The Great Waldo Search: A Better Game, Still Bad

The Great Waldo Search is the third book in the series, and it was the basis for the second video game. This time, THQ released the game on the Genesis and SNES, which means it should look much better than the NES game. It would’ve been nice if the developer had tried something different.

It is a little odd that they skipped the second book in the series. Find Waldo Now was my favorite of the three, mostly because red was my favorite color when I was a kid. This game was released in 1992, and the book was released in 1989. It seems a little odd to me.

I went to look up some information on the books, and I learned that the title of the third book is different. I always remember it being The Great Waldo Search, and at some point, it was changed to Where’s Waldo: The Fantastic Journey. This sent me down a rabbit hole for a little while, and it derailed me for a moment.

TLDR: Better graphics, but gameplay is still limited.

Narrative

This follows the story of the third book. Waldo and his dog are tasked to go on a journey to find the scrolls of Wizard Whitebeard. This takes the two of them to several fantasy lands, and eventually has them end up in the Land of the Waldos, or Wallies if you aren’t in the US or Canada.

If you’re interested in the story, then you can find it here (Link).

Gameplay

This is a hidden object game. Across the five stages, you’ll need to find the scrolls and Waldo that are hidden in each level. Sometimes they’re hidden better than others. It is a very short game, and they try to make this longer by having a little mini game, but it didn’t do much to make this game fun.

It is a very short game that can be completed in about ten minutes. The levels are taken from the book, and they’ve been shrunk down. You can scroll left and right, but it is easy to find most of the hidden items.

What are you looking for in this game? Well, here is a list of the items and what they do, if anything:

• Waldo – One of the two key items you need to advance to the next stage.
• Scroll – The second key item.
• Waldo’s Dog – This unlocks a bonus stage where you control the dog on a flying carpet and try to collect bones.
• Clock – Bonus points and time extension.
• 150 – This is one that I’m a little confused about. It gives you 150 bonus points, and that is it.

The dog mini game is okay the first time you play it. If there were more options for bonus levels, then this would’ve been great. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

Once you’ve found Waldo and the Scroll on each of the five levels, the game is over. There are two difficulty settings, but the gameplay doesn’t change. You can take on the levels in any order you want, which is one of the few nice things I have to say about this game.

I’m not a fan of this kind of game. It is very limited, and you have little to no reason to play it after you’ve beaten the game on each difficulty. The controls are fine, which is what you should expect from a game like this, where you don’t have to do much. I’m not sure if this game was compatible with the mouse for each console.

Visuals

The graphics look good on the Sega Genesis. I think the developers did a better job of turning the book into a video game. It is a little too easy on some levels to spot Waldo and the Scroll. Part of this has to do with the small amount of graphics you’re looking at.

There are times when the game is too simple, and the objects are out in the open. The artwork looks good, and it does remind me of the book. I did like the graphics on the mini game.

The Great Waldo Search looks much better than the previous game. I like how they included the pages of the book, but I wish they had been bigger. It would’ve been nice if the game let you scroll up and down as well as to the sides.

Reviews at the Time

I didn’t find reviews of this game in English. The ones that I found are in Portuguese and from Brazil. There are on MobyGames (Link).

N/A. Much like the previous Waldo game, I’m not going to give this a score. There isn’t anything for me to really grade here, and it is way too short for my liking. I like the graphics, but there isn’t enough gameplay.

Pros

• Good Graphics

Cons

• Very Short
• Too Easy
• Not that much fun

Conclusion

The Great Waldo Gearch looks much better than Where’s Waldo, and I thought it was a little strange that they skipped over Find Waldo Now. It was interesting to make a hidden object game for the home console, and I wish there were more to it than this. It is a short game that really isn’t worth playing.

If I had gotten this game as a present, which was how I got most of my video games in 1992, then I would’ve been fairly disappointed. This game would’ve made for a regretful weekend rental as well. I understand the idea of making a Waldo game to cash in on the popularity of the books, but this isn’t it.

The only thing this game does is make me want to go back and look at the books to enjoy the artwork. Looking at these games now, I can see that the developers were trying to bring the books to the video games, but this should’ve been a side scrolling adventure, or something similar. There has to be an evil version of Waldo out there that he could fight.

If you liked this post, please check out my other reviews, such as Where’s Waldo or Phantasy Star II.