The stealthy gameplay can easily become frustrating for the younger audience the game is aimed at.
The story takes place after the events in the movie. Several animals now inhabit what's left of a forest after a new residential neighborhood came along. Among these animals are RJ the Raccoon, Verne the Turtle, and Hammy the Squirrel. But now even this tiny piece of forest is in danger, since there the animal-hater Gladys Sharp has plans to turn the area into a swimming pool.
RJ, Hammy, and Verne come up with a simple plan: attract endagered species to the forest, so it can be declared a protected area. But endangered animals seem to be a little picky, and they won't come unless RJ, Hammy and Verne get them certain items from all over the neighborhood.
Over the Hedge is a 3D platformer with a good stealth component. You spend most of the game locating certain objects in people’s houses and taking them back to the exit. Since our little creatures can only carry one thing at a time (and only Verne can lift heavy items), you have to do several trips in the same level. Sounds simple, but here is where the stealth action comes in: you have to dodge people, animals and deactivate traps in order to proceed. You can throw items to stun dogs, use certain objects to distract people (for example a phone card to place a prank call) or cats (catnip) or blow on the microphone to distract your enemies.
There are a total of 20 missions, and if you're the completist type, you will have to do it all over again to collect all the food in each level. So if you're wondering, yes, it does become a little repetitive.
Each character has a particular style of gameplay. Verne is slow and doesn't jump much, but he can hide in his shell to avoid being detected or to protect himself when he has been spotted. He can also lift the heavier items. Hammy runs faster and jumps higher than the others, making it easier to outrun people and animals. RJ is your "average" combination, but he can also pick up Verne and throw him. All of them can pull themselves onto furniture, crates and so on.
The game plays in a third-person perspective, offering two perspectives of the area at the same time. On the top screen, you have the third-person view from behind the character, while on the bottom screen you see a top-down view that shows the area you are in, your location and the sight range of any enemies. Basically, the top screen is your primary view and you use the bottom screen as a sort of map. They work really well together, and what's really impressive is that these two simultaneous 3D representations play smoothly, with no slowdowns at all.
That's not to say the game is without faults. The most annoying is probably the lack of camera control. There are some weird angles, and the camera is stuck on this perspective that shows how short your character is in relation to the world around it, so it basically aims up making it difficult to look around when you need. I experienced a few graphical glitches as well, mostly characters going through walls or objects, which usually ended up in a dog finding me and knocking me out.
I also would have liked to see more cinematic scenes. Only the first two are fully 3D animated, while the rest of the story is presented through still images (though the artwork is really good).
Soundwise, the voice acting is well done, the sound effects are spot-on for what they represent and the music is well done and adjusts according to a danger situation.
For a game aimed primarly at children, Over the Hedge is pretty challenging. The characters are cute, the environments are crisp and fairly detailed, the colors are bright and the level layouts aren’t too complicated. The challenge resides in the stealthy gameplay, which can easily become frustrating for younger gamers.
Although gameplay (pick this up, take it to the exit) may become repetitive, it's the presentation and the stealth that make Over the Hedge a sure hit and a good addition to your DS games library.
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com. Full text and screenshots at:
http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=overthehedgeds