Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey
The wonderful world of Martin Handford comes to the Nintendo DS to test your observation skills in Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey. As in Handford's books, gamers have to find the bespectacled Waldo, who is dressed in his usual horizontally red and white striped shirt, blue jeans, bobble hat, while carrying a walking stick.
Over the course of 12 levels you need to use your keen observation skills to find Waldo, his friends and numerous odd items before the time limit runs out. The touch screen only reveals a small portion of the big picture, and if you want to see more, you have to drag your stylus around the touch screen to move the viewable screen area.
Each level starts off with you having to find Waldo, Wizard Whitebeard and Wenda. Once you find them, you need to look for specific items and scenes. Thankfully, you don't have to scour the entire illustration to find them; each item you look for is narrowed down to a much smaller and easier-to-search area. If you are having trouble finding what you're looking for, Waldo's canine companion Woof will come to your aid if you press the B button. But his help isn't free - you need to give him a bone. Bones can be found littered throughout each illustration, so keep an eye out for them.
The game also includes a couple of mini games. Woof will occasionally ask you to play a game of 'Spot the Difference', in which you have to tap on the touch screen's image when something is different from the top screen's image. Another mini game is Wenda's 'Lost Photos', in which you help her locate certain scenes from the big picture that she has photographed.
The graphics are all based on Handford's wacky illustrations, with some characters animated to make the game less static. The sound on an NDS is never great but each level has a soundtrack that works with its theme - from the Munster theme-like music for the Halloween bash illustration to the Middle Eastern music for the Arabian Nights level.
Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey is an enjoyable game. The only real downside to it is the duration of play - once you get the hang of it, you can complete the entire game in just two hours or so.