While I was enjoying my daily “fix” of Newgrounds.com the other day, I came across a cute new game called “Wiggi Recycle”. You might be asking yourself , what’s a Wiggi, well now I’m glad you asked.

Far away on the planet Wigg, there lives a race of friendly aliens called appropriately enough, Wiggies. These stubby little creatures are not only cute as a bug in a rug (I just want to bite ‘em and pinch their pudgy lil cheeks- Clears Throat, sorry!) but they are also very advanced and smart. They have technology we can’t even imagine on earth. But they just recently discovered the Internet, and their leader Mr. Big Wig is worried that the citizens will get caught up and corrupted by the Internet.

So he called a meeting and it went something like this:

“Good citizens of Wiggi we have a crisis on our hands and we must get help fast”.

So he sent his best Wiggi’s to the planet Earth for some Internet Basic Training from the nice, friendly Earthlings (that’s us.)

Can you help teach the Wiggies a thing or two about safe ways to explore the wonders of the internet? Just nod your head “yes” so we can get on with the gameplay, okay?

“Wiggi Recycle” was made by an artist named Ewolutions for a contest that WiggiWorld.com was holding.

“Wiggi World” is very cool website from Children's Way, a nonprofit organization designed for kids ages 5-12.

Deadline was August 10th 2007. I will keep you posted on the winners- I promise. (But just remember one thing- we are all winners, right!)

The mission was simple, make a game for the WiggiWorld Arcade. These games should not only be educational but also tie into the whole Wiggi World philosophy. That is to teach kids how to be safe on the internet and to live lives that are balanced between time on the computer and performing acts of real-world service.

Prizes:

1st Place - $4,000
2nd Place - $1,750
3rd Place - $750
4-7th Places - $500 each

SideNote: Wowee, big money!

An added Bonus:

The first 5 games submitted to the competition that were featured on the front page of Newgrounds would receive a $100 bonus. Cool beans!

“Wiggi Recycle” is a game that does not fit easily into any standard game category. It is an “educational” recycling/sorting game in which all of the garbage in Wigg town must sorted into their proper bins at the bottom, by type and color that are coming out of one of four pipes. You can move the item to its correct pipe by the left and right directional buttons on the pipes themselves. Each of the 4 bins is a different color and has an outline of the item on the outside to help kids with their left/right, color and shape recognition skills.

Let’s just I'm a lot older than 12 years old (never mind how much older, okay!), but I still thought this game was unique and fun to play!

Some suggestions though: 1.) The game could have used some type of motivation, in other words an “incentive” to keep playing like bonuses, power-ups, and special items, etc. 2.) Different levels would have been refreshing as well. In fact there is only one level. 3.) Items should speed up after a time as you advance, not too fast just enough to increase the challenge a little bit. 4.) An ability to adjust the difficulty level would have been nice for the more mature crowd but hey it was intended for a younger audience after all. 5.) Also since this is for an educational website, an extra “learning while having fun “added touch in the game would have been nice. Maybe something that explained what recycling is and what the benefits of recycling are.

Even after all that however I must say this is one of the better Wiggi World Contest submissions that I have seen so far. Don’t get me wrong they are all cute in their own way bit “Wiggi Recycle” really grabbed and had me playing for awhile.

It was a nice, fun, clean, puzzle game that anyone can enjoy! And it was refreshing to see some sweet kid-oriented game content besides the kick-your-ass type games you normally come across on NG. I am glad Newgrounds featured the Wiggi World Contest submissions- it really does go to show you that Newgrounds truly is a website for “Everything. By Everyone”

Nice entry. Good Luck Ewolutions!

Update 8/18/07- The winners of the Wiggi World contest are 1. $4,000 - Stigg's Veggie Matic 2. $1,750 - Bushy's Cleanup Crusade 3. $750 - Wiggi Dance Academy 4. $500 - Wiggi Walk 5 .$500 - Adventures of Pop-Up Blocker Man 6. $500 - Wiggi Fire Mission 7. $500 - Galactic Mediator

So "Wiggi Recycle" didn't win ''- oh well! The good news is, it did receive a front page bonus of $100!