IGNs pick for 2008 Wii Game of the Year - An honor honestly earned

[RTSDaddy2]

And no friends, it's NOT a commercial release - it's 2D Boy's elegant puzzler:

          WORLD OF GOO!   http://bestof.ign.com/2008/wii/25.html

Is this game that good? As one person put it at IGN, what are you waiting for? Go get yourself 1,500 Wii points and start enjoying THE coolest puzzle game of 2008.  And don't dare tell me how "simple" you think it is until you've played it for several rounds.  Trust me, simple the graphics may be (though elegant it is, along with it's score), but easy this sucker is not.

I am new to  this 3rd party software thing, but there was never a game more deserving of this title than Goo is.  It's just irresistible!

[Blanka]

Very strange that they choose it as best Wii game 
It's best played with a wacom or touch screen. A mouse is a 5 points behind device for controlling it, but the Wiimote will be nothing than pure horrid to control it.
Even with the Wacom I cannot cross the gap in the frikkin hard frog with balloons level.

[unclet]

You can check it out on You Tube ....

[patrickl]

try the demo for the PC or mac.

I liked it, but I wasn't really impressed enough to buy it. Don't think i would go for the Wii version at all. It's difficult enough to aim the goo exactly when using the mouse. let alone a wobbly Wiimote.

[shmokes]

I've only played it on the Wii and it's fine.  It's a lovely game.  I get the distinct impression that every single solitary person who has played it on the Wii thinks it's wonderful and everyone who thinks it's not is basing their impressions on pure conjecture.  Anybody who watches this space knows that I'm no Wii fanboy.  Overall the system is an enormous disappointment for me and I wish I had a 360 or PS3 in its place.  But World of Goo is fantastic, which is why EVERY reviewer at EVERY gaming site is in love with it.

[patrickl]

I've only played it on the Wii and it's fine.  It's a lovely game.  I get the distinct impression that every single solitary person who has played it on the Wii thinks it's wonderful and everyone who thinks it's not is basing their impressions on pure conjecture.  Anybody who watches this space knows that I'm no Wii fanboy.  Overall the system is an enormous disappointment for me and I wish I had a 360 or PS3 in its place.  But World of Goo is fantastic, which is why EVERY reviewer at EVERY gaming site is in love with it.

Why would it be better on the Wii than on a PC?

[shmokes]

I don't know.  For any number of reasons.  Maybe it's got better balanced gameplay.   Maybe it's got a better score.  Maybe it's better when played on a big screen.  Or maybe the Wii version is no better than the PC version.  I never said it was, after all.  My exact words, in fact, were, "I've only played it on the Wii and it's fine.  It's a lovely game."  I have no idea whether the Wii version is better than the PC version.  But I do know that the Wii version plays very well, which is why I love it, and why everybody else who has played it loves it and why IGN picked it as the Wii Game of the Year.

[patrickl]

I never said it was, after all.  My exact words, in fact, were, "I've only played it on the Wii and it's fine.  It's a lovely game." 

Well I was responding too this:

I get the distinct impression that every single solitary person who has played it on the Wii thinks it's wonderful and everyone who thinks it's not is basing their impressions on pure conjecture.

Since you mention the Wii version explicitly and since I felt lumped in the "pure conjecture" category (when I wasn't overly enthausiastic about the game), I was wondering if you thought that something on the Wii makes it better, but since you haven't played the PC version I guess it would only be conjecture from you as well

Ah well I guess I should just get the game. It's not like it costs a fortune.

[RTSDaddy2]

I've played the demo PC version, and for what it's worth, I'll go with screen size.  It strikes me that you cannot easily see all of the points of importance on the smaller computer monitor as you can on a TV, for instance.  I have to do too much scrolling up and down with the mouse on the PC to see where everything is.

And let's not even talk about the frog level, ok - Stimpy's Bog is driving me NUTS! 

[shmokes]

Well I was responding too this:

I get the distinct impression that every single solitary person who has played it on the Wii thinks it's wonderful and everyone who thinks it's not is basing their impressions on pure conjecture.

Since you mention the Wii version explicitly and since I felt lumped in the "pure conjecture" category (when I wasn't overly enthausiastic about the game), I was wondering if you thought that something on the Wii makes it better, but since you haven't played the PC version I guess it would only be conjecture from you as well

Heh . . . the key difference is that you suggested the game would not play well with the wobbly Wii remote.  That=conjecture.  I said nothing about the PC version and simply said that the game plays well with the Wii remote.  That != conjecture.  That's first-hand experience.   

[massive88]

try the demo for the PC or mac.

Windows version works flawlessly under Linux on Wine as well.

Its a fun game, that its the game of the year is a laughable testament to the weakness of the Wii as a gaming console though.  Well, that at the other nominees that IGN picked from.

