It's pretty compelling in and of itself, and despite the solid foundations I laid down, I was still able to topple my monster effort from reaching a little too high with my last few goo-boys. Other players' towers are displayed as clouds in the sky, giving you an at-a-glance perspective of other people's achievements.

The task? To take every goo ball you've rescued and build the highest tower you can (just like Tower of Goo the freeware game that was the genesis of World of Goo). Nope, there's a metagame to take part in, courtesy of the 'World of Goo Corporation' section of the game. There's a very good reason to save as many of the goo balls as possible too, and it's not just for bragging rights on the international leader boards (where your performance on individual levels is ranked based on number of goo balls saved, time taken and moves used). It's using this technique that you're able to dismantle parts of a structure once you've reached the exit (think Jenga, but with more goo), enabling you to save even more of the strange little creatures.

In addition to the standard issue black balls of goo, there are also albino balls, sleeping balls that must be awoken and a green variant with which you're able to both set and break bonds. Twas brillig and the slithy tove, did gyre and gimble in the wabe. Oh, and did we mention that the titular Fisty is a giant toad creature sitting on one side of the bog with its mouth open? Yes, you're constructing a giant toad tongue out of black balls of goo and balloons. It's a very delicate balancing act, and even the presence of a number of 'TimeBugs' flittering about, which can be clicked on to take you back a step in construction, won't prevent you from having to restart this mission a number of times. On the one hand, you're given a number of balloons which you can anchor to goo balls to prevent your creation dipping into the bog below, but on the other, if you're too balloon happy your structure will soar towards the spiked roof, popping any balloons with which it comes into contact. Another is the delightfully titled 'Fisty's Bog' a great tweak on the familiar cross-the-chasm challenge, and one fraught with danger. As it rotates your structure falls over, forcing you to race to quickly build up and reach the exit before it topples again. One charges you with building up towards the exit while in a large, slow-turning tumble dryer. While 2D Boy has only given us access to the first chapter of five, there's already impressive variety in environments and challenges.

Fail and it's a simple matter to restart and try a slightly different approach. Like I said, the system is intuitive and straightforward, and the dynamic nature of the building process really adds to the charm.

While you can build horizontally across the chasm, provided you create support for the structure against the cliff wall you're building out from, you can also build straight up, then weight the construction to the right, causing it to fall down across the gap. One of the first in the game, for instance, charges you with bridging a small gap between two cliff faces. This can be used to your advantage in some levels. Your goo balls create structures that sway and bend and can easily topple if unbalanced.

World of goo telecharger