweet, perhaps a little poignant, and somewhat cute.

Goo for me, goo for you

   The overriding principle of the game is simple: drag gooballs into place to form structures which will help you reach the end-of-level pipe, which will then hoover up your remaining gooballs and tell you how many you saved. You'll find yourself building bridges, crawling up walls, stitching balloons to your gooballs to turn them into impromptu zeppelins - in all, it's the sort of game you'd expect to use words like 'zeppelins' and 'esplanade'.

   And you know what? It works. It's got 'artsy indie game' written all over it and I still like it. The gameplay is well thought-out, the story is both well-told and delightfully magical and the game art is never less than superb. A great deal of attention has been lavished on this game and it really shows.

   The four chapters of the game lead your gooballs through the four seasons of an abandoned, empty world. There are plenty of levels to tax your brain and your hand-eye coordination together, and the interjections of 'the mysterious sign-painter' are usually welcome and funny. It's hard to fault something so neat and well-formed.

The goo, the bad and the ugly

One goo over the cuckoo's nest

   The thing about World of Goo is that, while it lasts, it's great: easily the best indie game I've played for some time, in fact. The stiff price tag and the limited replay value are a bother, but I suspect we're supposed to feel like we're paying for a share in a work of art. And, oddly, I do. I'm usually rather skeptical when games dress themselves up as the creations of some great auteur, just as I am when people I know start wearing berets, ordering red wine in bars, and talking about the poetic genius of Albert Camus. Especially when last week I was listening to them talk about football, idly watching the string of dribble spilling out of the side of their mouths. But where was I?

   Oh yes. Well, to sum it all up, World of Goo is a great title that will reward you for playing it with a reasonable few hours of fun at a not immoderate difficulty level. Unlike many puzzle games it's rarely frustrating, often entertaining, and it has something quite stunning and beautiful to it. In other words, it's worth your money, providing that that's what you want. You might just want to go back to headshotting zombies on Left 4 Dead though, in which case, good luck to you, peon. I'm done here anyhow.

       ... Meirion Jordan