Your Friend Wiggles Review (PC)

If you’re old enough to remember Tamagotchi, then there’s a good chance that you’ll be mature enough to understand that, somewhere beneath your old attic throwaways, that beloved pet of yours is most likely, well, dead. As if to kick you whilst you’re down, Your Friend Wiggles steps in to remind you of your past mistakes, of abandoning that once-faithful companion that you were seemingly attached to for the best part of your childhood. It swoops in, and opens your eyes to the consequences of your past decisions. That pet? It’s still alive. Yet, it’s no longer bashful; it’s miserable—vengeful, even. It doesn’t like that you left it to forge other friendships and grow up, and it wants to pull you back into the past to cater to its elusive roots.

Your Friend Wiggles is, at least in some ways, another ode to Tamagotchi — but with a much, much darker twist. In this world, you aren’t given a digital pet to adopt and tend to; you’re forced to play the role of a waylaid owner who just so happened to neglect their childhood friend long enough for them to transform into another bleak apparition. The digital homestead is still familiar, but the atmosphere is more dense and less welcoming. Shame on you, then, for abandoning ol’ Wiggles. It wasn’t his fault you grew up and got bored of him.

As far as the gameplay goes, Your Friend Wiggles plays out in a similar manner as the likes of Slender: The Eight Pages, with players having to search for keys, as well as other pieces of a jigsaw to not only find an escape route, but to unravel the mysteries pertaining to Wiggles’ absurd decline into madness. Digital prison? Check. Six keys? Check. A rogue Tamagotchi? Uh — check, I guess.

Abandonment Issues

Your Friend Wiggles puts you in the neglectful shoes of a protagonist who, after discovering an old digital pet that fell behind to reckless abandon, winds up being enveloped within a daringly grotesque version of his former friend’s pixel-crafted universe. In the wake of catastrophe, the young “hero” ventures into the retro-studded woodland to search for six keys—crucial components that, when combined, unlock an exit and, in turn, shed light upon the downfall of Wiggles’ once-renowned pocket empire.

To answer the question of whether or not Your Friend Wiggles is a fully padded game with tons of content to soak up — no, it isn’t; it’s a short experience that you can beat in a single sitting. Moreover, as it doesn’t feature any special endings or alternate avenues to explore, it isn’t a game that you would willingly return to after the final key has been unearthed, so to speak. However, Your Friend Wiggles does foster some pocket-sized incentives, such as collectibles, a small handful of puzzles, and randomly generated worlds. The objective, however, remains the same: to locate the six keys scattered around a pixel-pasted forest, and to find the most appropriate way to flee from a looming creature’s eternal wrath. Again, like Slender, but with keys instead of doodles, as well as a retro aesthetic instead of that shoddy Flash style that amounted to cult status.

Creepy Yet Comforting

I’ll admit, the loop itself doesn’t leave too much to the imagination, though it does take the initiative to keep you on your toes as you gradually carve through its wooded grotto and aimlessly search for its keys. To add, it peppers the trail that you walk with a ton of neat touches and thematic details, grainy effects and retro aesthetics. It doesn’t look great, but it captures the essence of its chosen theme surprisingly well.

As luck would have it, Your Friend Wiggles also comes clean with some genuinely tense moments, too. Sure, it’s all rather comical in some ways, but to give credit where it’s due, it does bring about some great scares and a sense of unease that carries over in its pocket-centric ecosystem. What’s more, it plays well. Well, it makes a convincing case, anyway. Perhaps I was lucky enough not to bump into all of its unspoken game-breaking errors.

There are, of course, a couple of issues that spring to mind when I think about Your Friend Wiggles. For example, the sprint toggle, or the lack thereof. Given that the game is a walking simulator at heart, the lack of flexibility in the maneuvering process can make for a tedious exercise. It’s a small gripe, but one that I can’t help but feel the need to bring to the surface. A couple of graphical errors also happen to dampen the experience, too. Again, there’s nothing particularly game-breaking to mull over here, though there are several components that could do with a little extra time in the oven to help illuminate its potential as an indie horror.

Verdict

Your Friend Wiggles isn’t padded with a tremendous amount of weight in its storytelling department, though it does offer a good amount of bang for your buck with to its inclusion of randomly generated environments and unprecedented scares, its retro-fueled love letters to historical cult favorites and its familiar ties with warped digital pets. It’s Tamagotchi with a twist; an ominous homage to childhood memories and the negligence of a faithful companion.

While I’m not about to dig out my old Tamagotchi from the attic to see if it’s still alive, I will, strangely, spend the next five minutes pondering the possibility that it might bear a certain hatred towards my lack of parental involvement. I suppose, at least with that in mind, Your Friend Wiggles has made an impact in one way or another. And I think that it’s a good one. Again, I think. I’m all for the concept, nonetheless.

It you enjoy mascot horrors and all manners of kooky pet-centric culture, then there’s a strong chance that you’ll enjoy tending to ol’ Wiggles and its bloodthirsty tendencies. However, if it’s a cute and cuddly companion that you want to adopt, then take it from me — Wiggles isn’t the pet for you. Wiggles is a little too sensitive.