World of Goo Soundtrack

The time may have come for publishers and game developers to realize that if you’re not able to issue a commercial soundtrack then you should release the music via the Internet. It’s no wonder that Ubisoft doesn’t follow this rule cause its wonderful soundtracks for Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell: Double Agent and other world's hottest selling video games haven’t seen the light of day at all. Of course there’re people who reacted quickly to the situation and ripped tunes and samples (e.g. Double Agent has dynamically changing in-game music system) out of these games and managed to completely reconstruct all the tracks. Well, we’ve got off the point so let’s return to our subject.

World of Goo is an entirely freaky puzzle game with charming goo balls living in the beautiful World of Goo. Both the idea and the quality of its implementation are delightful. It’s the example of a casual game in which everything is well done. There’s nothing to conceal, we’re not the lovers of this game category but mostly due to the great percent of standard fakes à la “arkanoid, tetris, lines” and not because of a second-class genre. But against a background of low-budget trash such pearls as World of Goo shine especially blindingly.

In the manner of the last few years the game’s gameplay is entirely physics based. We won’t tell you about the plotline and the way these curious little beings interact, as you’d better go to YouTube or GameTrailers and see some gameplay trailers, videos and teasers. But as for the music we’d like to tell you a few details.

The game was conceived by a team of only 2 people at most during development, and one of the devs was as you understand not only a composer but a designer too. His name is Kyle Gabler and the soundtrack of the game is likely to serve as a proof of a fact that there should be more of them to love. Influences include Danny Elfman, Vangelis, Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, and all the big movie guys.

Frankly speaking solely the main theme of Wold of Goo called Beginning even without these names can tell us a lot. It’s a very rhythmical, lively progressive melody with a touch of a pseudo sci-fi. You remember that scene from Men In Black where in the final zoom-out the entire universe seems to be inside a ball used during a game of jacks played by two alien creatures? It is these emotions that emerge after listening to the main theme of the game. According to Kyle’s words, he wanted the theme of the game to somehow reflect the song Libertango by Astor Piazzolla. What for? Cause it was the track he used in the original Tower of Goo prototype back in school. And as the saying goes, apples don't fall far from the tree.

To tell the truth, music from World of Goo is kinda little chamber symphony. There’s no hint of casual game genre or any other toy like features. The OST almost doesn’t contain electronic music with the exception of a couple of tracks really strongly inspired by Vangelis. Neither the leitmotif nor the common main theme is the thing that runs through the whole soundtrack. It’s more likely to be a special set of music instruments, which Kyle is using: strings, harps, flutes and a choir. This very language he uses to tell the listeners a sad story about a conflict between goo balls and The Corporation.

Of course there’re some driving tracks here and its own chip-tune and even a tribute to Bridge Builder – a cult casual game based on laws of physics, in which you have to build a bridge which will hold a train passing over it. But… but anyway World of Goo is a little but a very touching symphony with epic roots. It’s a symphony that can be freely released separately from the game or used as a soundtrack to a considerate movie.

And the most important thing is that World of Goo soundtrack is available for free download from Kyle’s own website. You can find there a set of track notes and World of Goo soundtrack cover art as well.

Read, download, enjoy!