Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts
No, Hammy goes down in flames.
Published: December 16, 2006
Licensed games are the bane of my existence. I hate that too often the stereotype of rushed, hacked-together designs with the latest kids' movie slapped on the box holds up, and I hate even more that they actually sell because of clueless consumers. Hammy Goes Nuts features characters from the Over the Hedge flick, but like the PS2 game released a few months ago, there's really nothing of substance here, and unlike the PS2 big brother, the control and level designs are a joke.
Here at TotalPlayStation, we usually lump games that can be broken down pretty quickly into Mini-Reviews, but honestly, I can't think of enough words to fill even one of those, so we're going to do this magazine-style. A fistful of paragraphs that basically boil down to one simple statement: don't buy this game. Seriously.
The single-player game is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from a licensed platformer; bland level designs with the basic idea of a heist-style set of objectives where you switch off between players. Of the three available, Hammy is the only one that actually feels like he affords any level of entertainment due to some fun little "Hammy Time" moments where he's all hopped up on caffeine and can slow time or skip across water. The other two, raccoon RJ and turtle Verne are mainly combat and semi-stealth setups, and they're just yawn-inducingly boring to play as.
At least developer Amaze tried to make the game a social experience. If you're unlucky enough to find someone else with a copy of the game and a PSP, you can both sob quietly while holding each other before launching into an admittedly fun CTF-style Ad-Hoc set of challenges with typical power-ups. Five modes share the same basic goal of grabbing stuff and returning it to home, but some of the modes, like Tag, are actually decent enough with multiple players to get hectic since you're supposed to grab as many objects in the level as possible without getting tapped by whoever's it. Tag, along with Hedgeball (items must be returned to a specific base color) have team-based options, but there's only support for up to four players. Heist is just a free-for-all.
See? Magazine-style! Here's the bottom line, though: it's crap. Don't buy it, since you'll probably never find someone else who has the game to enjoy the multiplayer, and there's literally no reason to suffer through the single-player at all. The visuals are blah, the voice acting merely passable (much like the PS2 game), and the controls are weak sauce. Trust me, you want to pass on this one.
Here at TotalPlayStation, we usually lump games that can be broken down pretty quickly into Mini-Reviews, but honestly, I can't think of enough words to fill even one of those, so we're going to do this magazine-style. A fistful of paragraphs that basically boil down to one simple statement: don't buy this game. Seriously.
The single-player game is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from a licensed platformer; bland level designs with the basic idea of a heist-style set of objectives where you switch off between players. Of the three available, Hammy is the only one that actually feels like he affords any level of entertainment due to some fun little "Hammy Time" moments where he's all hopped up on caffeine and can slow time or skip across water. The other two, raccoon RJ and turtle Verne are mainly combat and semi-stealth setups, and they're just yawn-inducingly boring to play as.
At least developer Amaze tried to make the game a social experience. If you're unlucky enough to find someone else with a copy of the game and a PSP, you can both sob quietly while holding each other before launching into an admittedly fun CTF-style Ad-Hoc set of challenges with typical power-ups. Five modes share the same basic goal of grabbing stuff and returning it to home, but some of the modes, like Tag, are actually decent enough with multiple players to get hectic since you're supposed to grab as many objects in the level as possible without getting tapped by whoever's it. Tag, along with Hedgeball (items must be returned to a specific base color) have team-based options, but there's only support for up to four players. Heist is just a free-for-all.
See? Magazine-style! Here's the bottom line, though: it's crap. Don't buy it, since you'll probably never find someone else who has the game to enjoy the multiplayer, and there's literally no reason to suffer through the single-player at all. The visuals are blah, the voice acting merely passable (much like the PS2 game), and the controls are weak sauce. Trust me, you want to pass on this one.
