George of the Jungle Review (WII)

George,George,George of the jungle…watch out for that Wii

Based on the nick toons animated series, and not the movie (with Brendan Fraser as George and John Cleese as Ape Trivia fans). George of the Jungle is a sideways scrolling platformer of the lowest order. Graphically it does try and recreate the atmosphere of the cartoon but is just not as smooth as it should be, and you would not have been impressed if this had turned up on the PS2, let alone the Wii.

I’m afraid I cannot even recommend this game to anyone, even a fan of the cartoon

There seems to be nothing here that has not been done before, ten times better. The so-called action takes place in a pseudo 3d world loosely based around the jungle of Mbebwe- just as the cartoon is. This game guides you through a set path, something like the original Crash Bandicoot, but without the fun factor. Since this is a Wii game, the developers have felt obliged to shoehorn in some wii remote functionality. This entails waggling and thrusting the nunchuck and remote about in a manner not unlike the hapless hero himself, hindering gameplay and not helping to enhance the feeling of interaction.

Now I hope you don’t think I am slating this game just because it is aimed for kids. Far from it, I let my 6 year old have a blast, and he breezed through the first section until he got to the first boss, where he got killed, over and over again. His big sister (who is 10, and a seasoned gamer), decided to show him how to do it. She dies three times, before asking if we could switch it off and play ?Something that is fun, like Mario or MySims?. Now they both love the cartoon series, and love platform games. They have not asked to play George of the Jungle again, and have asked if we can trade it in for Wiifit. So I’m afraid I cannot even recommend this game to anyone, even a fan of the cartoon. Another lazy, waste of a good licence.