Tuesday 14 Nov 2006

Sigh, a movie tie-in game. I will admit that at first I was dubious about playing this game and in fact kept putting it off, believing that I had better games to occupy my time with. But when at last I did get round to it I was more than pleasantly surprised, I was downright flabbergasted!

I think the main difference between this game and other movie tie-in games is that the storyline of Over The Hedge is only roughly based on the movie. Obviously it draws a lot of inspiration from the movie, but the movie plot is completed during the first few missions of the game, and from there on in everything is new!

Missions involving cotton candy machines

There are 35 missions which you have to complete. Each one is begun with a cinematic opening sequence which explains what tasks a player needs to complete in order to advance in the game. At the end of each mission the characters will return to the hedge, where players can investigate the items which they have stolen from the humans, ranging from the obvious food items to a popcorn machine, a cotton candy machine and a movie projector. Players approach a pinboard where they can select the next mission or elect to play a mini-game.

But maybe I am getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning. The premise is the same, ie that the animal mates that live over the hedge need to break into the human’s yards and houses in order to steal food and fill their log, so that they can make it through the winter. Players can select two of four characters to play with, namely RJ the Raccoon, Stella the Skunk, Verne the Tortoise or Hammy the Squirrel. Basically this means that two characters will complete the mission - players can select which character to control, but can alternate between the two characters during the mission. What adds an interesting dynamic to the game is that it supports multiplayer and two players can play at the same time – twice the fun!

“All this fuss over us? I just don’t get humans.”

Now we get to the really fun part…the characters begin the game armed with golf clubs, but can collect guns and other items to fight with as the game progresses. The sight of Verne armed with a golf club had me in stitches but I was actually rolling on the floor when after a few minutes of being inactive he began to balance the golf club on his nose. Classic! The characters must venture into the unknown territories of the humans, which have been kitted out with various devices to prevent the great outdoors and the wild from entering their sanctuaries, for instance tazers, laser beams and sleeping gas.

Enter the exterminator aka the Sniffer, who in his endeavours to protect the human neighbourhood, has developed mind caps which control other backyard critters in fighting the hedge mates. And so it is that the attack of the rats begins – the only difference is that these are no ordinary rats – they are armed with rolling pins and never have rats with rolling pins looked so fierce!