Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Widgets Odyssey II takes the first release and adds on enough variety to keep it from being a snooze. The game keep's the art direction of flash based graphics and animated cutscenes into this sequel. Subtle humor is strung throughout this short adventure and it's a great touch not having all the jokes being pointed at with neon signs as most titles try to do.

A problem I had in the first game was the character Monk seemed to had nothing at all going for him. His entire stage was just switching pipes around. This time his stage has stealth employed and a very random Stepmania like mini game. These changes are for the best and it works to keep the action going in his stage. This time around its Bruce, the robot on wheels, who has the boring stage. His stage consists of the same puzzle copied about six times. In comparison to the first game every puzzle seems a lot more laid out. The final stage makes use of Helmut and Cosmo being two separate characters that can split to solve puzzles.

The graphics and audio are virtually the same from the first title. They still aren't a problem and the graphics still paint some very nice background scenes. The audio has nothing groundbreaking going on for it but remains full of soundeffects that will not cause a headache.

The entire game is a small but positive evolution from the first. Characters are for the most part used better in this sequel, what isn't used very well was the use of mini games. I enjoyed the Stepmania minigame but the space Shm'up minigame at the end still isn't very good. In fact the first impression of this game isn't as good as the first game starting the player off in a broken skiing minigame across sludge. The jumping is unresponsive during this minigame and if it were possible to die on the mini game, it could have been a deal breaker.

Widgets Odyssey II is available on the Playstation Mini marketplace for $2 right now. Overall its an improvement, but if Frima continues to do more games in this series I would hope for better minigames. It's the weakest element in the game by far. The great elements of puzzles and story outweigh the negative aspects. Most importantly, the game remains to be fun.