Like the movie it's based on - cute and inoffensive, but definitely made for someone younger than me. That was true at the time this came out, and it's more than doubly true now. If you played this as a really little kid, this was probably okay, but definitely the lesser product compared to the movie (which, you could get tickets for with proof of this game's purchase? Don't see that much anymore).
There's so little to the game that it hardly feels worth the critical examination, but there are a couple things to point out. It's a 3D platformer with a double jump. That double jump is rarely necessary, but it's a nice gesture for kids still figuring out 3D video games. Problem is, it's one of those double jumps where you have to hit the second jump right away. Took me a bit to adjust, since I'm used to hitting a double jump at either the apex of my first jump or at the last moment to salvage a bad jump. I'm not sure I get the point of doing it like that. If you have to hit the second jump right away, just make the first jump twice as high. It'd look funny, maybe, having George bound everywhere like a frog, but it's more transparent about what you're supposed to do.
The game is intercut with five mini-games. Of these, one is a direct repeat, so you have four unique mini-games. But I'll be honest, three of those unique mini-games feel pretty much the same. You have to tap buttons as they move through indicators on the screen. One's just doing it horizontally, one at a time, as George does a slow series of cute little dances. The other two are vertically ascending and involve different degrees of lane management (with the D-pad! Very dastardly on GameCube). The only other one is the firefly-catching one, which just involves running around a 3D space. Felt less like a mini-game than some of the standard level gimmicks, like the stealth levels or the balloon gliding one.
Little thing, but the game also breaks up its levels with movie clips - pretty standard for this type of film tie-in game. You can tell they had the rights to the animation, but not the audio, since they rerecorded the Man in the Yellow Hat's lines (probably since they couldn't afford Will Ferrell, and they wanted to keep his voice acting consistent between gameplay and video), and they redubbed the music. I'm particularly bummed about that second thing, since that means there's no "People Watching". Of everything, that song's the thing that stuck with me most from the movie, and I was all hyped up to see that sequence again. I get it, but too bad.
I also forgot that Dole sponsored the movie. Very odd to see product placement in something like this game. Definitely did not remember Carvel being involved, either.
There's so little to the game that it hardly feels worth the critical examination, but there are a couple things to point out. It's a 3D platformer with a double jump. That double jump is rarely necessary, but it's a nice gesture for kids still figuring out 3D video games. Problem is, it's one of those double jumps where you have to hit the second jump right away. Took me a bit to adjust, since I'm used to hitting a double jump at either the apex of my first jump or at the last moment to salvage a bad jump. I'm not sure I get the point of doing it like that. If you have to hit the second jump right away, just make the first jump twice as high. It'd look funny, maybe, having George bound everywhere like a frog, but it's more transparent about what you're supposed to do.
The game is intercut with five mini-games. Of these, one is a direct repeat, so you have four unique mini-games. But I'll be honest, three of those unique mini-games feel pretty much the same. You have to tap buttons as they move through indicators on the screen. One's just doing it horizontally, one at a time, as George does a slow series of cute little dances. The other two are vertically ascending and involve different degrees of lane management (with the D-pad! Very dastardly on GameCube). The only other one is the firefly-catching one, which just involves running around a 3D space. Felt less like a mini-game than some of the standard level gimmicks, like the stealth levels or the balloon gliding one.
Little thing, but the game also breaks up its levels with movie clips - pretty standard for this type of film tie-in game. You can tell they had the rights to the animation, but not the audio, since they rerecorded the Man in the Yellow Hat's lines (probably since they couldn't afford Will Ferrell, and they wanted to keep his voice acting consistent between gameplay and video), and they redubbed the music. I'm particularly bummed about that second thing, since that means there's no "People Watching". Of everything, that song's the thing that stuck with me most from the movie, and I was all hyped up to see that sequence again. I get it, but too bad.
I also forgot that Dole sponsored the movie. Very odd to see product placement in something like this game. Definitely did not remember Carvel being involved, either.