The quick review...

I intend to do a full review of each widget outlined in the widget competition over the next couple of days, but I've had a chance to flex, stretch, configure, crash, poke and prod all of them. I'll say a few words briefly...

I think Repton Fusion is the most worthy of an award, but the Time and Date Widget will be the only one that actually survives my widget list after this contest. If I had to give an award, it would be to Repton Fusion because it's so well done. But because it's a game, I can only see it's value in a mobile environment- I'd love to play the game on my handset on my bus ride into work. If we're talking about a widget that will provide value? Well, that's gotta be the date/time widget. It's going to be the only widget from this competition that survives my widgetlist. In fact, it's might be the first widget to survive PERIOD. I can't say I really enjoy or need the calendar functions, but the flexibility of the date/time menu to sit right above my winxp clock is just great. It's a feature I've been wanting for quite some time. Hovering my mouse over the clock or expanding my taskbar to see the date has always been sub-par and this widget integrates and skins nicely with my system clock (I also used the widget "Tiny Clock" before, but I like this one better)

So:
Most Worthy? Repton Fusion
One I actually want to use? Time and Date

I'll illustrate with this picture of the widget on my desktop and how it's exactly what I've always wanted from Windows...


So here's a ten second overview- first impressions and initial thoughts:
Time and Date

Nice skinning, animation effects are nice. When activating a pull down I can see some SQL type/code background before the select box refreshes. Config options are a bit daunting. I think I easily figured them out, but only because I have a notion of regular expressions and date/time formats. Maybe pick a handful of setups and abstract the full customizability to a readme/helpfile/webpage somewhere.

Hide mode fits nicely on my taskbar.

I'd like to move my calendar around independently of the date

Great for the hidden calendar aspects, the calendar seems like over stretching. In a nutshell, a small, minor aspect of this widget hit really big with me. I was going with this other date/time widget, but yours is more customizable, so I'm going with it (in contrast to what I said about customizing above... I'm a user that would have looked for the readme/config files to tweak, but I don't think everyone wants to deal with date/time formats)



Paxel Radio

Great looking widget. Nice job with the icons and the menus, looks nice and comfy Graphic design gets high marks.

I didn't see a setting menu to change the constant scrolling of the text on screen. Movement
is distracting on a screen, eyes are drawn to it. It would be nice if the text only scrolled when the mouse is hovering over it. I can't do anymore research because this widget isn't downloading for me anymore I assume it's a hosting quirk. I'll amend if need be.


Repton Fusion

Great work. This looks like a heart and soul kind of project, you can tell that great effort was put into this. That said, it's a game and I'm not sure a game will stick around in my widget panel for more than a couple plays.

Might port pretty well to a mobile and make a morning train/bus commute a little more enjoyable.


Tank War

Well, what can I say I'm a sucker for scorched earth. The only problems I found with this widget (although many bugs are called out in the comment thread) was the initial screen width is way to small and setting the screen wider seemed a little buggy. I entered "1024" for the width and it showed "10" right away in the text box and a few seconds later- the 24 showed up.

Video Manager

The only other widget that I can see keeping around from sometime. Although- I've already setup my address bar to search for youtube anyway which will be largely more efficient for me, so I see this falling off the wayside as another "unexercised" feature that I have at my disposal. Seems to me like this and the time/date widget are the only two I would consider as they are the only utilities/useful gizmos in the competition.

Also, I like the "Check for Updates" and generally one of the best settings/config screens of any widget I've ever seen. Nice UI design there.


Multi2 Player

I couldn't get this to do anything meaningful. Maybe nobody was online to play with me? There was a lot of instructions on what to do and what not to do, but they all had to do with the current code stability or details about the UI. There was very little to nothing about what exactly I was supposed to do. I read the text, entered my nickname and thought "ok- now what? now what do I do?" I wasn't sure exactly how, why or what I should have done, and there was not way to back to the main (first) screen to see if I missed some key instructions. Maybe the first few screens could outline the object of the widget and what the player can expect. There was some need for graphic design, a touch up of color etc as well.



So in conclusion, in the merits of work, effort, love, attention and fit & finish, I say Repton Fusion stands out as the clear winner. Now, since this is my review, I'll end with what *I* think about them...

Unfortunately almost none of these widgets actually appeal to me and what want out of widgets. One small facet/feature/function of the date/time widget did manage to hit REALLY big with me by:
1) Giving me a solution to a problem
2) Justifying itself for "always on top/always on"
3) Keeping itself lean and out of the way.
...its for that reason that I intend to keep the Time Date widget around. Of course, I'll probably never open the calendar application again. You have to give me value added over my other handful of calendar applications or provide a solution to an existing problem.