Gooey Review (PC): A Simple Equation

When you get your hands on a little 2D platformer with its own stage builder, usually, the hope is that it is something that can make a lasting impact. Of course, much of that comes from how the community takes to it, but giving players the tool to make endless content for others to play is always something you want to see survive. When it comes to Gooey, it really feels like something too basic to fit that situation.

Gunking Up the Works

Gooey starts on a strong foot, showing an endearing enough cutscene of a scientist creating the titular character before sending you to the menu. Unfortunately, this is all you ever see of this scientist, with no actual story at play here. The whole focus here is on playing as Gooey to get through various courses to reach the ending flag.

Platforming is very simple. Playing as Gooey, you move, jump, and can use his stretchy arms to grab onto walls and ceilings to swing yourself places. There are pipes you can go into to shoot yourself out the other side, and outside of falling into the nothingness, your only obstacle to deal with is electricity.

While I enjoyed the process of using Gooey’s stretchy arms to get me to various places, that’s really all this game has going for it, and even that isn’t really something to get too excited about. Gooey is very slow and floaty. Even when holding down the run button, the difference in speed is very minuscule to the point that it’s hard to tell a difference. With a lack of interesting set pieces or obstacles, the game just comes off as fine enough, but nothing special in any way.

Every course is the same thing, and while some are a little more fun than others, I almost immediately forgot about their existence when I finished. Even collecting the game’s lab tokens, which are scattered around the area, feels pointless with no motivating factor to go for them.

The game also has a workshop for you to make your own levels for others to play, and everything that you see in the main levels is available for you here. That means the toolbox is not that filled up, but someone with an interesting idea might make something cool.

Final Verdict

Gooey doesn’t have anything that makes it stand out. It is about as in-the-middle as you can get for a video game. Nothing about it is bad (except maybe its controller layout), but also, there really isn’t anything about it that I would say is good. It just exists, and beyond that, there’s nothing more to say.

Gooey was reviewed on PC with a code provided by Turbo Pixel.

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