World of Goo

The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful World of Goo are curious to explore — but they don’t know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious. Drag and drop living, squirming, talking, globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins, and giant tongues so that you can direct the Goo Balls to their goal on the other end of the stage.

Massive Online Competition - Human players around the world compete in a living leaderboard to build the tallest towers of goo in World of Goo Corporation’s mysterious sandbox

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Fun Puzzle Game
Very cool puzzle game!

I bought this game for my wife for Christmas I ended up playing it just as much as her. You basically need to build these structures that the little oil blobs crawl across. Your structure needs to deliver the little blobs to a final destination. Sounds simple right? Well, as the game progresses they start releasing different kind of blobs that react differently based on the obstacles, etc. It ends up getting pretty challenging.

It reminds me of the old lemmings game which was also tons of fun.

The graphics are pretty good, and the game has a unique look to it.

Music isn’t bad or annoying either.

Nice change of pace from the standard shoot em’ up game. I would recommend this for any gamer.

5 Stars Great Game… worth the money…
The game is worth the money. Fun, and works on a MAC or PC. Great way to pass the time on a plane ride…

5 Stars An underlooked gem of a game!
I got this game from Amazon for 9.99 through a lightning deal. My wife loves puzzle games and I thought it would be a great early Valentine’s Day gift.

The game has more than 40 levels and is very easy to learn how to play. There is a good amount of creativity in solving the different levels. The levels are a combination of construction and physics, but in a fun way. The soundtrack is also nice, and the graphics are colorful and fit the mood of the game nicely.

This is also available on the Nintendo Wii, but I have not played that version.

P.S. My wife loves it!

2 Stars Great if you never downloaded the free Adobe Flash Player
Here’s a bit of a dissenting opinion on World of Goo. While the game certainly has some pretty visuals and music, the actual gameplay feels like I headed over to Kongregate and played one of the many physics-based Flash games there. You build constructs like bridges and towers in varying angles and degrees, get from point A to point B, then do it again.

Certainly the counter argument to this is that the level design transcends that simple play, but when the levels are put under the ruthless microscope of this weathered gamer and judged for their mechanics, I just didn’t see that materialize. The game quickly wore out its welcome just about halfway in (two hours or so worth of play), there’s just no meat to the core mechanics, and the game seemingly wants to coast you through by relying on it’s aesthetics and wannabe art house subversiveness.

Note that this game is a five-star game for a lot of gamers who will be drawn to the game due to the art direction and off-mainstream quirky swagger of the title. I personally just found it to be a boring, fairly banal puzzler that is more flash ( pun intended ) than actual gaming substance.

5 Stars SMART & FUN
Before you know it, you’ll be hooked on this game! It’s very well-done, smart, fun & non-violent!

The only reason I gave it a 4 stars instead of 5 is because you could only create 3 player’s profile at a time which kinda sucks if you are more than 3 in the family.

Buy/More Info

Crazy Machines 2

Kick your brain into high gear with incredible mind bending puzzles. Tinker with wrecking balls, lightening rods, lasers, pulleys, springs, gears and more to create the chain reaction you need. Unlock a new 3D world of addictive fun that the entire family will enjoy. Go on tour with the crazy professor and put your skills to the test with challenges from around the globe. Travel from the bazaars of Egypt to the white sands of the Caribbean, then blast off into space for an out of this world gaming experience. Check out the crazy machines community online. Post machines you’ve created and download those made by others. Compete for trophies and high ratings. Create the Ultimate Machine. Get ready for superb puzzle action as you build wacky contraptions to solve tricky brainteasers.

All new Rube Goldberg-style puzzles Over 200 elements to create and destroy World tour, online, and free-style modes All new parts–amazing lightning machines and laser beams Hall of fame - win a trophy for your contraption Fun for the whole family AGEIA PhysX hardware support Windows Vista / XP

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Awesome, Mind-Stimulating Puzzle Game
My son, like most boys, enjoys playing video games. So i try to at least steer him in the direction of games that include problem solving and are thought provoking. Crazy Machines 2 is really fantastic in this respect. I would much rather see my son spend an hour solving the puzzles in CM2 than an hour playing something mindless like Mario Super Sluggers.

3 Stars fair
Good concept, but kind of graphics heavy. Also a bit hard on the eyes for prolonged periods. My kids lost interest after a couple of weeks.

5 Stars Video Game that makes you think
Crazy machines 2 is a great game that makes you think. You learn by trial and error primarily. This games demostrates some basic physical science principles. I highly recommend it.

2 Stars Good and Bad all in one - NO SUPPORT FROM VIVA MEDIA
The good is the great graphics and challenging game play along with the ability to download other peoples creations. I like the zoom feature, but I’ve tried two different mice and neither will tilt or rotate. Not a big deal since that feature is not really required/useful.

One thing with prior versions…if you were plugging in multiple electric cords (or other multiples), when you picked one, you automatically had another….now you have to re-pick it from the parts bin. Just more convenient. A new feature I like is undo/redo with alot of depth (can go back a long ways).

The game is a bit buggy and has frozen a few times, but for the most part runs OK. Reaching objectives is sometimes random….you clearly meet the objective but don’t get the points, or in the case of the “best of” solutions (you can download the best solutions of others) they sometimes don’t achieve the objective (again, clearly) but get credit. Not really a big deal.

The WORST part of the game is there is NO SUPPORT FROM VIVA MEDIA. You use the registration code to get a registration key. The key is apparently obtained from a web page download. When I got the standard…..site wants to download….and clicked the “download this file” that was the end, a blank web page. When I tried again, I got an “invalid registration key” error. They should do the code through email like most other software. Considering it’s $18 software the copy protection is far worse than other high price software AND after emailing VIVA with the problem…..well, it’s been a week+ and no reply! You can use the software with the CD, but, that is a pain in the…….. I really don’t like going to hacking sites to get a fix but that may be my only recourse.

Bottom line is there is really alot of entertainment for the $.

2 Stars Disappointed due to hardware issues
Be sure to check the hardware required for this game. It is a real gamers game and needs an expensive graphics card to play properly. The game looks great if you had the right card in to play.

Buy/More Info