Curious George (video game)

Curious George
As if Ted finding that monkey wasn't insulting enough...
Protagonist(s): Curious George Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Nintendo GameCube Xbox PlayStation 2 Game Boy Advance Microsoft Windows Release: February 1, 2006 Engine: Vicious Engine Developer(s): Monkey Bar Games Torus Games (GBA) Publisher(s): Namco Country: United States Series: Curious George

Curious George is a 2006 platform game based on the 2006 film of the same name, which in turn, is based off the children's book series of the same name. It was developed by Monkey Bar Games and published by Namco.

Plot

The plot is the same as the 2006 movie.

Not So-Curious Qualities

1. The graphics look terrible; they look like something out of a fifth generation game. Even games such as Rayman Raving Rabbids, Viva Piñata, Kirby Air Ride, and Rockstar's Bully look better in comparison.
2. Horribly stiff controls, especially on the jumping. The double jump becomes inactive after you press the jump button after one second, it should be an easy no-problem thing, but no, that means you have to press it away after you press the jump button. This is due to the engine (Vicious Engine) having an issue with double jumping.
3. In the part where you have to stay on the roof-tops in order to not be seen, there's an invisible wall- no wait, it's just this one randomly open pathway, how are you ever going to see it? You might just walk right past it.
4. Extremely short length of gameplay, can be simply beaten in under one hour.
5. Repetitive, on-loop music.
   • Heitor Pereira (the composer of the movie) and Jack Johnson (the songs from the movie) didn't return to compose the OST and the songs for the game.
6. Crappy FMV cutscenes, ripped from the movie and re-voiced.
7. The mini-games are boring, simple, pointless, and repetitive at the same time.
8. These characters such as Ted, Curious George, and other characters just don't transfer that well to 3D.
9. There's not much you can do with the controls than just jump, curiosity pointing, and crawling.
10. Bad lip-syncing with the gameplay.
11. There is even product placement for Dole on the banana crates in the ship levels, which feels jarring for a Curious George video game.
12. The GBA version requires you to use passwords in order to save, which is a very inconvenient way just for the player to save their progress.
13. The GBA version also has bonus stages where the player must collect all of the fireflies before the timer runs out. However, the problem is that the game does not give you enough time do so.
14. The PC version uses Starforce DRM, which is just an awful copy protection scheme.

Curious Qualities

1. Some of the levels are fun to play.
2. The game is surprisingly challenging for its target audience.
3. Although the music can be repetitive, it is at least kind of catchy.
4. It is at least faithful to the movie it's based on.
5. Despite looking terrible, the cel-shaded graphics look like the movie it's based on.
6. The Game Boy Advance version has as a surprisingly decent soundtrack compared to the home console versions.
7. Decent voice acting, at least Frank Welker and David Cross did reprise their roles from the movie, and the performances are good for George and the film's main villain, Junior. Also, Keith Ferguson does make a pretty good performance as Ted.

Trivia

• False advertising: The Nintendo DS and PSP versions were listed on the game's website, but were eventually cancelled.
• Namco wanted Will Ferrell and the original voice actors (Drew Barrymore, Eugene Levy, Dick Van Dyke, and Joan Plowright) to reprise their roles as Ted, Maggie Dunlop, Clovis, Mr. Bloomsberry, and Ms. Plushbottom respectively, but Will Ferrell and the original voice actors from the movie didn't return in this game and this did not come to fruition.
• The game was released 9 days before the actual film was even released in the United States.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average reviews" on all platforms.

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