Over the Hedge (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

You've probably realised, now that we're half way through the year just how many animated feature films are heading to our cinemas this year and although we've already had an abundance of original offerings and sequels there's still much more to come most of which will also have a GBA or DS title to acompany it. There's PIXAR's Cars and Monster House from THQ, Ant Bully and Happy Feet from Midway not to mention Flushed Away and Barnyard later in the year. There's a great number of theories as to why this particular artform has become so popular but one thing's for sure, with the money these type of things generate, they're likely to be around for some considerable time. Obviousley with over a dozen CGI movies to choose from this year the output is going to be of varying quality although initial reviews for Over the Hedge are very favourable. Let's hope the same is true for this handheld version.

Gameplay

If you don't know the movies plot, Over the Hedge centers around a group of animals who wake up from hibanation only to find that what once was their feeding habitat is now a rather large hosing estate. The animals led by a raccoon called RJ) quickly discover that the humans have hordes of tastey food stored and for the taking as as long as they are not seen, feeding will never be a problem again. This, in short, is the whole premise of the game with each level playing out almost exactly the same. So similar in fact that there's a random level generator available on the games completion. Your first challenge is to negotiate the forrest whilst collecting as many bonus items as possible. This is essentially a cross between a maze and a puzzler with tress requiring moving (in the correct order) so as the reach the next stage. Once through, or over, the hedge you'll find yourself mixing with the humans on the pavements (or sidewalks) leading to the houses. These are heavily populated and it's important that your are not seen so hitting the stealth button will render you invisible... well, sort of and althogh, when playing as a tortoise you'll simply hide in your shell, AJ will cooly whip out a newspaper and start to read it. After this it's through the garden, avoiding cats, dogs and a variety of garden equipment and then into the house. Again here, it's important no to be seen (although everyone appears to be very short sighted) and collect all the food you can see. If someone's in the way, just distract them by switching on a light or microwave which they'll always switch off without question.

There ares some slight diversions from the above formula such as batteling a rather angry grizzly bear on top of a truck and indulging in a king of 'pong' game but these only occur once in the game and are no doubt reffering to parts of the movie. All this is done from a central hub with areas only opening once you have amassed the allotted amount of food. There's also a shop where you can buy all manor of upgrades but like most appliences you have around your own house, these are a waste of time and money.

Controls

While each character has slightly different abilities the developers have managed to keep it all very basic and if you do happen to get lost there's more than enough on-screen 'pop-up's' to point you in the right direction.

Graphics

Don't be put off by the rather weak screen shots as the visuals are this games strongest point and you will occasionally find yourself just staring at the screen in awe at the attention to detail. For starters all the animation is renderered and taken from the original character models making them move very realistic indeed. There's also the finer touches which maybe missed during the gameolay such as the humans reflections in the polished kitchen floors or the fact the the multi-paralax scrolling featuring the sidewalks and the overhandging trees create a wonderful sense of 3D gaming. If all that wasn't enough there's also a generous amount of stills from the movie which pushes the story along nicely and ties up, what is, one of the best looking GBA titles to appear for some time.

Sound

The soundtrack, while by no means inspired, is not too irritating and chnges from one location to another. The sound effects are similar and while the marority of speech is done through on screen text their are some small snatches from the voice over generally when the character is celebrating at the end of a level.

Final comments

While Over the Hege is slightly better than we've come to expect from an avareage movie tie-in it still manages to tick all the right boxes to satisfy it's intended audience: playable characters and senarios from the movie and enough visual refrences to seperate it from similar titles. Initially it's quite fun too with the films characters invading homes in order to collect food whilst attempting to appear as 'invisable' as possible. What quickly becomes apparent though is that this is the game and you'll be forced to repeat these chores until you've amassed enough food only to move on to another, very similar, set of missions. There's also little in the way of replay value (should you want to) and the absence of any mini-games does hurt the overall package. It's not the worse movie tie in we've seen, far from it in fact, it's just not very exciting.

Pro: Incredible Visuals.
Con: Repetetive Gameplay, Not Very Original.
Final score: 5.4

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