Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts! (gamezone)

- gamezone -

When the cable goes out, even a squirrel does what any normal red-blooded cable user would do – freak out and then find out why the signal went bye-bye, and get it back on as quickly as possible.

One thing leads to another and in concert with some of Hammy’s friends, they find out the house they were stealing the cable signal from has an animal trapped inside. The animal is Boris the Beaver. Once they set the beaver free, the group treks through suburbia to collect food and other items, ostensibly to help Boris get what he needs to build the greatest dam ever.

Ok, lots of pretense for a game that is basically an arcade selection of sports mini games. But then what do you expect from a game like Over The Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts for the Game Boy Advance? There are four modes of play – the story mode, challenge, arcade and multiplayer. The challenge mode is the story mode with more difficult puzzles and restrictions; arcade mode uses the same minigames with players vying to record the highest score; multiplayer is a turn-based version of the arcade game using one Game Boy Advance.

Activision and Vicarious Visions are behind this title, which features 30 levels of gaming and nine available playable characters. Each of the levels can have moveable objects, bumpers, cushions, timed obstacles, animal’s holes, triggered gates and sleeping dogs that will suck in and blow out any golf balls that get close enough.

As the game is generally geared for the younger crowd, what better source of information than a younger gamer. For that, GZ asked Emma, age 10, to play the game and give an assessment. Here is her report:

“Hammy is helping a new friend, Boris the Beaver, to get food and supplies. To do that Hammy has to play a lot of golf in humans' backyards, their house, in the living room, hitting the baby with the golf ball. You also hit this giant robot thingy with his boomerang. There are three controls to it. Hammy has to hit the controls with his boomerang so the trap won’t go off and hurt his friends. Technically, it is a laser trying to hurt his friends.

“The golf game starts out really easy and gets harder. It’s like putt-putt, sort of. There are lots of different obstacles. It will tell you all the buttons you will need to press. It has really good instructions.

“The look of the game is really good. The colors are really good, and the way it moves is really good. The sound is very good. You can hear it very well. You can read it very well, too.

“I like it because I like animals and this includes a lot of animals. I like watching and playing golf.”

The game is easily accessible and while it certainly won’t set the genre afire, it does have a nice feel and easy access to allow players the ability to jump right in without much effort. The sound and graphics are solid.

Not exactly a deep game, Over The Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts still should appeal to the younger gaming set. The courses are somewhat challenging and whether competing as a single player or against others, this game would make a decent little stocking stuffer.

Review Scoring Details for Over The Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts

Gameplay: 7.5
Accessible, with an easy-to-learn control scheme, this game should appeal to younger players while still providing a minor challenge for slightly older players.

Graphics: 7.5
More or less a top-down view with a free-look camera that will let you see the courses that you must navigate before playing one of the mini games. The game looks good with lush colors, and the physics work well.

Sound: 6.8
Serviceable but nothing special here.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The courses can be challenging, but once you find your line, you will be lowering your scores quickly.

Concept: 6.5
Nothing really innovative here. Give the dev team props for the easy access to the game. They made a title than anyone should be able to jump in and play.

Multiplayer: 6.8
Multiplayer on one machine – get ready to pass the GBA around. Not bad but not the best for the system.

Overall: 7.0
Simple fun and a nice little pastime on this handheld platform. The animations and overall look is nice. You will be doing a lot of reading to advance what passes as the storyline. Kids should enjoy the game. You will see smiles and knitted brows as they try to navigate the levels. An arcade-style sports minigame title that does a decent job in entertaining the target age group.