This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

Bad games tend to have a lot in common: poor targeting, repetitiveness, dull characters, flat storylines, some poor to mediocre visuals, a lack of variety, a very big problem with pacing, clichés, and – very often – they happen to be based on movies. Kids’ movies, more widely known as merchandizing opportunities. A way to force parents into buying cute little mass-marketed lunch boxes at Wal-Mart while they’re stocking up on groceries, cheap t-shirts, and videogames based on film properties like Over the Hedge, Activision and Dreamworks’ gaming spin on the CG movie of the same name. When gamers complain that almost any title based on a movie, and especially a children’s movie, is going to bore you out of your mind, they’re referring to games like Over the Hedge, which take a film property and drive it into the ground in a desperate attempt to milk the sucker. For the sake of your sanity, look elsewhere for your action/platforming needs.

Over the Hedge contains a simple plot: you’re initial task is to steal food from humans in order to save up enough grub for the winter. To this end, you’ll leap over lasers, avoid roving lights, flip switches, slay hundreds of fuzzy foes, and dodge light traffic. There’s a slight twist at the end, which has you rushing off to put a stop to the maniac controlling the local wildlife (and saving a friend, while you’re at it), but for the most part things are kept simple in Over the Hedge. The simplicity enables the title to capitalize on its cast: RJ, the stupidly confident raccoon; Stella, the opinionated skunk; Hammy, the insane squirrel; and Verne... the paranoid and yet mostly average turtle. Other characters from the film are present, including the fainting possums, the porcupine family, the giant bear, and one very annoying blue jay. As you fight through the various sections of each level, each primary character (along with his partner) lets fly numerous quips and comments, which immerses the player into the film’s universe – to a degree.

The game’s greatest strength lies in its multiple enemies, including nasty rats with tasers, large gophers, moles lobbing grenades, viscous badgers, maddened bear cubs, idiot humans, and rolling armadillos that aim to crush everything in their path. For variety’s sake, each level features several diversions, which can range from gathering delicacies for the food cart and protecting the cart on its way back to the hedge to hitting all the targets at the next shooting gallery. Many of the foes make use of technological gadgets, like orange guns (these would be guns that shoot oranges), tennis ball guns (again, guns that shoot tennis balls), bubble guns (sensing a pattern...), ice guns, fire guns, plungers, baseball bats, rockets, and shovels. Each character from the main cast boasts his own weapon of choice as well as a distance attack; RJ, the golfer, rains golf balls on your head while Stella tosses frisbees at an alarming rate. Regular attacks all boil down to a single, sure-fire combo, accomplished via repeated mashing of the attack button. Each character also sports a special energy attack, an energy/swing attack, and the always-convenient ability to double-jump.

For kicks, you can collect a cute hat from each level. The hats temporarily grant you a health bonus until an opponent knocks you down. For more fun, the game includes a multiplayer mode that enables two players to fly through the game with ease, though the AI partner – surprisingly – isn’t too shabby, either. Over the Hedge also includes three self-explanatory minigames: RC racers, bumper carts, and range driver (though the latter features both inanimate and animate (animal) targets.

As far as presentation value goes, Over the Hedge makes use of decent visuals. The characters all move fluidly and appear as exact matches to their film brethren, while environments are of the standard, bland variety. The game boasts lovely skies and a high level of detail, down to the blue haze of electrical wires and the colorful ferris wheel in the background of two stages. The CG cutscenes, though extremely short, are pleasant (even more so with the audio off) and graphical effects, like explosions, are as bright and fiery as you’d expect. The bubble-ice-orange-tennis ball weaponry also provides some playful and interesting aesthetic visuals. As for the soundtrack, you essentially get a stable loop of mediocre tunes that, while far from fascinating, never get too annoying, either. The voice cast also consists of voiceactors who do a fine job of mimicking the likes of Bruce Willis, Wanda Sykes, and Garry Shandling.

Those who love their movie-games to feature a plethora of extras won’t be disappointed with Over the Hedge, as playing through the game and collecting CDs unlocks comic books, “movies” (cutscenes and character animations... spinning in a circle), music, and concept art.

When it comes to being a videogame critic, there are the times when you’re (finally!) able to experience the highest forms of electronic entertainment on the best units this industry has ever seen, and then there are the games you imagine the evil genius in Saw using to tempt his victims into suicide. Over the Hedge is merely a mediocre action/platformer based on a film, and in some spots, it’s even worse.

For starters, the game features extremely confusing level design. Some segments are easy to plow through, while others leave you dazed and surrounded as you try to determine the next destination. The level design is made worse and more frustrating by the fixed camera, which will pain you every step of the way. As you’re unable to spin the camera around to scan the area, it becomes difficult to judge the correct depth for jumps (and when you’re a quasi-platformer, this is a very bad thing). The camera will also trick you into traps (cages, nets... lawn gnomes filled with spikes) because you can’t move it around to see what’s in front of you.

