Last year's Portal was a masterpiece because it crossed great gameplay with ingenious
storytelling. But not every game gets the content it deserves, and that's the
biggest problem with the indie title The Wonderful End Of The World. Of course, the concept isn't as original as Portal's: Wonderful End all but clones Katamari Damacy, challenging players to lead a highly absorbent
puppet across an absurd landscape, sucking up as many objects as possible while
racing against the clock. Wonderful End spins a scenario about a crafty redheaded goddess who's trying to
salvage what she can before Armageddon, but at heart, it coughs up the same
giddy surrealism that Katamari did
better.
The action satisfies, from
the subtle way it adjusts the scale of your surroundings to the fulfilling
"thump" when you hit something bigger than yourself. But for a game with such a
colorful, anything-goes visual style, the actual design falls short. Twelve
maps are too few, and while some are original—like a world made of words,
or the homage to arcade games—others tend to recycle the same flowerbeds
and orangutans. The whimsical style comes off as shallow, and the developers
miss plenty of chances to work in jokes, satire, or anything else that could
catch your attention the third or fourth time across a level. And when you
finally finish the last map, there isn't so much as a voiceover to send you
off: The game ends anticlimactically, and you just have to imagine the heroine
dragging that giant ball of crap to a better tomorrow.