Where’s Waldo? was a little after my time, and the iPhone app Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey ($2.99) is reminding me why I hated poring over the books with my younger brothers and my own kids. So take all of this with a grain of salt. I admit to being biased heavily against Waldo and his striped shirt.
Waldo is freakin’ impossible to find. Couple that with the fact that you can only see an iPhone-screen sized portion of each page at a time, and if you’re me, it’s a recipe for becoming so frustrated that you throw your iPhone out of the nearest window.
Playing Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey requires one to drag the scene around on the screen, trying to find the elusive Waldo in the midst of thousands of other tiny figures, all wearing something red-and-white striped. Once found, you have to look for some other hidden objects.
Honestly, I got so frustrated trying to find the pink pig that I turned the darned game off. I probably should have chosen the “kids” difficulty level rather than the “normal.”
The game is also very slow to load, and a wizard likes to tell stories, the words for which pop up one at a time on the screen unless you tap to get the whole thing displayed.
According to some upset reviewers in the iTunes App Store, the game is timed. I didn’t come across this, so I either found Waldo quickly enough or I gave up before running out of time.
This game is definitely not for those with short attention spans. Fans of the books, and those with obsessive-compulsive disorder might enjoy it.
