Goo Keeper

Goo Keeper is a charming 2D Metroidvania that combines an unusual slime-centered fantasy setting with exploration, platforming, combat, and ability-driven progression. Developed and published by Oria Games Inc., the adventure follows Rolly, a peaceful Goo whose home in the interconnected world of Shroomast has been disrupted by toxic tar. This pollution has contaminated the environment and transformed once-friendly inhabitants into aggressive creatures. The resulting journey sends Rolly through a strange underground civilization where colorful mushrooms, mutated Goos, ancient structures, dangerous monsters, and environmental hazards contribute to a distinctive identity. Exploration is one of the game's most important elements. Shroomast consists of nine main zones connected into a larger world rather than functioning as completely isolated stages. Players encounter locations ranging from overgrown castles and forgotten temples to mushroom-covered environments and inhabited settlements. Progression is deliberately somewhat flexible, allowing certain areas and encounters to be approached in different sequences. Some bosses are optional, and alternative paths can occasionally provide different ways of advancing. This gives exploration a genuine purpose because wandering away from an obvious route may reveal useful abilities, hidden passages, optional challenges, or shortcuts. Rolly gradually becomes considerably more capable as the adventure progresses. His basic movement and combat options include jumping, rolling, blocking, shooting, and eventually climbing walls, but acquired abilities broaden both traversal and offensive possibilities. Some upgrades are necessary for reaching previously inaccessible locations, maintaining the familiar Metroidvania cycle of discovering a power and realizing that it can open routes encountered earlier. Others are optional and can be equipped to customize Rolly's capabilities. Active and passive abilities provide different tactical advantages, while certain combinations can reveal hidden variations, giving experimentation additional value. Combat benefits from an energy system that places practical limitations on Rolly's stronger techniques. Abilities consume energy, which regenerates automatically over time. More powerful attacks generally require greater expenditure, preventing players from relying endlessly on their strongest options. The mechanic is uncomplicated but effective because it introduces resource management without forcing players to constantly collect consumable items. Choosing when to spend energy becomes especially important during more dangerous encounters, where careless use can temporarily leave fewer offensive choices available. The creatures encountered throughout Shroomast contribute heavily to the game's personality. Goos can develop into dramatically different forms, ranging from amusing and harmless-looking beings to distorted humanoid monsters. This premise gives the artists considerable freedom when designing enemies and bosses. Traditional frame-by-frame animation complements the hand-drawn aesthetic, producing expressive characters that fit naturally within the whimsical but occasionally unsettling atmosphere. Backgrounds and environmental details also help establish individual areas as recognizable places rather than merely differently colored collections of platforms. Boss battles are particularly valuable because they connect combat with progression and exploration. Optional opponents can provide meaningful incentives beyond simply defeating another powerful enemy, including abilities that may make subsequent exploration easier. Players who thoroughly investigate the environment are therefore rewarded with additional challenges and potentially useful tools. Combined with secrets and ability-gated routes, these encounters encourage revisiting older areas after obtaining new powers. This backtracking feels most satisfying when a previously unreachable passage finally becomes accessible and leads somewhere substantial. The game's semi-open progression is also a potential dividing point. Players who enjoy searching interconnected maps and discovering their own routes should appreciate the freedom, while those who prefer consistently obvious objectives may occasionally find the structure less direct. Likewise, many of its fundamental ideas are recognizable genre conventions. Ability gates, wall traversal, hidden upgrades, optional bosses, interconnected regions, and returning to earlier locations are established Metroidvania concepts. Goo Keeper's appeal therefore comes primarily from how these familiar mechanics are combined with its distinctive Goo mythology and colorful presentation rather than from completely reinventing the genre. Controller support is a natural fit for the platforming and combat, particularly when quickly switching between movement, defensive actions, and attacks. Steam Deck compatibility, however, should be approached with some caution. The game does not have a clearly established official Steam Deck Verified or Playable classification, so it is best considered officially unverified rather than guaranteed fully compatible. Its 2D design and controller-oriented gameplay may make handheld play practical, but users should not interpret that as an official compatibility guarantee. Individual results can depend on the current SteamOS and Proton environment. As an overall package, Goo Keeper succeeds by giving familiar Metroidvania foundations an appealing personality of their own. The strange ecosystem of Shroomast, hand-drawn animation, evolving protagonist, flexible exploration, optional encounters, interconnected regions, and layered ability system work together particularly well. Its mechanics may feel recognizable to experienced genre players, but the ability combinations and unconventional slime-based world prevent the adventure from feeling completely generic. Players who enjoy uncovering secrets, gaining traversal powers, returning to previously inaccessible locations, fighting unusual bosses, and gradually mastering a connected 2D world should find plenty to appreciate. Rating: 7/10

Recommended. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. The graphics are charming, a nice change from all the dark games out there. The game play was fun. It's not a genre I've spent much time in, but I found it addictive.

6/10

neat little metroidvania 6/10

This is a short, fun, simplified metroidvania. There are minor quirks in getting used to the controls and in certain boss/enemy behaviour, but nothing upsetting. There are a lot of secrets and neat upgrades to find. It's on the easier side of metroidvanias, though still not something you can play blindfolded. I had a lot of fun and will keep an eye out for another project from these devs.

Ugly. Bad movement feeling. Zero feedback when you get hit. You can rebind the controls but the UI and the tutorials don't show the modified controls. The enemies are damage sponges.

Joguei pouco. Mas suficiente pra ver que não é pra mim. Vale os dois reais mas achei bem esquisito, cheguei até o primeiro chefe do caminho que escolhi e sei lá... muito esquisito. Mas é um ótimo primeiro projeto, vi que é o primeiro jogo do dev. Se esforça e vai longe amigo (vou deixar a análise positiva pra incentivar kkkkk mas se você tiver vendo isso, melhor gastar os 2 reais em outra coisa