The game is good. Really good, really fun. But my favorite thing about it, hands down, is Kyle Gabler's flabbergasting soundtrack. It combines the superheroic, soaring choral melodies of Tim Burton with all kinds of various ethnic and cinematic influences to create a musical pastiche that is at once epic, driving, hilarious and surprisingly emotional.

What possessed Gabler and 2D Boy to imbue their silly puzzle game with such a grand soundtrack? We may never know. We can just be glad they did. Best of all, you can download the entire thing for free at Gabler's website.

He talks about the process he used to make the soundtrack:

The majority of the instruments you'll hear are computer instruments, with a few live performances on top to add a bit of warmth. For the older music, I used one of those Sound Blaster cards that let you load samples into memory. More recently, I've been using the freeware sfz soundfont sampler. I have an m-audio keystation 49e midi keyboard for picking out melodies. Influences include Danny Elfman, Vangelis, Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, and all the big movie guys. I grew up listening to them, and they remain a big influence in everything I write.

Man, anyone who cites Danny Elfman, Vangelis and Ennio Morricone as influences is cool in my book.

Here are some of my favorite tracks from the World of Goo Soundtrack. Though they're all favorites, really.

"World of Goo Theme"

Beetlejuice meets, well, Beetlejuice—you can just picture the gears spinning, the goo flying, the oddly cheery, sinister world welcoming you.

"Brave Adventures"

This track reminds me of nothing so much as the noble "Agent Cruller's theme" from Psychonauts. Epic in its own way, but I love this kind of stuff. Another one with a killer modulation.

"Tumbler"

Man, this is an easy favorite. Spinning, cycling, growing, changing, tumbling.

"Jelly"

This is like, some extreme superhero music, straight to the epic build at the end.

"My Virtual World of Goo Corporation"

This one deserves a spot just for variety—suddenly, out of nowhere, we've got a chippy freakout. Perfect.

"Best of Times"

Such drama! Such emotion! Again, I remind you: This is a game about goofy little balls of goop.

"Red Carpet Extend-O-Matic"

I mean, what is this even? Part club-jam, part aria, part I-don't-even-know-what. I would dance my ass off if this played the next time I was out dancing. (What? I totally go dancing sometimes.)

There are a bunch more, and they're all good. And as a reminder, you can download the whole soundtrack for free at Gabler's website.

From Zelda to Final Fantasy, we've seen plenty of dedicated video game orchestral concerts over the years. Only a week or so ago, there was a huge Legend of Zelda concert in Los Angeles, and next week will see the release of a collection of video game music from the London Philharmonic.

I've listened to much of the Philharmonic album in advance, and I found that the tracks I enjoyed the most were the ones I'd never heard played by an orchestra. Orchestras tend to be going for a mainstream thing with these performances, so they focus on the themes we all know and love. But while I'm all for hearing the Mario "1-1" music or Cloud's Theme from Final Fantasy VII, I found that I was really digging hearing a full orchestra play the opening music from Grand Theft Auto IV, or the theme from Angry Birds.

I thought it might be fun to list five pieces of music that aren't the first choices for game concert programmers, but which I would get excited to see on a concert program.

(And for the record: I know that image up top isn't technically from Far Cry 2 due to the weird compass, but I still really like that image and theoretically we're in an alternate universe anyway so whatever.)

Instruments ready? Everyone tuned up? And a 1, 2, 3, 4….

World of Goo — "Beginning"

Actually, I'd almost be up for an entire segment of a concert dedicated to Kyle Gabler's wonderful soundtrack from World of Goo - it's this unhinged, Elfman-like thing, all momentum and balancing. I listen to the soundtrack from World of Goo and I hear a clown on a unicycle, wearing a one-man-band outfit, riding in desperate circles around a big top, trying to stay upright. In other words, it's about as perfect a fit for the game as could be. I'd say the orchestra could bring out a featured accordion soloist for this one, maybe Rob Reich or something. #justathought

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 — "Exceeding the Hill"

As much as I enjoy the opening music from this game (which plays when you hit "play" on the above video), my favorite track from this entire game (and, for some weird reason, one of my favorite pieces of video game music full-stop), is the second part, "Exceeding the Hill," which comes on at 1:50. It captures everything Tactics is to me—playful, thoughtful, and tense in an enjoyable way. Also, it is called "Exceeding the Hill," which is one of the best song names I have ever heard.

Just listening to it and I want to start placing my party around the grid. Watch out for my juggler.

The Secret of Monkey Island — "Intro"

Of course, this game has a much beloved soundtrack. And while it would just be cool to see an orchestra tackle its iconic themes, something I've found with this theme is that it actually sounded different depending on your sound card. As a result of that, the video I've posted above is what I think of as the "definitive" version, but for many folks theirs was. So, there's wiggle-room on the soundtrack, and it would be fun to hear what an orchestral arranger would come up with.

Plants vs. Zombies — "Watery Graves"

Of all the pizecatto string tunes that would work well if performed by an orchestra, Laura Shigihara's "Watery Graves" from her Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack might be my favorite. This is a track that was clearly created within a recording program—the delay that's bouncing off of all of the instruments gives it a watery, echoing quality that would be difficult to reproduce in a traditional orchestra. But that's exactly why I'd love to hear it!

