George of the Jungle and the Search for the Secret Review

George, George
George of the Jungle,
Friend to you and me.

Watch out for that tree.

Ok here we are with the adaptation of the cartoon series that aired on NickToons during last year, forgive me if this is still currently running but in all honesty NickToons can go suck a nut since the cancellation of Ren & Stimpy.

Now every once in a while a game turns up which no one really wants to review, the kind of game where we reviewers will stand around in a circle, akin to a group of schoolboys surrounding some dead rodent while the fat kid pokes it with a stick, and ponder the consequences of what may happen if we lower ourselves to even let the offending product touch our beloved equipment, George of the Jungle is exactly one of these horrible cash-ins.

Anyway I digress, George of the Jungle and the Search for the Secret is a game for the Nintendo Wii, based on the Adobe Flash animated television program George of the Jungle. The game is in 3D but plays like a 2D side scrolling platformer game with 3D turns and camera angles in the environment, also the path that George walks on. There are a total of 11 levels, with the locales spanning between jungle, swamp and temple themes, all of which designed to fit in with the cartoon series.

Now the gripping storyline for the basis of this game, from what I could gather while I wasn't distracted by more important things, such as life, is that some weird looking head on leg type shaman elder and some stuck up doctor type fellow are squabbling over some book which apparently contains the cure for the common cold. Unfortunately the book was stolen by some uncouth parakeet type bird and it falls upon George to save the day, along with the book, so it has about as much depth as a rich tea biscuit.

Annoyingly, George of the Bungle, insists in speaking in the third person which makes any dialogue with George laughable as we all know, only The Rock is allowed to talk in the third person and get away with it.

Visually, whilst standing still, the game doesn't look too bad, everything is in 3D and pleasing to the eye with bright bold colours which should keep the kids happy, as to be honest this is who the game is targeted at, the kids. Yet the illusion of a 3D world is quashed as soon as you move, then you will find that this game plays like a bog standard linear 2D platformer with the player collecting coins, idols and various other shiny goods to increase the total score.

Occasionally, and I mean this quite literally, you will come across some foe's to overcome using the rather simplistic combat system a whirl, basically the enemies aren't too bright and are simply defeated via the use of jumping over them then punching the kidneys until they submit. There aren't any challenging enemies in this game; even the bosses are defeated easily, though as I said earlier this game is designed to be targeted at kids so they may find it more challenging.

The use of the Wiimotes is pretty basic too, with some moves being initiated via the flailing of your arms, such as a charge move that George is able to perform, now the correct gesture for this is to wave the Wiimote in a circular motion until George puts his head down and charges forward, yet I found simply waggling it had a higher rate of success than the correct gesture. Also another move of our main protagonist is the ground slam where you jump and quickly thrust down the Wiimote so that George may slam into the ground, where he may defeat enemies or break weak flooring to progress further into the game. We are also given 3 mini games to try and increase the replayability of this title but I shall let you discover these for yourself if you feel brave enough to play the game.

Personally I found this game to be a relentless cavalcade of repetitiveness and monotony, and I recommend renting this title if possible from your local rental boutique to see if your kids like this before parting with hard earned pennies.