Publisher: Activision, Inc.
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Release Date: Spring 06
ESRB rating: E (Everyone)
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Release Date: Spring 06
ESRB rating: E (Everyone)
The wacky woodland creatures from Michael Fry & T. Lewis’ beloved comic strip Over The Hedge are coming to theaters from DreamWorks SKG and your Game Boy Advance courtesy of Activision and developers Vicarious Visions. Both the strip and CGI film revolve around a group of wild animals reactions to the the suburbs invading their home.
The Game: Activision is publishing games based on the film for Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Nintendo DS and the GBA. The consoles will all be ports of the same game while the DS and the GBA will each be separate games. The GBA version will follow the story of the movie as you play though missions based on actual events from the film.
The gameplay consists of mission based levels to steal goodies from the humans in the suburbs. Using stealth capabilities and cartoon-like weaponry each level takes place in a unique location as you try to avoid the dangers of the human world. To help you along on the quests you are assisted by various other forest critters.
Characters:
- RJ the Raccoon: A slick character, RJ is a bit of a con-man using his smooth talking carefree attitude to convince his fellow animals to help him with his outrageous adventures.
- Verne the Turtle: With all his insecurities it’s a wonder how this Turtle became leader of the animal community. He does his best to speak out against the dangerous ways of the charismatic RJ.
- Stella the Skunk: A cynic with a big chip on her shoulder. She’s angry at the world for being born stinky.
Inside Look: Very little information has been released on the GBA game aside from a brief description in the press release and a handful of screenshots. What we can tell you is that RJ the raccoon and Verne the turtle are playable characters while Stella the skunk, Ozzie and Heather the possums and Lon and Penny the porcupines are not. Instead they provide you information and advice about your various missions.
Although the only release date announced has been Spring 2006 it is very likely that the game will be released day and date with the film, May 19th 2006 for North America.
It’s a disappointment that DreamWorks, Vicarious Visions and Activision chose to abandon the hilarious character designs from the Fry and Lewis comic strip, but the film itself looks very entertaining and hopefully so will the game. With very few heist/thief titles available for the GBA it will be exciting to see what Vicarious Visions does with it. After they successfully integrated stealth into the Batman Begins GBA game, they are a strong choice as a developer for this title.