From a spectating standpoint this game is endlessly amusing to me in how poor it is. I don't really know what the fuck the lads over at bethesda (yeah) were thinking trying to mimic the illustrations on an NES, the books may just have been less expensive than a game cartridge back then anyways. Would not know ofc being born later but it's like, I'm sure you could just grab a where's waldo book instead anyway and have a fuck of a better time. This is because in addition to how hilariously incompetent it looks, it also is awful in gameplay too.
So obviously you can't condense the scenes the books paint onto one or two screens, so the end result is every person is about 10-15 pixels tall and wide at most. Makes room for zero detail, hardly even looks like a scene full of people and it makes even Waldo's silly ass easily recognizable garb a chore to find. There's also the limited palette of the console, so sometimes when you manage to locate him it bears no resemblance even in color! He'll be like, fucking green or brown?? Or he'll be like...Blue, in a blue car?? Doesn't fucking look like him to me, asshole.
Guessing in a spot where Waldo is not placed will remove from your timer, which by all means doesn't SEEM too tight at first glance but you have to take a lot of things into account and basically realize there is no room for error in the harder difficulty settings. First and foremost it is already like fuck impossible to see, but then there are also the level transitions. We see waldo walk from one location that we were just at, to the location of the next level. But the fucking timer goes on while he does this?? And to make that even worse, he goes in all kinds of strange directions in the process. I can't even like jokingly say he's taking the scenic route; sometimes he will like zig-zag or do a fucking circle around the location before entering! When you're on hard mode and you need most of the time you've been provided, it makes this ESPECIALLY excruciating (as if it wasn't already). One level that can significantly influence your timer is the cave level, where you're in pitch black and you have to catch waldo while he's running around like an excited dog. When you do, you have the option to pick up an hourglass, but it has a 50/50 chance of either adding 100 seconds or subtracting the same amount. I personally get it each time, because you're going to be resetting a lot anyway so it doesn't matter much aside from added frustration.
The second different level is this like, subway system. You have to navigate the train through a pipe maze of sorts, pick up waldo, pick up his glasses, and leave. The maze is randomly generated though, and sometimes impossible to get through, so it'll just slap your efforts to save time in the face! Wizard whitebeard makes a cameo, he teleports around the maze and if he can essentially jump you. When he does you lose time EXTREMELY fast, like it will be almost all gone in a few frames. On console this leaves you no time to figure out the pipe maze or even if it's possible to get through, but on emulator you could pause. Likely to no avail, because it will be no dice and you'll have to reset so you get a possible subway. This is a problem on all difficulties actually, whereas the timer antics are not a major issue on easy mode. It's not even the last level, so if you happen to manage you still have to rush through the last two levels, and on hard you sometimes won't have enough time to do so because he'll fucking wander around in between stages like a dipshit and waste your time!
The ending is like, he's on the moon and he does a stupid jump I guess. Not worth it, but pretty much expected. It's a really funny game to like joke about with friends for its horrid quality but actually getting it done can be a severe piece of work. I did not bother with hard mode, but my friend did and I watched all of their sheer ANGUISH unfold in that long process. It was kind of scary.
So overall Where's Waldo NES is the best game of all time and I think todd howard should run for president alongside Sonic Blast in 2024. Something that looks like it would be funny to play for kicks but it really is just kind of miserable.
Addendum july 2022: You can fucking rotate the subway blocks with B we're both stupid as dick
So obviously you can't condense the scenes the books paint onto one or two screens, so the end result is every person is about 10-15 pixels tall and wide at most. Makes room for zero detail, hardly even looks like a scene full of people and it makes even Waldo's silly ass easily recognizable garb a chore to find. There's also the limited palette of the console, so sometimes when you manage to locate him it bears no resemblance even in color! He'll be like, fucking green or brown?? Or he'll be like...Blue, in a blue car?? Doesn't fucking look like him to me, asshole.
Guessing in a spot where Waldo is not placed will remove from your timer, which by all means doesn't SEEM too tight at first glance but you have to take a lot of things into account and basically realize there is no room for error in the harder difficulty settings. First and foremost it is already like fuck impossible to see, but then there are also the level transitions. We see waldo walk from one location that we were just at, to the location of the next level. But the fucking timer goes on while he does this?? And to make that even worse, he goes in all kinds of strange directions in the process. I can't even like jokingly say he's taking the scenic route; sometimes he will like zig-zag or do a fucking circle around the location before entering! When you're on hard mode and you need most of the time you've been provided, it makes this ESPECIALLY excruciating (as if it wasn't already). One level that can significantly influence your timer is the cave level, where you're in pitch black and you have to catch waldo while he's running around like an excited dog. When you do, you have the option to pick up an hourglass, but it has a 50/50 chance of either adding 100 seconds or subtracting the same amount. I personally get it each time, because you're going to be resetting a lot anyway so it doesn't matter much aside from added frustration.
The second different level is this like, subway system. You have to navigate the train through a pipe maze of sorts, pick up waldo, pick up his glasses, and leave. The maze is randomly generated though, and sometimes impossible to get through, so it'll just slap your efforts to save time in the face! Wizard whitebeard makes a cameo, he teleports around the maze and if he can essentially jump you. When he does you lose time EXTREMELY fast, like it will be almost all gone in a few frames. On console this leaves you no time to figure out the pipe maze or even if it's possible to get through, but on emulator you could pause. Likely to no avail, because it will be no dice and you'll have to reset so you get a possible subway. This is a problem on all difficulties actually, whereas the timer antics are not a major issue on easy mode. It's not even the last level, so if you happen to manage you still have to rush through the last two levels, and on hard you sometimes won't have enough time to do so because he'll fucking wander around in between stages like a dipshit and waste your time!
The ending is like, he's on the moon and he does a stupid jump I guess. Not worth it, but pretty much expected. It's a really funny game to like joke about with friends for its horrid quality but actually getting it done can be a severe piece of work. I did not bother with hard mode, but my friend did and I watched all of their sheer ANGUISH unfold in that long process. It was kind of scary.
So overall Where's Waldo NES is the best game of all time and I think todd howard should run for president alongside Sonic Blast in 2024. Something that looks like it would be funny to play for kicks but it really is just kind of miserable.
Addendum july 2022: You can fucking rotate the subway blocks with B we're both stupid as dick
MJ_
1 year ago