World of Goo 2 might just be the Nintendo Switch’s next must-own co-op game

When I sat down to demo World of Goo 2 at this year’s GDC, I noted to the developers on hand how surprising it was to see a sequel after so long. “It’s been, what? Ten years?” I said. I was very far off the mark: They noted that the original World of Goo launched in 2008. After playing a few levels (and having an existential crisis over time’s rapid passing), I’d find myself wondering how such an obvious slam dunk didn’t come sooner.

Like its predecessor, World of Goo 2 is a physics-based puzzle game where players craft structures from little, gooey critters. It presents a series of engineering challenges, as poorly built structures will topple under the weight of all those jiggly little pals. Rather than reinventing that concept entirely, World of Goo 2 adds some wild new ideas onto that stable structure that opens up its puzzle potential. The result is a chaotic co-op game that’s a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch.

During my demo, I’d play a handful of levels in a two-player co-op. The control scheme was simple: I’d point my Joy-Con at the TV and use motion controls to pick up and place goo balls. The first level retreaded the basics of the original game, as my partner and I built a shaky tower of slime until it reached an overhanging pipe. We’d quickly get to see that tried-and-true concept grow when the sequel’s new twist came into play: black sludge.

In one level, we’d need to unleash a wave of liquid from a hanging net so it could flow down a twisting maze and wake up some goo balls at the bottom. Next we’d need to create a bridge-like structure to let us carry the liquid across a wide gap. A later puzzle would turn the complexity up even more. My partner and I would need to funnel that sludge into a plant that would spit it out in a long arc. We’d then have to grab the plant and redirect its aim in order to solve a tricky puzzle in which we used the force of the stream to lodge a boulder into a gap and create a safe platform for some goo balls to cross