This video actually cuts out when the beat drops, but you can hear a full version of the tune here:

Far Cry 2 — "Dark River"

Stephen has started joking that I'll post about Far Cry 2 whenever I'm given an opportunity. I have no idea what he's talking about. But speaking of Far Cry 2, let me tell you about this track!

In all seriousness, many of the tunes that are performed at these orchestral shows are the main themes from games, the big heroic anthems, the most iconic moments. But in music just as in games, pacing is very important. A good concert needs some other contours, and Marc Canham's Far Cry 2 soundtrack is loaded with contours.

This track, "Dark River," is one of my favorites. Canham ditched the more common focus on heavy percussion and driving melodies to focus on sparse, textural stuff, appropriating a lot of African harmonies and rhythms along with a surprising amount of horror-film string tricks. This track makes me think of Far Cry 2 more than almost any other, and if it fired up in the middle of a video game concert, I would probably leave my chair and start sneaking up on people in the lobby. With a machete. Y'know, if I'd brought a machete.

World of Goo, already a hit on WiiWare, PC and iOS, is building a gooey bridge to Android. Yes, that means phones and tablets, says 2D Boy, which is "working out the final kinks in the machinery." [2D Boy]

The "Indie 2D Bundle" has gone on a super-Steam-sale: you can grab Bit.Trip Runner, NightSky, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, Swords and Soldiers HD, and World of Goo for just $9.99 total. Each game normally costs $9.99 (discounted to $39.99 for all five), so it's basically five for the price of one.

When Kotaku chatted with NightSky producer Tyrone Rodriguez earlier today, he mentioned that all five developers know each other, and wanted to do a kind of "indie friend bundle." Aww!

If you've yet to give these games a try, I recommend giving 'em a spin.

(And by the way, that headline was all Totilo. Props.)

indie 2D bundle [Steam]

If you've missed World of Goo in one of its many iterations over the years, there's another chance to play the superb physics puzzler. It's now available on your iPhone or iPod Touch—the iPad version has gone Universal. It's all of $.99 in the iTunes App Store, which when coupled with the ratings in the store (98 five star ratings, as of this writing, 11 anything besides five stars), should be enough to get you to drop a hot buck. [iTunes]

2D Boy's more portable version of WiiWare and PC great World of Goo is due for the iPhone "soonish," according to its developers. The better news is that it will launch at 99 cents and will be free for those who already own the iPad version. More at 2D Boy.

What started out as a wonderful indie computer game has become a wonderful indie iPad game.

This is the sort of experience I'd like to expect from gaming on the iPad, and when it happens I'm delighted I have this Apple tablet to game on.

In World of Goo you're building wobbly, inky structures with blobs of goo as you try to rescue the remaining blobs by getting them to a pipe dangling from the sky. The less blobs you use to build, the more you have to rescue, but the less stable your platform becomes.

This $5 game from 2D Boy a wonderful treat, especially for those of you who somehow missed this game when it hit the computer and the Wii.

2D Boy, makers of WiiWare/PC hit World of Goo, are bringing their game to Apple's iPad, bringing with it support for up to 11 fingers at once. When can we expect this all-new, touchscreen-controlled World of Goo?

"As soon as we get approved by Apple," explains 2D Boy. "We hope before the holiday season."

The physics-based puzzle game sure seems like a good fit for the iPad, so we're looking forward to before the holiday season. 2D Boy says that an iPhone version is a definite "maybe," writing that if Apple's phone is up to the technical challenge it's under consideration.

World of Goo on iPad Releasing Soon [2D Boy]

Never ones to let a bit of charity corner the market for gaming bargains, Valve's Steam service is now offering the "Steam Play Indie Pack", which bundles five great games along with ability to play on both Mac and PC.

That means you can buy the games on PC and play them on Mac, or vice versa. Which is probably the main reason it's gone on sale today of all days, but you can't help but wonder whether the success of the Wolfire bundle didn't contribute slightly to the decision.

The five games are "And Yet It Moves", "Galcon Fusion", "Osmos", "World of Goo" and "Machinarium", so yeah, it's a quality pack. Indeed, for $20 it'd be worth it for those last two games alone.

We got a little bummed yesterday that people were pirating a games bundle released for charity. Let's put that behind us today, and instead focus on the positive aspects of said bundle. Like the fact it's made over $1 million.

Yes, since its release last week, Wolfire's Humble Indie Bundle has been bought by 118,810 people, with a total of $1,080,964 being spent on the pack. Now, not all of that goes to charity: Wolfire points out that $334,646 will be split between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play, the remainder to be divided between the game's developers.

The charitable donations will no doubt garner the most headlines, and rightly so, but I'm actually more impressed with a $650,000 pay day for those indie devs (it works out to be just over $150,000 each).

To mark the occassion, the pack has also gone "open source", with the code for every title bar World of Goo set to be laid bare for all the internet to see/play with.

Humble Indie Bundle [Wolfire]