Those who were expecting even a coherent, perhaps slightly innovative plot should look elsewhere, as the game’s storyline is so jumpy that it leaves you with little idea of what’s going on or why you’re bothering to do anything at all. The 15 second cutscenes pop up, give a summary of objectives, and then pop out. If you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll be clueless as to who/what the other characters are with the exception of the main cast, and that’s only because of commercials and the fact that they’re on the box. To worsen the problem, Over the Hedge is plagued with repetitive, annoying, nonsensical lines. “You’ve just been raccooned!” is about as bad as you can get. Again, this is money better spent elsewhere.

Another big problem is the high level of boredom you’re bound to get from this title. The environments may change (though they don’t change much), but you’re performing the same actions and avoiding the same obstacles and killing (mostly) the same foes no matter where you go, all to acquire leisurely devices or animals captured during the acquisition of leisurely devices – and all to that cheap 15 second cutscene that throws you into the action. Even the combos are flat, as the game is primarily a button masher and it takes at least three combos to knock out the simplest of enemies.

Over the Hedge also has a significant problem with pacing. During the diversion segments – shooting galleries, protecting the food cart, dodging vehicles – the action slows to the point of insanity. There are also areas where you’re forced to slaughter dozens upon dozens of annoying critters in order to open the exit/next destination; unfortunately for anyone masochistic enough to play this game, this usually requires several rounds of the same opponents and combos. When a stage is 15 minutes long and five of those minutes are spent in a shooting gallery and the next five pummeling a giant pink castle, it’s time to speed things up.

One of the game’s more unique features is the ability to pick up items (statues) and then drop them at a hot spot, which gives you access to the next exit. The same mechanics are used during the “grab the loot” phases, when you’re tossing food outside to the cart. In one such sequence I encountered two kitchen cabinets too close together, as when I hit the circle button to open the door and circle again to pick up the food, the game decided that I meant to toss a frisbee (again, via the circle button). Then the door would close and I’d have to perform the set of actions again, only the next time the cabinet on the other side would open when the food I needed was in the cabinet in front of me – and these sections are timed. Because the game couldn’t understand my commands, I repeated this sequence three times before I figured out that I had to push my character almost inside the cabinet she was facing to grab the grub. I don’t know about you, but when I open my fridge I don’t have to jump inside in order to pull something out.

Over the Hedge also suffers from bugs and lag. In many sequences you can’t gain access to the next destination without killing everything in sight, and sometimes one of these opponents will vanish (I had one disappear into a cave wall) or get stuck (again, an armadillo got caught in some shrubbery). Some opponents are also able to knock you into corners and then slowly beat you to death, as you’re unable to move or attack. As for lag, there are segments when the camera pans back too far to give you a full view of what you’re doing (although letting me move the camera would accomplish this better); this action, paired with multiple enemies and often poor level design, creates lag and – worse yet – confusion, because you lose out on the details directly in front of your character to see what’s on the opposite end. Logical, that.

The AI for your partner, which I mentioned earlier, is good enough to get the job done and a lot more functional and useful than I’ve seen in other (good) games, but still has a few sore spots. Sometimes your partner will get stuck several screens behind you and you’ll have to switch over to get him caught up to your primary character; this is very annoying when you’re too lazy to bother, as if your primary dies then it’s five screens back to your secondary and a lovely walk through areas you’ve already been. What fun.

Distance attacks, which could have freshened the gameplay and sped up the pace, easily become cumbersome. As your attack reticule targets whatever’s closest to you, you’ll often have to forcibly pull it from the undesired target just to position it on the bad guy just out of reach. Then there are the times when you’re firing off golf balls and they’ll just bounce off the air or go in the opposite direction, sometimes even directly into the camera – and I know we all love inefficiency.

Over the Hedge is nothing but a mediocre button masher with weak combos, boring platform gameplay, frustrating mechanics, and minigames you’ll only enjoy if you’re evil enough to force a friend to play along – and it’s based on a film. The soundtrack isn’t too bad, and the visuals are appropriate, but the presentation is offset by confusing level design, bland objectives, and the fact that you’re pushed from one level to the next without a morsel of plot, characterization, or depth to connect the dots. All I can say is that I want those seven hours of my life back. Now.

It’s functional, but it’s incredibly boring, repetitive, and annoying.

Again with the mediocrity. Character design is apt. Level design is not. Decent CG.

Mediocre as far as mediocre can go. It won’t drive you crazy, but the dialogue will.

If you’re into self-torture or under five years old, maybe for a half hour. Maybe.

Why? The extras are as dull as single-player and multiplayer modes. The minigames are so-so.