Widget (NES) Playthrough
188A playthrough of Atlus's 1992 license-based platformer for the NES, Widget.
Widget was one of the many cartoons from the early nineties dedicated to teaching children about the dangers of pollution, and given society's fixation on environmentalism at the time, it's hardly a surprise that the show ended up getting a video game adaptation of its very own.
You play as Widget, a purple bipedal alien with a head that looks a bit like someone has taped a squid beak to a lumpy eggplant. He is a "planet watcher" who can morph into a variety of creatures with abilities that aid him in his fight to save the environment.
In Widget for the NES, our alien hero finds himself fighting a motley assortment of villains attempting to exploit Earth's natural resources, and he is joined by Mega Brain, a disembodied head with screwy eyes that provides useful hints.
There are five themed stages that you can tackle in whichever order you like. Each holds one of Widget's unlockable transformations that allow him to access otherwise unreachable areas, and since these areas contain a variety of permanent upgrades for your HP, MP, and firepower, you'll want to revisit the stages as you gain more forms in order to collect them all. These forms include:
-Cannon Widget, who can jump and shoot cannonballs to destroy walls but otherwise cannot move
-Mouse widget, who is fast and small but lacks any means of attack
-Rockman Widget, who is a slow, hulking beast with a dynamite punch
-Birdman Widget, who can fly over stuff and spit fireballs, and
-Dolphin Widget, who swims and also spits balls.
Each of these forms require MP to make use of, so they're geared more toward use in specific situations than they are regular play. Nobody is going to confuse it with a Mega Man game, but these forms do a nice job of mixing up the otherwise standard platforming action.
The game is nice late-gen platformer that rises well above the quality of the "other" NES games based on environmentally conscious cartoons (Captain Planet and Toxic Crusaders). It is overall pretty decent - though it lacks the balance and polish of the NES's A-listers, it also lacks the jankiness of the C-listers. The level designs and boss fights are a bit uninspired, but the controls are fairly tight and the graphics and music are fun and cheery.
Widget is a respectable effort that gets the job done, but it's ultimately a bit bland and forgettable - an issue that would be nicely addressed by its 16-bit sequel Super Widget (https://youtu.be/rjCaeKb7TLQ). Still, you could've done a whole lot worse.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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