Widget Satchel Reviews

Cool game with an interesting method of allowing multiple routes through a platformer

Lol what a fun game! You know, this is one of those little games you should play just to remind yourself you're a human being. I've played it a bit and will continue to play more. It's as involved as you want to make it on any particular play through but it can really pull you in, especially as it allows you to "stop caring" and just play the game for the sake of fun, something that is just not possible with today's games where the game can end every two seconds. It has great themes and a sense of humor. One thing I wasn't expecting was that it's also really interesting: this is a game that leaves me guessing where the mysterious pathways and doors are leading to and from, and that's a little unusual that a game made me care. Why do I care with this game? Not sure. It's not because you have to know to "complete" the game (you don't, unless I would imagine you play it strictly as a completionist, which I guess some people insist for themselves), and that I think is the key: it's interesting just because you kind of buy into it and just want to know. It's also not procedurally/auto-generated; there really are rewards to be had here and it's obvious that actual thought was put into by an actual human being. Support a developer and have some fun in a way you forgot about! Totally worth it. (No, I wasn't paid nor did I get this game for free or anything. Sorry if the review is too glowing; I just liked it and wasn't really expecting to.)

This is the most fun I've ever had with a ferret! And I collected so many socks! Ferrets must love socks.

An adorably fun little game that's worth the price! Especially because I'm a sucker for games about silly ferrets.

The premise of the game looked fantastic and I commend the author on selling it sight unseen. That said, I cannot recommend this game. The premise is fantastic and the gameplay mechanics hold a lot of potential. Picking up widgets quickly encumbers your character, forcing you to explore and strategize to make the most of your carrying capacity. At the end of the first couple of levels you can find a "fabricator" (really a shop you can only access once) and obtain items which affect which paths you can take. The graphics are cute (though the animation feels clunky by comparison, especially when jumping) and piles of objects obligingly spill over and bounce down the halls as you crash through them, accruing points in the process. At least, all this is in theory. In practice, beginning in the third stage and becoming starkly apparent by the fourth, gameplay begins to drift southward. Widgets become sparse, with the three, five, and higher value widgets disappearing in lieu of single value widgets. Much of the stages revolve around platforming, jumping from one conveyor platform to another without making mistakes lest you be sent back to the beginning to start from scratch. Momentum is sometimes mysterious and don't be surprised to slide off the edge of platforms even when it seemed like you had made the jump properly. Piles of objects no longer cause the point counter to appear and become so much background clutter. The "doohickeys" utilization also becomes less about finding new paths and more about navigating the paths you're forced to take. For example, in early stages you can use the boots to jump off robots to reach higher platforms; by the fourth stage, the boots are necessary in order to not lose every widget you have to elevator sequences where robots cover the entire platform. Would having a different doohickey play out differently? It's hard to say because the areas seem so same-y, with nearly identical sections appearing multiple times, that I'm not sure I'd even notice if I'd stumbled on to a new path or what form it would take if I did. And that's an insurmountable problem. After spending an hour and a half on the fourth stage, I had to call it quits because I'd stopped having fun nearly an hour ago. The physics make the platforming sequences frustrating and tedious, and the lack of widgets (and the ease of losing them, sometimes to gameplay faults such as the screen failing to keep up with the character while descending rapidly from platforms where it turns out enemies lurked below) and the unlikeliness of collecting enough to obtain the final doohickeys killed any sense of reward for completing these sections. Eventually I hit my third long conveyor platforming section in a row, identical to the previous two, and realized I simply had no interest whatsoever in seeing what was on the other side. In the end, I dearly wanted to like the game and tried to push through the inanely long platforming sequences, but when they gave no signs of ending and yet another fall sent me back to the floor where I bumped into a robot that wasn't visible until a couple of seconds after I'd landed, that was enough for me.

Death Stranding Meets The Beastmaster A cute, but clunky platformer that challenges the player to lug around widgets in a satchel. The more widgets the player fits in the satchel, the slower and harder it gets to move. Carrying the widgets in the satchel to a certain point allows the player to upgrade their character. WARNING: This is obviously a bias review being a huge fan of ferrets since first watching The Beastmaster as a kid. While there are plenty of games that have ferrets available as companions in RPGs (Torchlight) or units in strategy games (Tooth and Tail), I think this just might be the very first Mustelid-based platformer that ever existed. This overlooked gem will most likely wind up existing to an obscure few ferret fans who are lucky enough to stumble across this and get a chance to enjoy the charm and simplicity of being the one of the cutest space-couriers of the future. If you are a fan of ferrets, I highly recommend picking this up and supporting developers who are brave enough to bring these charming creatures into mainstream gaming as playable main characters. Hats off to you folks at Noble Robot!!! ...let's see here. A quick internet search of Noble Robot's resume shows "...and animation sequences for NBC's Parks and Recreation". Interesting side-note. Ok, so apparently this will appeal to ferret owners and hardcore Parks and Rec fans as well. I guess the important question now is, who would win in a fight - Widget Satchel or the Goose? I'd put my money on the weasel. If you own ferrets, pick this up. You won't regret it. It will be one of the few things you can own that those adorable creatures can't steal and hide from you and/or destroy.