GOOLIN (XBLIG): "A Challenging Four Part Japanese Puzzle Game"

Luckysoft recently released their XBLIG mini-game called 'GOOLIN', and made a special request for me to review it. I hardly ever recieve requests from developers, but It's definitely a pleasant surprise when I do. When I got the review code from Luckysoft I actually had no idea what the game was about, but I had taken a quick look at it on the Xbox Live Marketplace earlier. After downloading the game, and actually winning with a level 'B' rank I felt like I had really accomplished something. Goolin is a unique puzzle game that involves a gymnast, a spaceship and a giant robot. Your objective isn't just given to you, but there are some hints in the help menu that kind of explain what's going on. Solving the puzzle/riddle is what this game is all about, and I found that it was quite a challenging feat to do so.

Goolin is a four step puzzle game in which you must ultimately land a complete robot without crashing. The only button used in the game is the 'A' button. Using the 'A' button in the correct manner to win requires some experimentation, some skill, and even some luck. When I started my playthrough of Goolin I didn't have a clue what was going on, but after some trial-and-error I finally figured it out. What I learned is that you must follow a four step process that starts with the gymnast, and ends with the whole robot landing safely back on the ground. The game actually keeps track of how many attempts you made in trying to get it right as well as a score that is based on completing the steps correctly.

I know it's not good to give spoilers, but most of you are probably wondering what you just played if you purchased Goolin. I'm going to give you the basic walkthrough to help you make sense of it all. The first step in Goolin is to get the gymnast into the ship. To do this you begin by pressing 'A' which will make the gymnast fly upward. Pressing 'A' after that will make the gymnast do flips back towards the ground/spaceship. You'll need to time it right so that you do a flip right into the spaceship's cockpit. It's up to you to figure out how many times to press the 'A' button. You can actually score more points by doing more flips though.

Step two in Goolin begins immediately after making a proper landing into the spaceship. It takes less than a second for the spaceship to become airborne. When it does become airborne you will need to immediately press 'A' tilting the ship at an angle. When your ship passes the shoulder blades of the robot you will need to press 'A' a few more times to drop the head onto the neck of the robot. You will need to figure out when, and how many times to press 'A' in order to properly drop the robot's head into place. Where you drop the robot's head will directly effect the score you are given for that part of the game.

Step three, and four of Goolin invloves launching the robot, and landing it without crashing into the ground. Once you have properly placed the head of the robot onto the robot's neck it will begin hovering in air. At this point you must simply press the 'A' button to launch it. When the music in the background stops playing the robot will plummit back to earth. Your goal is to press 'A' at just the right time so that the robot's feet stop right above it's shadow. timing is everything in this final part of the game.

In the end I thought this game was pretty neat, and definitely challenging. I liked the photo-realistic backgrounds that Luckysoft applied to the game. There were a handfull of different backgrounds, but my favorite was the Easter Island heads. If you're up for a unique challenge then Luckysoft definitely provides that with 'Goolin'. I love a good challenge myself, and unique/obscure games as well so this definitely held my attention. I believe that I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure it out, and then another 30 minutes trying to get a high score/rank. I was definitely proud of myself for being able to land the robot, and for scoring a 'B' ranking. I'm going to see if I can get an A rank just for bragging rights.