The new wave of digital animation isn't all that different from the traditional films Disney were making 50 years ago. Whether it's Shrek, Toy Story, Ice Age or The Jungle Book, over the years these movies have all had one big thing in common - they were all savvy enough to appeal to both adults and children. But the game of this summer blockbuster is aimed directly at actual kids, rather than the "child inside us all".

We've always found it strange that the many videogame tie-ins churned out didn't even attempt to offer anything to the older gamer when the films themselves so often did. Of course, the biggest audience is going to be kids under 15, but there's always room for gameplay that's a bit more rewarding and humour everyone will appreciate.

Being funny is definitely one of Over The Hedge's stronger points. The script and voice-acting are surprisingly sharp. It follows the tale of a group of suburban animals who go out on nightly food raids, like a gang of bad-smelling Sam Fishers who haven't shaved for months.

This involves jumping over laser beams, dodging searchlights and tip-toeing carefully past motion sensors. Okay, it's hardly original, but it's not the kind of thing you'd expect to see in this type of licensed game either.

Another way in which Over The Hedge disobeys the traditional rule of animated movie tie-ins is that it's more of a beat-'em-up than a platformer. The game plays almost identically to Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows - it uses the same vaguely isometric viewpoint, there are loads of monster generators to destroy, and you have to find quest items to open up new parts of the level.

The gameplay is very basic and becomes repetitive fairly quickly. But to Over The Hedge's credit, at least there are a few mini-game sequences that revitalise your interest every now and again. There are also heaps of unlockable items hidden throughout the levels, and some of them, like the original comics and storyboards, are well worth putting in some extra effort for.

Combat is the biggest - and unfortunately, the most repetitive - part of the game. There are a couple of good ideas hiding among the generic gameplay, though. The characters use golf clubs (a homage to the original newspaper comics where they were sports fanatics) to whack balls in their enemies' faces. The controls for this are pretty engaging, allowing you to aim a crosshair using the Right stick. Alternatively, it's possible to use the club as a bludgeon and just clobber your way through hundreds of mind-controlled rats.

There's a charge attack and a basic combo too, but that's about it. All the enemies can be defeated in the same way, meaning that you never really have to think about it, nor feel challenged in any way. It's really unlikely that you'll ever die either. Every defeated foe drops health, and most of the destructible scenery items contain yet more energy-giving goodness. Because there's very little sense of risk, there's nothing stopping you just steaming into a pack of enemies and winning easily.

Even if you somehow manage to lose, you can just switch over to the other character and take control of them instead. It's possible to jump between characters at any time, although there's really very little point. Aside from having them execute a team move where they jump on each other’s shoulders, we're not even sure why you even need two characters in this uninventive single-player mode. Thankfully, the AI's decent enough - there were only a couple of occasions when the character we weren't controlling got stuck.

All of the four playable pests have identical abilities too, so there isn't any real point switching between them anyway. It would have been nice to see some puzzles that only certain characters could get past. The only slight difference is that their conversations vary depending on which two you take out on a mission. This adds a little replay value if you really want to hear every line of dialogue in the game (it is pretty funny).

And that's despite the majority of the movie's cast not even appearing at all. It seems a little tight that they couldn't get Bruce Willis or William 'Bran Flakes' Shatner to show up and record a bit of dialogue. In spite of this, the voice actors do some pretty convincing impersonations. On the plus side, there's a ton of new dialogue that isn't in the film, avoiding the feeling that you've heard it all before.

The same goes for the cut-scenes - which are completely new and not taken from the actual movie. While they don't look anywhere near as good, at least there's a slightly different story to get your pointy feral teeth into.

Cut-scenes aside, though, there isn't much of a plot - the game's just a non-linear collection of random missions. After the first few levels you return to a woodlands hub level, where you can choose between the various mini-games you've unlocked. It's also possible to replay stages you've already completed - which is a good thing because you probably won't achieve all the secondary objectives in one go. These bonus objectives are arguably the best part of Over the Hedge, because they're the only element that proves slightly challenging. Many of them focus on not being spotted or setting off a trap, forcing you to actually play along with the game’s otherwise redundant stealth features.

But the stuff you unlock? Our hearts always sink when we see mini-games in an animated movie adaptation. It's horribly predictable - and DreamWorks already has a bad rap sheet for Shrek Super Slam and A Shark's Tale. Some developers have yet to realise that mini-games don't add value if they're lamer than a badger in a bear trap. The 'obligatory' distractions in Over The Hedge include a frustrating golf course and a bumper car race with golf carts. You won't play them more than once, so they're pretty worthless.

Graphically, the game isn't as much of a looker as it should be. But we've seen far worse. The character animation isn't too bad, with each of the four playable critters having a distinct way of moving and fighting. While the levels all look pretty similar, they're fairly pretty and capture the normality of suburbia quite observantly. But there isn't a great deal of detail and almost no effects that jump out and grab your attention.

Over The Hedge isn't anywhere near perfect, but it's still reasonably entertaining and not quite bad enough to be dismissed as a 'cash-in' (aren't most games made for cash?). In any case, it's certainly not a cynical ploy to rip kids off - we wouldn't have any qualms about giving this to a little brother or sister to keep them quiet for a couple of days. For older gamers, though, there isn't much of a challenge here, and the gameplay is far from being rewarding.

1. A funny script and reasonable voice-acting, which is surprising seeing as most of the original movie cast isn't actually involved.
2. Secondary mission objectives add replay value and unlock some pretty cool extras if you manage to complete enough of them.

1. Extremely repetitive combat, although the targeting system for the bits where you smack golf balls at enemies is okay.
2. The mini-games aren't much fun. They won't last you more than a couple of tries before you get bored.
3. Lacks any kind of significant challenge. Kids who are good at games will hammer through it quite quickly.

Nowhere near as bad as most movie tie-ins, but there are plenty of better adventures out there.