World of Goo

Mastertronic have today announced the release of the critically acclaimed “World of Goo” on PC, previously available as download and as WiiWare, but now a debut for boxed product. It will also be the first title to be released on their new label, Great Indie Games, a label set up to offer a route to market for independent games developers.

World of Goo is a simple puzzle/building game with a quirky sense of humour. The main objective of the game is to get a requisite number of goo balls to a pipe representing the exit. In order to do so, the player must use the goo balls to construct bridges, towers, and other structures to overcome gravity and various terrain difficulties such as chasms, hills, spikes, or cliffs.

The 48 levels are varied with wide-ranging objectives and a variety of goo. New goo is introduced early on in each chapter, and subsequent missions progressively ramp up the challenge and force you to put it to good use. Different types of goo have special abilities – black goo is rigid and cannot be moved after being placed, green goo can be moved around after initial placement, white goo hangs down like long water drips, red goo can be deployed to act as helium balloons to help keep long bridges in the air over treacherous pits, yellow goo can stick to vertical surfaces while Skull goo is resistant to being popped by spikes.

World of Goo on the PC is a unique visual experience. Brilliant design is achieved through vibrant and contrasting colours and beautiful graphics, giving a surreal cartoon feel to the game. Realistic sound effects add to the games wit and personality and the game is accompanied by a fantastic, atmospheric soundtrack whereby carefully chosen music tracks set the atmosphere for each level.

World of Goo boasts raving reviews and extremely high scores. PC Gamer awarded World of Goo 93% along with PC Format, and PC Zone came in just short of that at 90%. Eurogamer scored World of Goo 9/10 commenting “The world of Goo is a raging pleasure to spend time in, and interact with” whilst Gamespy gave it five stars commenting “(World of Goo is) an amazing, breathtaking and immeasurably charming piece of game design”. The comments continue - “The most charming, creative and generally weird indie title to come out this year” Escapist magazine and “One of the most original and addictive gaming experiences to come along in years” Gamespot

World of Goo has been developed by 2D Boy, an independent developer consisting of Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, both former Electronic Arts employees, who with World Of Goo won awards at the Independent Games Festival at the Game Developers Conference in 2007.

Kirsty Payne, Marketing and PR Manager at Mastertronic commented “We are so proud to be releasing World of Goo on PC. It has all the makings of a classic and has received phenomonal reviews from the specialist games press. We will be rolling out a full mainstream consumer marketing and PR campaign targeting specialist PC press, lads mags, national press and womens press as this game can be played and enjoyed by absolutely everyone”.

World of Goo is released on 3rd July 2009

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About the Mastertronic Group Limited

Mastertronic is one of the best known electronic entertainment brands in Europe. It pioneered the European console market with its launch of the Sega Master System, invented the value retail sector and built an international development and publishing operation under the Virgin Mastertronic label. The brand was subsequently re-launched as The Mastertronic Group Limited in 2003 by founder Frank Herman, together with Andy Payne and Garry Williams. The Group now leads the European value publishing sector through its retail brands M.A.D. (Mastertronic Added Dimension), Sold Out (the UK's largest-selling budget operation, acquired by the Group in 2004) and PC Gamer Presents, a unique quality-assured brand in association with the leading games magazine publisher Future Publishing. The Group also offers, through its wholly owned subsidiary The Producers Limited (also acquired in 2004), a 'cradle to grave' total turnkey service for physical product, from marketing through packaging and warehousing, to retail and digital distribution. More recently in 2006, Blast Entertainment was launched as part of the group and has rapidly become a leading video game company exclusively aimed at the younger end of the kids market. Blast develops new content based on recognised family friendly licenses from films, TV, classic characters and toys and publishes on a variety of formats including PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and more recently, Nintendo Wii. In 2007 Just Flight, and its sister company Just Trains, the leading worldwide simulation specialists, were acquired by the group. Just Flight was established in 1995, and within three years became the world’s largest publisher of flight simulation software outside of Microsoft, with a reputation for high quality products, published by genuine enthusiasts.