There’s nothing cuter than little forest animals, right? And … there’s nothing cuter than that than making them talk and get into little goofy situations, right? Well, Dreamworks recently released the movie Over the Hedge, and seeing as how I have two kids of my own, it’s only natural that I get to spend a Saturday afternoon shuffling through large lines and juggling popcorn and cokes to go and see it. Overall, it was a funny movie, with some grown-up humor tossed in, about a group of creatures who have to fight to find food and avoid traps when a new housing development gets built while they’re hibernating, and naturally there’s always a video game to follow when you have a Disney or Dreamworks computer-animated movie released.

Over the Hedge for PS2 loosely follows the storyline for the movie, and adds in new bad guys and some areas that weren’t in the film. You get to have two characters from the movie onscreen at one time that you can switch back and forth from, each with their own unique talents in getting into (or out of) trouble. For example, Hammy the squirrel carries a boomerang that you can use to hit enemies when they get close or hold the circle button to target and toss from a distance. In addition, you can also grab some additional weapons to use, like ping-pong ball launchers or an ice launcher, or grab powerups like pizza, candy, or DVD’s to unlock extra stuff.

The gameplay is pretty standard to a third-person adventure game, with the left stick controlling the character and the X button jumping, double jumping, etc., and as in many of these types of games each level usually has a main objective to complete with a couple of bonus objectives that you can complete, like avoiding all streetlights, which also unlock some new stuff or do things like give you new hats that you can wear in order to get a health boost or something like that. Along the way, you’ll find yourself dodging the exterminator, looking for lost friends, and fighting lots of enemies, many of which come from Gauntlet style generators that only stop producing bad guys when they are destroyed. After each level, you will be returned back to the woods on the other side of the hedge where you select the next mission, replay your current mission, or go and play a mini game like breaking objects with a boomerang or racing RC cars.  

While this may sound good for this style of game, there are a couple of problems that keep it from being the title that it probably could have been. For starters, there is no camera control at all. In each area, you are forced to use the camera angle that the game decides is the best one for you to use, and many times it can cause death or do-overs when dealing with things like lasers that you have to jump over but can barely see, and it also causes some problems with getting to areas to find secret items simply because you don’t know that they are there since you can’t look around.

Another issue with the game is the fact that you can literally use any character you want all the way through the game without changing, and while that’s not really a bad thing … it kind of defeats the whole purpose of giving each character different weapons and abilities since you don’t need to use one or the other for anything special. Maybe they did this so you could simply play as your favorite two characters, but it would have been a nice addition to have some small puzzles or something like that (other than shooting or hitting golf balls at an enemy) which required you to use one or the other to mix it up a little bit and make it feel a little more like there was some diversity to the whole thing. In addition, the second AI character doesn’t react the best, and will often wander off or get stuck leaving you to fend for yourself.

All this being said, there is a lot to unlock like mini games, videos, and production art, and while there may not be enough to this game to keep Moms and Dads interested for a long time, this game should definitely keep younger fans of the movie entertained for a while. If you’re looking to pick up a game that has some solid third-person elements and can overlook some of the problems, especially the fixed camera issue, then this isn’t a bad game to try out. I’d recommend a rental prior to purchase.

Gameplay: 6.7
There are a lot of good elements in Over the Hedge, like a variety of weapons and a mix of level objectives and unlockables, but there’s not enough individuality in each character to need to use them all. In addition, the fixed camera causes periodic issues with figuring out where some bonus things may be and caused the AI buddy to get stuck.  

Graphics: 7.5 
The graphics in Over the Hedge actually looked really nice on the PS2. The levels that you interact with were decent, but in many areas you may feel somewhat corralled since a lot of it is 2-D static blocked from exploration by an invisible wall. The characters were good representations of the movie characters though, and fans of the film will get a kick out of playing with their favorite animal.

Sound: 7.4
Overall, the sound wasn’t too bad. It’s a mix of little cartoony sounds that you’d expect from a game based on a Dreamworks animation movie, and the character voices were good even though the original actors would have made it a lot better. There’s also an original score and an appearance of the song Wild Wild Life by the Talking Heads. 

Difficulty: Medium
The game has a lot to unlock and isn’t going to get beat in an evening, but the age and experience of the gamer will decide how hard it will be. It may be a little difficult for younger players, but may be easy for older gamers.  

Concept: 7.0 
The game definitely isn’t one of those thrown together titles that you find with a lot of games based on animated movies, but there’s a lot more that could have been done to make it a little better overall and fix some of the issues that kept it from being really good.

Multiplayer: 6.1
There aren’t really enough mini games to make a lot of multiplayer fun, and adding a lot more of them would have made the game a lot better for those wanting to play with others.  

Overall: 6.8
While the game isn’t perfect, what game really is? In all seriousness, the game will provide a good deal of fun for younger fans of the film, even though older kids may not find it to be as entertaining. If you’re thinking of picking it up, try a rental first.