Yagor, an evil bad guy with horns is out to rule the galaxy, and five robots stand in his way. After defeating him, they return to their home planet to find it destroyed. Is this the work of Yagor? Time to jump back into action.
Note: Widgets Odyssey 2 is an original game, available only via download from the Playstation Network.
Widgets Odyssey 2 is technically a 2D platformer, but the designers have made sure no two stages play similarly. Each stage you take control of a different robot, each one with slightly different abilities (with the fourth being completely different from the rest). The first stage is standard platform action, the second requiring more stealth, the third is more about speed, and the fourth has some minor puzzle-solving. Breaking up these four stages are three mini-games – the first has you rolling down a hill, jumping to avoid spikes, the second is a standard ‘push buttons in time with the music’ thing, and the third is a side-scrolling shooter. There’s a lot of variety here for your $1.99, but is it worth the time? Let’s get to the review.
1. Graphics [Good] The graphics of Widgets Odyssey 2 is cartoony, but you can usually tell what is bad to touch and what isn’t. There’s a nice use of colors, so all the stages look vibrant, and the overall presentation is very clean. The roughly animated cut-scenes are kind of boring to watch, but manage to tell the story well enough.I particularly enjoyed the look of the villain’s lair, which had the look of a converted ancient Egyptian structure. The animation of all the characters are noteworthy for their quality.
In this sequence, Monk has to sneak past these eye-drones in a cardboard box.
2. Game Play [Meh] I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure I had fun at any point while playing this one hour game. I guess my main beef with the gameplay in general is that your health is your time limit; the more damage you take, the less time you have to complete the stage. Combined with some of the necessary retracing of steps to collect previously out-of-reach items, I found this to be singularly the most frustrating aspect of Widgets Odyssey 2.
The first stage you play as “Spad,” a robot who is sort of a slow-mover but can jump pretty high. This stage consists of a mini-game, followed by a collecta-thon. The game isn’t entirely clear what the purpose of some of these pick-ups are (particularly the battery), so some head-scratching wandering is necessary. The most defining aspect of the first level is the mini-game it starts with – yes, Widgets 2 immediately tosses you into a mini-game, and a frustrating one at that. As simple as it sounds (roll down a hill, avoid spikes by jumping), the controls don’t seem nearly responsive enough to avoid all the spikes. This isn’t nearly as frustrating as, say, Battletoads (most people quit before beating the third stage due to a similar scenario), but it is a questionable design decision. Thankfully the rest of the stage is pretty easy, so starting with a health handicap isn’t discouraging.
Spad, fighting off the first (and only) mini-boss character.
The second stage has you playing as “Monk.” He’s a bit faster than Spad, but can’t jump as high. Like the first one, you have to collect a bunch of items to complete the stage, and are rewarded with the second mini-game. This one involves hitting specific buttons in time with the music, although the noises your button pushes make don’t really fit into the music at all. In the third stage you play as Bruce, who moves faster than Monk, but can’t jump worth crap. Most of this stage involves picking up crates of TNT and flinging them at a security terminal, allowing you to move on to the next stage. No mini-game here, although the final section has you flying out of the stage before it blows up.
The fourth and final stage has you playing as Helmut. He is completely different from the others, in that he can grab onto platforms and pull himself up. He also has a ranged attack, launching his head-shaped partner Cosmo. After launching Cosmo, you take control of it while Helmut goes comatose. Cosmo can fly, move through tiny spaces, and hit switches. As you may expect, there are areas in which you need Helmut (for attacking), so you’ll often let him sit next to a wall while you send Cosmo flying away to hit a switch, opening that wall. At the end of the fourth stage you enter the last mini-game, which auto-scrolls to the right and sends enemies your way, requiring you to blast them before your remaining health is depleted. This is an acceptably interesting shooting sequence, although the flying head-shaped ship is just altogether too big and clumsy for my taste. You just can’t move fast enough to avoid some attacks. (Tip: stay in the upper left corner, constantly blasting the bottom right corner so nothing on the ground can get into the screen. You will have to shoot horizontally to kill the wasps that fly your way every once in a while, though. The ‘big guys’ are easily killable by blasting them in the ‘chin.’)
The game does a lot of things, but nothing particularly well. I’d rather the designers focus on one of the robots (preferably Cosmo & Helmut) and more on making the game more distinctive and interesting, rather than just a smattering of little stages that are reminiscent of bigger, better games.
A billion cameras, all focused on Bruce (until he chucks that TNT).
3. Grab-Factor [Meh] Is it bad that within seconds of beating this game, I couldn’t remember any of the character’s names? I suppose younger kids might get a kick out of the cut-scenes – it features toilets & little robots sneezing waves of green goop.
4. Soundtrack [Good] Well, at least in this area the game doesn’t disappoint. The sound effects and background themes fit whichever mood the game is attempting to inspire. The ‘voices’ in the game are kinda neat (I’m a sucker for fake languages with subtitles), but the narrator is kinda cheesy.
5. Replay Value [Meh] There’s an incentive to replay the game with one of the oldest devices in the book – high scores. In the current achievement-based gaming environment, I don’t think this will work out so well. You can also replay the three mini-games if you wish; I imagine only the shooting stage will beckon a replay from a bored gamer.
Overall Game Rating: 1.75/5 [Meh] This game is only $2, but I’d recommend buying a burger instead; it’ll stick with you longer.
Yes, I'd rather eat a greasy burger than hang with you guys. Sorry.
Genre: Mini-Games/Platformer By: Frima Studio System: PSP / PS3 / PSPGo
(Special thanks to Frima Studio for providing the review material!)
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