61 Frames Per Second : world of goo

Derrick's Top 13 Games of 2008 - Part 3

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Catching up? Read part 1 and part 2.

5 - The World Ends With You (DS):
The insanely ambitious action-JRPG probably makes the most use of all the DS hardware has to offer of all DS software with the possible exception of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and even then The World Ends With You does it with so much more style and flair that the comparison seems woefully unfair. It's clear that Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts team put years of thought and research into what the DS could and could not do and the result is a game that breaks all expectations like so many angsty teenage hearts. It takes a truly great game to affect me outside of my gaming time, and much like Wii Fit got me thinking about jogging to the train every morning, The World Ends With You got me wearing pins on my bag for the first time since college, picking out just the right ones that may, someday, save my life in heated battle. Oh lord, did I love that dual-screened battle system...

4 - PixelJunk Eden (PS3):
2008 will go down in the history books as the year that downloadable games finally caught on. Okay, maybe not, but it sure feels like they finally delivered on the promise we'd heard for so long: fantastic independent games delivered straight to your home console, no retail environment required, at competitive prices. I loved echochrome and Cubello, and there is no denying the charm and brilliance of Braid and World of Goo, but the one that completely stole my heart and my thumbs was PixelJunk Eden. Not since Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol have I so enjoyed making flowers bloom. Not since Circus Atari have I so enjoyed soaring upwards into monochromatic point markers. Not since spring break have I so enjoyed atmospheric techno and pulsing colors.

3 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii):
The biggest-selling game of the year was easily one of the most anticipated, and while it may not be as fondly remembered as its Gamecube predecessor, Super Smash Bros Brawl delivered everything expected of it and then some. The frenetic multiplayer brawling was back, as always, with more characters than ever, including unlikely new faves like Lucas and Diddy Kong and first-time-ever non-Nintendo characters Snake and Sonic. Adventure mode came with an epic, if somewhat vague, storyline complete with luscious CGI cutscenes and gameplay and level design in no way dissimilar to the SNES classic Kirby Super Star (one of my all-time favorites). Classic, All-Star, Multi-Man, Events, Target Smash, pretty much every feature of Super Smash Bros Melee came back bigger and more beefed-up. Of course, the big feature of Brawl was access to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, being able to fight people from around the world, either total strangers or your own friend lists, sending your friends video replays of your greatest battles, receiving new stages that your friends built in the surprisingly engaging stage builder, even betting on the brawls of total strangers in Spectator mode. What was my favorite feature? Taking snapshots, of course:

2 - LittleBigPlanet (PS3):
It is hard not to fall in love with LittleBigPlanet. The art direction, the music, the narrative and general use-your-imagination, make-whatever-you-want gestalt is sometimes intoxicating. I've already written at length about the charming adventures of Sackboy, so I won't reiterate the points of my review found here and here. I will say this: LittleBigPlanet so far is the only disc-based game that has made me happy I own a PS3 rather than an XBox or PS2. The endless potential of user-generated content guarantees that LittleBigPlanet will always be exactly as fun and exciting as you want it to be, if not moreso.

1 - de Blob (Wii):
Yes, my absolute favorite game of the year is on the Wii. No, that game was not made by Nintendo. No, I'm not messing with you. de Blob is, without a doubt, the happiest a game has made me since I first played Yoshi's Island on the Super Nintendo and relished in its blatant disregard for flashy CGI and polygons in favor of engrossing gameplay and a unique and heartwarming aesthetic. As a young progressive, I rally behind its anti-corporate, pro-independent artist storyline. As an audiophile, I bliss out to the interactively escalating soundtrack, as I've mentioned before, twice. As a solo gamer, I delight in the variety of challenges. As a social gamer, the multi-player paint-fests get my teeth gritting in a ferocious grin. If you have a Wii and enjoy playing any games that do not involve simulating sports/exercise/music playing, get de Blob. There, that's my review, just flippin' play de Blob because it's the best damn game that came out all year, and 2008 was an amazing year for games.

Part 1
Part 2

Related Articles:
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Time Magazine's Top 10 Games of 2008

For Indie Games, These are the Salad Days

Joe Keiser — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Good news, everyone! MSNBC.com is reporting that somehow, the beautiful, excellent labor of love World of Goo actually made a good amount of money for its innovative creators.

