Where’s Waldo? - The Fantastic Journey brings the popular Where’s Waldo? book series onto the TV screen.  By pointing the Wii-mote at the screen, families must seek out specific pictures in the meticulously detailed drawings.

The game has two difficulty levels, which makes it nice for younger kids to be able to participate, too.  The menu and navigation system is simple enough, however, at least on our TV, the default setting for sound effects and narration made it extremely difficult to hear the “story” aspect of what was going on.  This was able to be changed from the options screen, but until we discovered that, we were struggling a bit to understand what was happening (aside from finding Waldo, Wenda, Odlaw and various peasants battling for possession of oversized chicken wings).

Overall, the game is really a rather mellow experience, much like sitting down with a Where’s Waldo book is.  Younger kids will love being able to succeed and find what they are looking for, and kids will be challenged enough to have their attention held for a bit.  But older tweens and teens may run out of patience.

For families with young kids who are just mastering the Wii-mote, Where’s Waldo is a good choice with its rather simplistic objectives and presentation.  But families looking to gather around for a rollicking, unpredictable game night will likely want to look elsewhere.