I never underestimate the simplicity of a good game. I remember having a debate at a BBQ with some random guy about how he never got on with retro games, although at the time I think that was largely due to being too young to remember anything that counted as retro. Not that this means nostalgia is all you've got to go on with retro titles, back then all they had was gameplay. Sure, it does colour the game somewhat if you've grown up with that style of arcade classic, but seeing as the first title he could remember that he really enjoyed was GoldenEye I felt it only suitable to state that as far as the era of gaming had gone he was a little wet behind the ears.

Now I'm a guy who can appreciate a good copy of BioShock or Crysis as much as any other gamer, but it usual comes down to hype which is only marketing at the end of the day. So often have I been lulled into what a game promises to offer only to get the title and realise that turning down the annual “Paint Drying Watchers Club” meeting was a bad idea, which is why World of Goo came as such a bloody relief!

If I ever met the co-founders of 2D Boy Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, I'd shake their hands so vigorously I'd likely cause them some major internal bleeding. World of Goo is fantastic, frustratingly addictive, simplistic, engrossing fun. Even then I don't feel I've summed it up well enough to be quite honest as I kept coming back for more and I'm fairly certain I finished a couple of levels sleep walking – it was that hard to put down.

So what's it all about then? Well to give a frame of reference to begin, it's similar to making a cake out of Lemmings and Loco Roco – World of Goo would be the icing, and quite appropriate too. It involves guiding little balls of personality imbued goo to a pipe somewhere on the level. While some of the balls have varying abilities, the general idea is that you connect them together to form towers and meshes to reach your goal. This in itself would be a cool feature if it wasn't for a realistic splattering of physics to boot. No, you can't just build up those towers and hope that they won't come crashing down – and how do you build structurally sound towers with goo? Well with patience mostly. You have a certain number of balls to finish the level with, and to begin with the default type stay where you put them when connecting to others. So choices have to be made and they're not always the right ones. Fear not, it's fun to experiment and alternatively you get to go back a couple of moves per level.

There are 5 stages to the game (including the Epilogue), and within each stage there several levels laid out in Super Mario Brothers fashion. As you finish one level you can move onto the next, sometimes avoiding levels altogether if you fancy, but your aim is to reach the end of stage to progress onto the next. Each world, and even sometimes the levels themselves, will bring new challenges and different types of Goo for you to compete your task. The different types might include ones that allow you to, while building, detach a goo ball once you've added it to the stack, some that are flammable or attach themselves to anything as examples.

For someone who dabbles with music in his spare time, I'm taken aback by Gabler's efforts to not only create a fantastic, cartoony environment but to fill it with some fantastically catchy tunes. Literally - I woke up humming one of the tunes... God even talking about it I've started again. Total git, but a good one at that. Between Ron and Kyle they've managed to create everything needed for spending your £12 and having a good time. Not only have you got the whole leaderboard thing to geek your way up, and each level containing an OCD (Obsessive Completion Disorder) which has an additional challenge to face – you can mess around in the World of Goo Corporation (Tower of Goo Memorial and Recreation Park if you've finished the game) where the aim is to build the highest tower you can with the balls sent there from each time you finish a level including any above your target for that level. You can, like me spend some time getting your name up there, personalised in a cloud for your highest structure built. At the time of writing I'm set at around 2800th tallest in the world (Jay (UK)). So I've got some work to do it seems.

One crazy point to sly in is that you'd think the storyline would be inane and pointless in a game like this, but even that's had some time spent on it to make sure the stages tie in nicely and that, while bizarre, there's a story that exists and guides you all the way to the end. Will we ever find that allusive philosophical sign painter? Who knows!

Hope the guys make their money back on this as it must've been a great little project to work on and has shaped up to be a stunning end result with the possibility of expansions and sequels squelching their way across the board. Good luck to 'em!