George, George, George of the jungle
With the game being aimed at kids, you’d expect the actual difficulty level to be pretty low and in most areas it is. The controls are nice and simple, with just movement, jump, special action and use buttons being easily remembered for kids to use. Where it does fall down though is in the timing needed for some of the actions being ever so slightly off. Dodgy timing would be a source of frustration for mature gamers and this goes doubly so for younger gamers as they just don’t ‘get’ the idea of it being the game’s fault and not theirs. Thankfully, places where timing is of the essence are rare so my nine-year old managed to get quite far with only a little help from me.
Like all 3D platformers, the camera was always going to be the one that would be hardest to get right and Madagascar is no exception. In the main, the camera does the job, but it lags just that little bit too far behind the action making it a pain at times. Although the camera can be manually controlled, constantly adjusting the camera is a pain, especially in the faster, action orientated sections.
The game has a nicely balanced variation of platforming, stealth, racing and action game styles, all mixed in together to give kids plenty to keep them amused. There’s even a touch of Frogger in here too. It has to be said that the mix of playing styles can catch the younger gamers unawares, leaving them a tad confused as to what to do. Fortunately, dying in Madagascar means nothing more than going back to the last save point and not the end of the game, so if they fluff it up, kids won’t be too worried. The difficulty is balanced just right with even the tricky parts being just tricky enough to be challenging without being so hard as to not make a little more progress each time.
