Game Boy Advance

Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts

Hammy Goes Nuts! is a great example of licensed games getting better and not running along traditional lines. The mini-golf theme is perfect for the Over the Hedge characters and their silly irreverence comes across nicely. Sure, the game doesn't really represent events in the movie or follow the story. My problem with licensed games is that they rarely add anything to the license. If I wanted to see the movie again, I would just add it to my Netflix queue... Hammy Goes Nuts! actually does bring something new to the movie and makes for a fun game experience.

Simple fun and a nice little pastime on this handheld platform. The animations and overall look is nice. You will be doing a lot of reading to advance what passes as the storyline. Kids should enjoy the game. You will see smiles and knitted brows as they try to navigate the levels. An arcade-style sports minigame title that does a decent job in entertaining the target age group.

Hammy Goes Nuts is not what people would expect an Over the Hedge game to be. It's innovative, which is nice since license games can get particularly stale. The game is very cute and vibrant, and the characters are all designed well enough to actually be able to tell exactly who they are. The game starts to get repetitive though, and at times it's like the game is playing itself with how crazy it gets. Still, there's a lot to do, with the different modes and multiplayer. Hammy Goes Nuts is definitely worth a look, for people that don't mind a game that's a little nuts.

Wer die ersten Missionen durchgenudelt und einen Löffel voll animiertem Spielspaß in sich aufgesogen hat, sollte wenig Motivation aufbringen, um mit vollem Elan weiterzugolfen und sich zum zigsten Mal von den schwachsinnigen Aufgaben berieseln zu lassen. Positiv hervorzugeben wären die zahlreichen Modi und die niedlichen Animationstierchen, die dem Kinofilm in seinem Stil schon sehr nahe kommen, aber warum beschränkt man sich denn engstirnig nur auf diese verspielte Golferei? Da ist die Langeweile ja vorprogrammiert... Vielleicht sollte angesichts einer definitiv nicht unmöglichen Kaufempfehlung noch gesagt werden, dass Filmfans und kleinere Gameboy-Spieler mit starkem Knobeldrang einen Blick riskieren würden. Alle anderen lassen den GBA und Hammy in ihren jeweiligen Mottenkisten liegen und spielen derweil mit einem anderen Handheld bzw. einer nützlicheren Freizeitbeschäftigung.

L'originalité n'est sans doute pas ce qu'on attendrait d'une adaptation de long métrage d'animation, elle est pourtant là. Le jeu est simpliste mais peut se targuer d'apporter une certaine fraîcheur au joueur. Un jeu de mini-golf enfantin qui distraira les plus petits, et sans doute les plus grands un peu curieux.

It really is pretty cool that Activision, Vicarious Visions and DreamWorks came up with this idea of using putt-putt golf for this latest release – it is a cute concept, and it is functionally fine. It only stinks that the gameplay becomes a blur of tedious monotony after such a short period of time. If you were to ask my five-year-old daughter, Mieke, she would tell you that the game was really cool and a lot of fun. But then again, she doesn’t quite grasp the concept how her +23 does not beat out my +3, so you have to take her recommendation with a grain of salt.

Don’t confuse the GBA version of Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts with the other versions for other gaming platforms; this one is the bitmap-based mini-golf game. From the disappointingly generic artwork to the charming-but-repetitive music, the GBA version of the game comes across as a rather ordinary golf game that relies heavily on its associated movie license. While probably amusing for fans of the movie, the game itself is unspectacular in terms of production values and gameplay, meaning the game probably won’t have much longevity once the novelty wears off.