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Sneaking, jumping, teamwork, and small rodents - sounds like either a weekend in college or the new game based on the animated summer flick Over the Hedge. Can it be someone turned a summer movie into a decent game? Read the review to find out.
The Unspoken Terror
Movie-based Tie-In Game. Never has a phrase existed that puts fear in the hearts of gamers like this one. Horrible games based on movies have become a tradition in gaming. As common as Rob Zombie songs in PlayStation 1 racing games, bad movie games go back as far as E.T. for the Atari 2600 and have never let up. While there are a few rare glimmers of hope, most movie-based games are poster children for poor, rushed game design. Knowing that not only is Over the Hedge a movie tie-in, but it's a movie tie-in based on a kid's movie on a handheld system, chances are you have already done one of two things: You are either going towards the back button on your browser out of fear, or you're scrolling down to see just how low a score Over the Hedge has earned. Here's the real shocker: Over the Hedge is an excellent game. With that said, please pick your jaw up off the floor and read on.
This would be a good time to run.
Fun with Squirrels
The first thing about Over the Hedge that deserves immediate recognition is that the game looks very nice. Thus far on the Nintendo DS, any 3D platformer not made by Nintendo themselves has been a mess, featuring terrible camera angles, poor textures and shoddy framerates (I'm looking at you, Rayman). Over the Hedge breaks that mold entirely. The game is bright and colorful, moves at a steady, smooth framerate, and is easily the best non-Nintendo made platform game on the system.
Of course, you can make a game look as nice as you want, but if it plays terribly, it won't matter. Here's where things get even more interesting: Over the Hedge has one of the freshest takes on platforming in recent memory. It takes the genres of puzzlers, stealth and platforming and twists them together in a game that takes the best features of Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid and the Lost Vikings and somehow mixes them into a cohesive, fun package. The levels all have similar goals, basically sneak into a location, steal something and get back out. However, just like roadtrips to giant twineballs or camping out for tickets to a Golden Girls reunion, getting there is half the fun.
The path to the items you need are riddled with traps, puzzles, and farting dogs. In one level, you might be climbing the face of a bookcase using a squirrel; in another, you might be blowing into the microphone to distract a dog so you can remove a bulldozer's sparkplugs. The challenge lies in not only finding how to get to the item you seek, but also in not being spotted doing so. The touch screen is used as an overhead map (similar to the radar view in Metal Gear Solid) and also to switch between team members. The team members each have their own strengths and weaknesses and are best in certain situations. The teamwork aspect plays out alot like the classic game The Lost Vikings except with less mustached Norwegians.
Nothing says stealth like a turtle
What is really amazing about Over the Hedge isn't that it has good puzzles or decent platforming, or that it has solid stealth gameplay and uses teamwork. What is amazing is that it combines them all so well and makes such a great overall package. Like the smooth combination of freezing and yogurt come together to make frogurt, the game styles melt together and end up forming one seamless experience. Over the Hedge is also one of the only games that uses stealth gameplay that does not contain headshots or planting plastic explosives on people and thus deserves some recognition for that as well.
This is not My Beautiful House
Over the Hedge is not without its faults. The main problem with the game lies in the repetitive design of the houses you break into. While each house does have a unique floorplan, the contents of the rooms such as the appliances and furniture get repeated frequently between homes. The result is that all the levels seem to blend in together. While there are always new things to do from level to level, it would have been nice if there were new things to see.
Even with that flaw in mind, Over the Hedge is a remarkably solid game. There is something in there for just about any gamer (except maybe gamers who like Japanese dating sims, but they're creepy, so they don't count). A great graphics engine, inventive use of teamwork and nice level design make it a solid choice for a gamer who has already played the five star first party releases on the DS. Over the Hedge is a recommended buy that is very likely to slip under the radar of many gamers.
