Everyone knows and loves Waldo, if you don’t you’ve probably never opened up a book.
Where’s Waldo?: The Fantastic Journey takes the premise of finding Waldo as well as other items and turns it into a Wii game. From the get go I imagined that the gameplay would revolve around the player being able to zoom in and out of the 2D map to find the necessary items, but players are actually given a sliced up version of each map. While it does make finding the items easier, it also takes out the joy of being able to see these twelve vast and beautifully hectic worlds from any perspective.
The single player game consists of the player pointing the Wii-mote at the screen and pressing A to select the discovered items. Time is a factor in finding these items. You’ll be rewarded five stars if you find the items quickly. The multiplayer involves you and a friend competing to find items. Whomever finds more items first wins. Waldo and all his friends have been given voices so you won’t have to read any instructions given during the game. Surprisingly enough these voiceovers aren’t that bad at all. Knowing how annoying some character’s voiceovers in children’s entertainment can be, the ones in Where’s Waldo?: The Fantastic Journey are like birds chirping on a nice and warm Sunday morning.
My only other complaint about this game, other than not being able to zoom-in and out, is that it doesn’t feel like there are enough 2D animations within the world. I expected more characters to be moving around and trying to distract me from finding the items.
Where’s Waldo?: The Fantastic Journey isn’t meant for the older hardcore gamer crowd. It’s a simple game that any adult can purchase and know its content is 100% safe and suitable for children. If you want a new way to find Waldo, this game will be perfect for you.