This is probably the most heartening story of the long list of heartening stories that have come out about indie games this year. World of Goo managed to make money with a slim marketing budget of approximately $0.00. Other things, like Braid and Castle Crashers, had a minimal marketing push—yet the most accurate predictors we have for this kind of thing (VGChartz might usually be wildly inaccurate, but their XBLA chart is based on information pulled from a massive collection of real GamerTags and is generally considered to be as close as we can get to true XBLA sales numbers) believe these games generated millions of dollars in revenue, each.

We are talking games that were made by no more than two men, games that were built on laptops in coffee shops. Could it be possible this era of HD gloss and budgets approaching nine figures could also be indie gaming’s greatest days?

It’s entirely possible. Back at the beginning of the medium most games were made by single renaissance programmers, but the money we’re looking at now is much better than what Richard Garriott and Roberta Williams made selling plastic baggies to their local software retailers.

And while it may be digital distribution that’s responsible for the most profitable parts of this trend, it’s not the sole factor. Remember that whole Limbo of the Lost plagiarism debacle? That story was so hilarious it actually got fully researched, revealing that the game’s “creator” Majestic Studios were really just three guys who concocted the whole thing in a bar. Had they not stolen every single bit of background artwork for their game, that three-man work (give or take a few, maybe fictional outsourcers) would have gotten an international release to actual, physical stores.

That a sprawling indie scene is creating its own commercial hits says that this is the healthiest the medium has ever been, with a large enough player base to support nearly any kind of well-executed crazy idea. Forget the success of the AAA titles and the Wii—if you want to see if an industry is truly mainstream, you have to look to the strength of the works at the fringes. They’re doing great, and, so long as we keep getting things like Mac Ports of Aquaria and WiiWare versions of Cave Story, we are too.

Watcha Playing: World of Goo

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Have you ever become aware of a game that other people talked about enthusiastically but it just didn't interest you, only to play it and fall in love? I'm not a puzzle game fan. I like some action in my games. I like interesting characters and adventure. Puzzle games tend to be, at best, rentals for me. There are exceptions of course, individual games that were so addictively enjoyable that I would play them obsessively. Tetrisphere was one puzzle game that I loved, and regret not buying. Now, around a decade later, another puzzle game has taken over my life. Welcome to the World of Goo.

I downloaded the game on Thursday, started playing Friday night, and finished sometime on Saturday. It's not a particularly short game, you certainly get your money's worth, but when I sink my teeth into something I really like I tend to go full bore into marathon mode. Well, what else is a weekend good for?

World of Goo isn't the easiest game to describe. Sure, I could just say it's a physics based puzzler but that hardly gets across how fun and weird and intriguing the experience is. It certainly doesn't draw enough attention to the art and music which play such an important role towards setting the game's mood. Yeah, this puzzle game definitely has a mood. The superb music, along with the polished visuals set up an odd mix of whimsy, melancholy, and even dread, with a little programmer savvy humor sprinkled in. Aside from being fun to play, World of Goo is an excellent case study for how art and music can be used to evoke the senses.

Out on the computer and as Wiiware on the Nintendo Wii, World of Goo is a game that shouldn't be missed.

Related Links:

Watcha Playing: Fantastic Contraption

The Best News In Sixteen Thousand Years: Cave Story Coming to WiiWare

World of Goo: The Art,The Design, The Anticipation!

Virtual Console: Now the Best Thing Ever

Bob Mackey — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:45:00 GMT

Remember back when the Virtual Console sucked? Of course you do; it was just this past summer. During those hot, boring months, I sat on about 2000 Wii Points; hope soon became a forgotten concept as Nintendo slowly trickled out games I've never given a damn about. By the time August rolled around, I was half-expecting to see a Virtual Console Monday featuring the Sega Genesis version of Chuck Rock along with a free Wii screen saver that would scroll the words "KILL YOURSELF" across the screen if you left the Wii-mote idle for more than 20 minutes.

But since the beginning of Fall, Nintendo's really gotten their Virtual Console shit together; and today's release of both Secret of Mana and World of Goo is proof of that. Sure, I'm in the dead center of a semester that's left me so haggard I can barely type this post without using my keyboard as a makeshift pillow, but... Secret of Mana.

