RoguedexPart 2 (May 2024) · #11 of 13 in that tierWatch the moment (1:26:00)
Battle thousands of blobs in this roguelike auto-shooter. Travel from island to island, defeat bosses, collect and upgrade items to become more powerful and discover lag-inducing combos in an endless blobbath.
Consensus
B71.8/100
Steam players90.9% positiveVery Positive1,962 reviews
VG Insights estimate ↗≈58.9K copies · ≈$261K gross
What creators say
What players say
A cheap 3D-rendered, top-down roguelike auto-shooter (bullet-heaven/survivor-like) where you kite thousands of goofy blobs across islands, beat bosses and stack item and weapon synergies, from solo Swedish studio Hoganas Spel.
Goobies is Very Positive on Steam (about 91% of roughly 1,960 reviews, 1,868 counted on the store page) and sells for about $6, so most players treat it as a charming, cheap, easy-to-pick-up survivor-like. The praise centres on the bubbly art style, build combos and quick runs. The criticism is slow progression, repetitive enemies and maps, balance that breaks once everything is unlocked, severe late-game lag and clutter, and cloud/save problems. It has no Metacritic critic coverage and no confirmed OpenCritic coverage, so reception is almost entirely player-driven. The developer shipped patches from 1.0.6 (Aug 2023) to 1.1.3 (Jan 2024), plus a small artifact tweak in Oct 2025, then announced development was on hold to focus on the sequel. Recent negative reviews complain of no content updates, and Goobies 2 (third-person co-op, demo out, 2026 release) is the successor.
Players love
- Cute, goofy, bubbly blob visuals and humorous character names give it a distinctive charm; even negative reviewers call the look its strongest part
- Simple to start and easy to begin or abandon a run, which suits short sessions and casual players
- Item and weapon synergies, including 'lag-inducing' combos, and weapon upgrades that evolve into stronger versions with added traits rather than plain stat boosts
- Satisfying power fantasy of mowing through swarms of thousands of blobs; described as addictive and mindless in a good way
- Five champions with different passives, 30+ items and 20 artifacts give a fair amount of build variety for the price
- Developer was praised in Steam reviews for quickly implementing player suggestions (leaderboards, rerolls, boss mutations)
- Low price (about $6) and low barrier; one reviewer suggests it is a gentle, non-violent way to introduce kids to the genre
Common complaints
- Severe late-game performance problems: FPS drops, lag that can crash the engine, and lag from large numbers of XP pickups
- Visual clutter in mid and late game makes threats hard to read ('I can't see anything')
- Repetitive content: basic maps, low enemy and boss variety, and runs feel same-y after a few hours
- Balance issues: with everything unlocked from the start and no real stacking limits, builds converge and runs feel too easy or dull; some also call RNG harsh
- Cloud save handling is a recurring complaint; some players report save resets or wiped progress after touching save settings
- Bugs: Queen units spawning inside terrain and becoming invincible, a controller menu selection bug, and swarm spawns landing on the player
- Development has been paused, with no major content updates in a long time
Can feel tedious
- Slow levelling: around level 40 players report roughly one level-up per world or boss
- Steep meta-progression grind that feels unrewarding for the hours invested
- Kiting blobs in circles and dodging AOEs against a limited roster of enemies feels repetitive
- Endless runs with no satisfying conclusion; the only real goal is Steam achievements
- Late-game lag and screen clutter turn the endgame into a chore
- Motion sickness from the bouncing or wobbling protagonist movement around screen centre, reported by at least one reviewer
What's unique
- Soft, inky, non-violent blob aesthetic in 3D with a bouncy momentum-based player character, unlike gritty Vampire Survivors clones
- Island-to-island structure with discrete levels and a boss at each island, instead of one continuous timer
- Weapons evolve into stronger variants with added traits rather than just stat upgrades
- Boss mutations that accumulate over time, a daily leaderboard and a 'Mega Crit' mechanic (added in patches)
- Item and roulette rerolls (one per island) plus artifacts that change core mechanics
- Sequel Goobies 2 adds third-person camera, co-op, genetic mutations and Omens, showing the series moving beyond top-down
Players want
- Fix late-game optimization and lag from pickups and enemy counts
- Add more content: enemy and boss variety, maps, and a real objective or ending for runs, since runs are endless
- Rework balance and add limits or unlock gating so builds stay varied and challenge holds up
- Improve readability: transparent projectiles, fewer cluttering effects, and options to reduce screen shake or protagonist motion
- Make cloud saves work reliably and expose clear save management
- Quality-of-life and feature requests from reviews: multiplayer, better mouse and dual-monitor handling, and better keyboard control for some characters
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeTop-Down ShooterBullet HellRogue-lite3DCasualActionVampireSingleplayerRPG
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Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Goobies is a top-down, single-level horde roguelite that embraces chaos and does not care about balance or taking itself seriously. He finds it satisfying to become absurdly overpowered and break the game, and he was briefly addicted while pushing it. The appeal fades after a few runs once you know how to break it. He first considered C tier but, having had a blast, moved it higher and calls it a guilty pleasure that is cheap and worth grabbing if you like breaking games. He never states the final tier letter aloud.
Liked
Disliked