In life, we are always taught that first impressions last, that we ought to dress to impress and that we should always seek a way to be pleasantly distinctive and memorable when we wish to be noticed by someone. Unfortunately for fledgling developers Fine & Dandy Games, their debut game Goop may go unnoticed for these very reasons.
At its heart, Goop is a pleasingly simple diversion, luring you in via its ‘easy to pick up, hard to master’ gameplay, offering an open-ended play experience within a very small and rigid set of rules; it is deliberately and knowingly simple – but don’t mistake ‘simple’ for ‘simple-minded’. Your role is to guide a set of cute monsters called ‘the Eeeps’, all of whom have something of a mainland-European-animation twang to their art style and audio design (their utterances manage to say a lot without actually saying much at all). The Eeeps emerge from the left of your iPhone screen and must be shepherded aaaaaaaall the way… to the right of your iPhone screen. Your duty is to help these hapless creatures avoid the titular ‘Goop’ that drips continuously from above, with you tapping and swiping at the screen to aid their dodging of the dreaded gunge. Meanwhile, the eponymous ‘Goop’ equals death – in the videogame sense, that is – for, if just one Eeep ‘gets its Goop on’ then it’s game over for you and your Eeep-herding career…at least, until you try again.
And that’s pretty much it. Four static one-screen stages each hosting slightly different Goop-dripping placement(s) are on offer, with each attempt at a stage only ending when you fail your task, which is made progressively harder as a progressively larger number of Eeeps choose to put their fate into your increasingly clammy hands. For those who are curious or competitive, the game supports Game Center achievements and leaderboards upon release (unavailable at the time of writing), with achievements being the only other way the game offers structure beyond score-attack bragging rights.
Now, if that sounds too simple a task to hold your attention or to be worth your spare change, you’re better off looking elsewhere. To put it simply, Goop comes across as more of a final-year student project than a professional game; if I saw this at a grad show I’d be staggered with the ambition of not seeing yet another FPS map, but to release an iPhone title and charge money for it, well, it needs to be more developed than this; the game’s apparent and burning desire to be simple and intuitive instead rendering it messy and feeling incomplete, with even something as fundamental as the level select menu in need of further refinement and clarity.
Fortunately for Fine & Dandy Games though, because Goop is an iPhone release, they have ample chance to update and revise their game. I genuinely hope they do, since Goop has a solid concept; it’s only in its execution that it stumbles somewhat, mistaking what makes a game accessible as being the same as what makes a game compelling.
While awkward first impressions are hard to counter, those looking for a game that scratches this somewhat niche itch – that of the single-player more-or-less infinite score-attack action puzzler resource management digital toy ( or ‘SPMoLISAAPRMDT’ for short, which just rolls off the tongue!) – will be well served. For everyone else though, as much as I can empathise with Fine & Dandy Games and their desire to please everyone with their debut, it pains me to say that for your 69p, 99¢, or whatever currency your iTunes account guzzles, you will find a plethora of richer and more rewarding experiences among the greats of the App Store.
Still – Goop may yet blossom into a cracking game and transcend these first impressions, but only if it can find a receptive and considerate audience. Put simply – if you like it, you have to say so. If you dislike it, it is your responsibility to make yourself heard responsibly – other human beings tried to make something enjoyable for you, so show a little respect.
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