Holy monkey balls, what a confused mess of a game. It�s, like...you know, you pick
up a game called Curious George, and unless it�s some kind of Seinfeld parody, you know
it�s supposed to be a kids game, right? It�s, like, everyone on the planet knows
that.
Everyone except Curious freaking George.
Released to a bunch of consoles back in 2006, Curious George is kind of a let down. To the
extent that a Curious George game can seem promising, this one does. It looks nice and
colorful, it has lots of actual platforming...not just kids platforming, which is always just
running around and collecting crap. But...it�s like Curious George didn�t get the memo
that Curious George is a kids game.
So what is this? Well, it�s a platformer, based on a Curious George movie that apparently
released in 2006. Completely unbeknownst to me. You play as George himself. The curious
one. And you run, and jump. And to be fair, this actually isn�t a terrible game, but
it is a terrible kids game.
See, problem number one with this kids game...is that it�s way too hard for kids. This thing
requires some surprisingly thorough platforming at times. With jumps that are so wide...if
you don�t double jump at just the right moment, you won�t make it. In fact, the
game relies heavily on that double jump, which would be great.
If it freaking worked.
I�m speechless. I have no speech.
So for some reason...you have, like, a millisecond-long window to hit that button a second time, for
the double jump. Which means it doesn�t work a lot of the time. And since a lot of
the game requires it to work, well...you press the button, you fall down, yada, yada, yada,
you throw your controller into the burning rubble.
And you know, it�s a shame. Because I actually like a lot of what this game is trying to
do. Curious George is a lot more substantive than most kids platformers. Again, when the
platforming works...it�s good fun. And there�s plenty of it. In fact, the game even references
Donkey Kong...implicitly, with the vines and bananas.
And explicitly. With the barrels and red girders. Kinda cool, and there are times when you can
tell its heart is in the right place. Too bad its controls are not. The double jump
is so frustrating, you�ll be begging for �serenity now;� the game is too tough
for kids, not that there�s anything wrong with that; and for the love of all that�s
holy, George...the card says �moops.