[patrickl]

Well I was responding too this:

I get the distinct impression that every single solitary person who has played it on the Wii thinks it's wonderful and everyone who thinks it's not is basing their impressions on pure conjecture.

Since you mention the Wii version explicitly and since I felt lumped in the "pure conjecture" category (when I wasn't overly enthausiastic about the game), I was wondering if you thought that something on the Wii makes it better, but since you haven't played the PC version I guess it would only be conjecture from you as well

Heh . . . the key difference is that you suggested the game would not play well with the wobbly Wii remote.  That=conjecture.  I said nothing about the PC version and simply said that the game plays well with the Wii remote.  That != conjecture.  That's first-hand experience.   

OK, fair enough.

[ahofle]

It controls perfectly well with the Wiimote (I was actually a bit concerned about that too).  Sometimes two hands are required for precise moves though, same as Boom Blox.

I don't think I've been this impressed with a game's uniqueness and polish since Portal.  My only complaint is that it appears to be as short as Portal too (with probably the same below-average puzzle game replay value).  But for $15, this game is a frickin' steal.

[ahofle]

Just tried out the PC demo version too and it's pretty much the same game.  You guys really have difficulty controlling the pointer with a mouse?   

[AtomSmasher]

I just finished the PC demo and at first I wasn't all that impressed, but the more I played the more it grew on me.  I may end up picking up the full version.

[patrickl]

Just tried out the PC demo version too and it's pretty much the same game.  You guys really have difficulty controlling the pointer with a mouse?   

Sometimes clicking a few pixels off on a moving target can be the difference between a collapsing strand or a balanced strand.

[SNAAKE]

IGN is retarded and gets paid to rank games higher than they really are. everyone knows that. 

[patrickl]

IGN is retarded and gets paid to rank games higher than they really are. everyone knows that. 

We've been through this and found that, on average, IGN scores games lower than the combined rank on Metacritics. Besides if your allegation was true, then why would they pick a low budget game like this as the game of the year?

[TOK]

Hopefully Nintendo starts getting the message out of this. Not saying World of Goo isn't a good game, but its kind of embarrassing that a downloadable game beat all the mainstream titles. The sheer amount of crap being pumped out for the Wii is alarming. 

Nintendo watched what happened to the Atari 2600 and came up with the Nintendo Seal Of Quality to help control the crap when it launched the NES in the US. An abundance of bad games will definitely hurt its market. Once the coveted "casual gamers" that flocked to the Wii get burned a couple times in a row, they'll just stop buying.

Sorry for the rant, I just watched the excitement of my wife and kid for the Wii quickly die. They don't even touch it, I use it to surf the net once a month and play a game of NES Donkey Kong just for the hell of it. 

[shmokes]

Its a fun game, that its the game of the year is a laughable testament to the weakness of the Wii as a gaming console though. 

Beautifully ---smurfing--- illustrated.   

[AtomSmasher]

Its a fun game, that its the game of the year is a laughable testament to the weakness of the Wii as a gaming console though. 

Beautifully ---smurfing--- illustrated.   

A year ago I was often coming to the defense of the Wii on this forum because there were quite a few single player games that I really enjoyed on the system...however, in the past year there has been virtually no good single player games.  I've only bought 3 games for the Wii this entire year and the last one I bought was 6 months ago.

Let's hope 2009 has a lot more good games for the Wii then 2008 had.

[lucca]

That shows you how much the standard has been lowered.

[Lecithin]

The Wii has such enormous potential but these stupid third parties still haven't latched on! It has more then enough systems sold and people waiting (praying?) for a few great titles, why doesn't anyone wake up and provide them? I understand porting can be tough since you have to redo controls and downgrade a lot of things (since Wii doesn't have the PS3 or 360's power) but come on! You have people begging for a place to spend their money, lots of people!

Use that great control scheme and give us something great!

[ChadTower]

Late to the party but we just got this game.  We really like it.  And my kids love the fact that this seems to be the first game that they can consistently better me at.  My 8 year old is ungodly fast at it and somehow always gets the OCD.

[Ginsu Victim]

I just started playing it on PC the other day and it's hella difficult, but I love it.

[Hoopz]

I've got this on the Wii and played it for a few minutes but I didn't get into it.  I'll try it again but I didn't think it was that great.  Maybe I missed something....

[chopps]

late to the party on this one as well... picked up the demo a couple weeks back.. got hooked, got the game and cant stop playing it... my 5 year old loves it.. but wont play.. just wants to watch dad, and tell me what to do.. 

[shmokes]

My wife and I played it beginning to end, taking turns.  Everything about that game is utterly endearing.  Really a wonderful game.  And it's always nice to find a videogame my wife wants to play with me.