I should honestly be a little more excited around World of Goo--and I do plan on eventually getting around to buying it. But for now, I have no choice but to pick up Secret of Mana again. Then I can relax on the couch with a glass of wine as Hiroki Kikuta's soothing soundtrack lulls me into a deep sleep. Oh, and the game is still fun as hell, too. We should just be happy that Secret of Mana's VC release finally means that, after many attempts to revive the franchise, Square has finally given up. And it's about time; series director Koichi Ishii has proven that he has no goddamned clue what makes Mana so great. And we've given him more than a decade to figure that out.

For more on the failure of Mana, please consult this podcast. Do not go to your local library. They will ask you to leave.

Related Links:

The Dividing RPG: Secret of Mana
Ten Reasons Why Secret of Mana Sucks
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"

Handjobs for Homebrew: Mario Paint Composer DS

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

There's never been a better time to be an independent software developer. College students are designing original concepts that are then developed by established publishers into big games like Portal and de Blob. Small teams working in bedrooms or coffee shops are developing downloadable console games like Braid and World of Goo. And then, of course, there are the homebrew developers, releasing their software often for free or a small donation. Widely seen in less-than-100%-legal light, homebrew software is often a means of "hacking" the platform of choice to add functionality that had not originally been intended. While there's never any guarantee of quality when it comes to these things, there are some fantastic pieces of homemade software out there, and we hope to spotlight a few of them here on "Handjobs for Homebrew" (this is Nerve, I can say "handjobs," can't I?)

Originally demoed just about a month ago, BassAceGold's homebrew of the Mario Paint Composer for the Nintendo DS was released to the internet masses last week. There have already been a number of homebrew applications to add the painting and animation components of the Super Nintendo classic Mario Paint to the touch-screen handheld, but MPC emulates the feature that always seemed to me (and, apparently, the YouTube community) to be the most engaging element, its cartoonish music composition score.

For those who've never played Mario Paint, allow me to explain... A series of wacky icons each represent a different voice in the song, so many instruments could share a single staff in the musical score. Still don't get it? Check out this YouTube video of Yoshi's Theme played in Mario Paint:

Well BassAceGold's Mario Paint Composer translates that delightfully unique musical interface to the DS. Saving and loading various songs is a breeze if you're working with SD memory cards (which most Nintendo DS flashcards do in order to utilize such software), the touch screen is perfect for adjusting notes, and this homebrew has even gone ahead and added four new voices, the distorted horn blast piranha plant, the warm piano coin, the soft strings shy guy and the fuzzed harp boo. Check out this demo by the programmer on a beta of the program playing Boston's mega-hit "More Than A Feeling":

Of course, the software is not perfect. I'd love to see some tighter timeline controls and something aside from a title graphic on the top screen (maybe a zoomed-out view of your whole arrangement) but Mario Paint Composer is still an excellent addition to the DS's growing library of musical production tools, ranging from retail software like Jam Sessions, Korg DS-10 and Electroplankton to other excellent homebrew like Nitrotracker, Groovestep and the ever-popular LSDJ (run it on a Gameboy emulator, it plays like a sweet dream on the DS). If you have the appropriate equiptment to run homebrew DS software, feel free to download Mario Paint Composer here and start kicking out the jams!

Related Articles:
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World of Goo: The Art, The Design, The Anticipation!
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World of Goo: The Art,The Design, The Anticipation!

John Constantine — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

One of the most anticipated games of the summer has nothing to do with espionage, ninjas, plumbers, cars, guns, monsters or anything else from the typical gaming milieu. Its a game about globs of goo and action puzzling. Most impressively, its a game made by two dudes with no studio support. I'm referring, of course, to 2D Boy's World of Goo for the PC, Mac, Linux and Wii.

Within the short period of time since its announcement, World of Goo has become a shining beacon of what can be done by indie game developers. The trailers and critic reactions so far have earned World of Goo a reputation as a charming, original experience, a real labor of love for designer Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel. As their mission statement says, "(We) make games that everyone can play, with gameplay nobody has seen before."

Just look at the love and care put into this one graphic for the game:

Wowzers! And the gameplay looks even better:

Seeing all of this coming from just two guys and waiting anxiously for the game's release is like watching a rising artist paint a masterpiece and waiting to see it framed in a gallery. The anticipation is high. You know it's fantastic, you just want to be able to show your friends and experience it at your own leisure, taking it all in. 2D Boy, you do your thing. We here at 61FPS hope that all of your love and hard work pay off, and we can't wait to rave about how much fun World of Goo is to play.