There’s nothing
cuter than little forest animals, right? And … there’s nothing cuter than that
than making them talk and get into little goofy situations, right? Well,
Dreamworks recently released the movie Over the Hedge, and seeing as how I have
two kids of my own, it’s only natural that I get to spend a Saturday afternoon
shuffling through large lines and juggling popcorn and cokes to go and see it.
Overall, it was a funny movie, with some grown-up humor tossed in, about a group
of creatures who have to fight to find food and avoid traps when a new housing
development gets built while they’re hibernating, and naturally there’s always a
video game to follow when you have a Disney or Dreamworks computer-animated
movie released.
Over the Hedge
for PS2 loosely follows the storyline for the movie, and adds in new bad guys
and some areas that weren’t in the film. You get to have two characters from the
movie onscreen at one time that you can switch back and forth from, each with
their own unique talents in getting into (or out of) trouble. For example, Hammy
the squirrel carries a boomerang that you can use to hit enemies when they get
close or hold the circle button to target and toss from a distance. In addition,
you can also grab some additional weapons to use, like ping-pong ball launchers
or an ice launcher, or grab powerups like pizza, candy, or DVD’s to unlock extra
stuff.
The gameplay is
pretty standard to a third-person adventure game, with the left stick
controlling the character and the X button jumping, double jumping, etc., and as
in many of these types of games each level usually has a main objective to
complete with a couple of bonus objectives that you can complete, like avoiding
all streetlights, which also unlock some new stuff or do things like give you
new hats that you can wear in order to get a health boost or something like
that. Along the way, you’ll find yourself dodging the exterminator, looking for
lost friends, and fighting lots of enemies, many of which come from Gauntlet
style generators that only stop producing bad guys when they are destroyed.
After each level, you will be returned back to the woods on the other side of
the hedge where you select the next mission, replay your current mission, or go
and play a mini game like breaking objects with a boomerang or racing RC cars.
While this may
sound good for this style of game, there are a couple of problems that keep it
from being the title that it probably could have been. For starters, there is no
camera control at all. In each area, you are forced to use the camera angle that
the game decides is the best one for you to use, and many times it can cause
death or do-overs when dealing with things like lasers that you have to jump
over but can barely see, and it also causes some problems with getting to areas
to find secret items simply because you don’t know that they are there since you
can’t look around.
Another issue
with the game is the fact that you can literally use any character you want all
the way through the game without changing, and while that’s not really a bad
thing … it kind of defeats the whole purpose of giving each character different
weapons and abilities since you don’t need to use one or the other for anything
special. Maybe they did this so you could simply play as your favorite two
characters, but it would have been a nice addition to have some small puzzles or
something like that (other than shooting or hitting golf balls at an enemy)
which required you to use one or the other to mix it up a little bit and make it
feel a little more like there was some diversity to the whole thing. In
addition, the second AI character doesn’t react the best, and will often wander
off or get stuck leaving you to fend for yourself.
All this being
said, there is a lot to unlock like mini games, videos, and production art, and
while there may not be enough to this game to keep Moms and Dads interested for
a long time, this game should definitely keep younger fans of the movie
entertained for a while. If you’re looking to pick up a game that has some solid
third-person elements and can overlook some of the problems, especially the
fixed camera issue, then this isn’t a bad game to try out. I’d recommend a
rental prior to purchase.
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Gameplay: 6.7
There are a
lot of good elements in Over the Hedge, like a variety of weapons and a mix of
level objectives and unlockables, but there’s not enough individuality in each
character to need to use them all. In addition, the fixed camera causes periodic
issues with figuring out where some bonus things may be and caused the AI buddy
to get stuck.
Graphics: 7.5
The graphics
in Over the Hedge actually looked really nice on the PS2. The levels that you
interact with were decent, but in many areas you may feel somewhat corralled
since a lot of it is 2-D static blocked from exploration by an invisible wall.
The characters were good representations of the movie characters though, and
fans of the film will get a kick out of playing with their favorite animal.
Sound: 7.4
Overall, the
sound wasn’t too bad. It’s a mix of little cartoony sounds that you’d expect
from a game based on a Dreamworks animation movie, and the character voices were
good even though the original actors would have made it a lot better. There’s
also an original score and an appearance of the song Wild Wild Life by the
Talking Heads.
Difficulty: Medium
The game has a
lot to unlock and isn’t going to get beat in an evening, but the age and
experience of the gamer will decide how hard it will be. It may be a little
difficult for younger players, but may be easy for older gamers.
Concept: 7.0
The game
definitely isn’t one of those thrown together titles that you find with a lot of
games based on animated movies, but there’s a lot more that could have been done
to make it a little better overall and fix some of the issues that kept it from
being really good.
Multiplayer: 6.1
There aren’t
really enough mini games to make a lot of multiplayer fun, and adding a lot more
of them would have made the game a lot better for those wanting to play with
others.
Overall: 6.8
While the game
isn’t perfect, what game really is? In all seriousness, the game will provide a
good deal of fun for younger fans of the film, even though older kids may not
find it to be as entertaining. If you’re thinking of picking it up, try a rental
first.
