World of Goo

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

World of Goo is a delightful physics-based puzzle game where you use cute little malleable goo balls (think the soot sprites from the Hayao Miyazaki films, but gooey) to build towers, bridges, and other structures to get the remainder of the group to a pipe at the exit.

Playing the game is pretty easy – you just need to pick up the goo balls and place them where you want them to build on to the currently-existing structure. The game will give you a preview of the connections that will form, and you just need to decide how you want to build.

Variety is added later on with different types of goo balls. Goo balls that can be re-used, goo balls in the shape of balloons, and various others for you to figure out how to best use to get through increasingly more difficult and bizarre puzzles.

The gameplay here is really top-notch, both straightforward and still offering a good challenge and making you think about how things work. The game’s analog controls are… sufficient. But I find that the best way to control this is using a single Joycon’s gyro sensor, like a laser pointer pen. The sensor can get un-center-ed at times, but a quick button press re-centers the thing, and while that can be a little bothersome, it’s just a small annoyance.

It really helps that the game is overflowing to bursting with personality. The goo balls, as mentioned, are adorable, making little noises whenever you interact with them. The game’s music ranges from creepy to outright beautiful. And the game has a bit of a story of sorts that has an odd and mischievous sense of humor and some delicious satire of our consumer-obsessed society.

All in all, World of Goo is a delightful experience for puzzle fans looking for something fun, unique, and full of personality. Nitpicks about controls aside, this is an outstanding title that has the “easy to pick up, hard to put down” quality, as well as the “sticks in your head after you’ve played it” quality. Huh, goo balls that are sticky and hard to put down, fancy that.

tl;dr – World of Goo is a physics-based puzzle game that’s oozing with personality and overflowing with inventive ideas, where you build towers and bridges to get cute little goo balls to a pipe at the exit.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

World of Goo

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

I never mentioned this in my original review, but World of Goo was one of my first games for Nintendo Switch, and one of the first reviews I wrote for eShopperReviews before it was even a website. The review is so old that it doesn’t even go into the history of the game like I make it a point to do in my newer reviews, so I’ll do a bit of that here. Trust me, it is pertinent.

World of Goo was first released in 2008 on PC and on Wii via the WiiWare online marketplace. Like many, I was introduced to this game’s Wii version, where its pointer-focused motion controls were a vital part of the gameplay. When the game released on Nintendo Switch in 2017 just a few weeks after the launch of the Nintendo Switch’s launch, this version of the game included the touchscreen controls added to mobile ports of the game released over the years, as well as a version of the pointer controls found in the original Wii release.

Well, except the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons aren’t Wii remotes, and the motion control found in the Nintendo Switch release just isn’t on par with the Wii release – it would gradually drift away from where it was originally aiming (and no, not Joy-Con drift, that’s something else), and you would have to recalibrate it every few minutes or so. It wasn’t a deal-breaker, but it did make the Nintendo Switch release of the game somewhat imperfect.

With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, players are delighting in trying out the Nintendo Switch library with Nintendo Switch 2 and seeing old games made new again now that they’re not restrained by the hardware limitations of the Nintendo Switch. Improved framerates, improved resolution, and shorter loading times are often found even in games that haven’t gotten a patch specifically for Nintendo Switch 2.

So… why would I return to World of Goo in a Nintendo Switch 2 Difference feature? This game’s 2D visuals wouldn’t receive any resolution boost from Nintendo Switch 2, the framerates were never an issue on the Nintendo Switch version of the game, and the loading times are negligible if not nonexistent.

The thing is, there’s another improvement the Nintendo Switch 2 has to offer some Nintendo Switch games, one that hasn’t been as widely-advertised as the other improvements. And by now, I suspect you’ve probably caught on to it – I’m not sure whether it’s due to the Joy-Con 2 controllers or the Nintendo Switch 2 itself, but the motion controls on Nintendo Switch 2 are vastly improved over what was in the original Nintendo Switch.

Now, the cursor no longer gradually drifts away from where it started, or at least it drifts away so slowly that I didn’t notice any significant difference even after a lengthy play session. In other words, the Nintendo Switch 2 fixes the only major issue World of Goo had on the Nintendo Switch.

Because of this, I would argue that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game is the definitive version of World of Goo, and it only lacks optional mouse mode controls to make it pretty much a flawless Puzzle game.

If you enjoy Puzzle games but somehow missed this game before now, the Nintendo Switch 2 is the perfect excuse to pick it up now. it is every bit as creative, enjoyable, cute, and funny as it was in its original release, and with the improved motion controls and the touchscreen controls carried over from the Nintendo Switch version, this now offers the most variety of solid ways to play the game. In short, this game is not to be missed on Nintendo Switch 2.

tl;dr – World of Goo is a physics-based Puzzle game that’s oozing with personality and overflowing with inventive ideas, where you build towers and bridges to get cute little goo balls to a pipe at the exit. On Nintendo Switch 2, the flaws in this game’s “pointer” motion controls that were present on Nintendo Switch are no more, leaving a delightful game that is absolutely worth adding to your Nintendo Switch 2 library. Do not miss it!

Grade: A

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