Hail to the Chimp

Does it get our vote?

Posted 4 years ago By - Jay Acevedo

It’s Election Year in the U.S of A and it’s always interesting to see what each candidate has to show and say (even if it’s all about Obama this time around). The developers at Wideload Games, who bought us Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse, decided to jump into the democratic frenzy and create an original party game with (of course) a political twist called Hail to the Chimp. Here’s our review.


Presentation

Hail to the Chimp’s concept is simple: The lion has been dethroned as king of the jungle, and the rest of the animals have decided to play the democracy card by facing each other…until only one remains and becomes the new King of the Jungle. And by facing, I mean beating on each other! Basically, it’s a button-mashing fest, with no strategy whatsoever. Four candidates are thrown into an arena, where they run around and beat the crap out of each other until one grabs a certain number of clams. As you collect these clams, you will use them to fulfill particular tasks in the game’s 16 game types like stuffing ballot boxes or throwing clams at cardboard cut-outs of other candidates. Each round carries with it a set of votes for the top three competitors, and whoever racks up the most votes by the end wins that stage’s election.

The game is presented in a CNN-style newscast called GRR. Hosted by Woodchuck Chumley and other funny animal anchors, the tongue and cheek telecast sets up each of the events as well as the results at the end of each as humorous commercials for fake products as well as candidate endorsed PSA’s are also thrown in there.


But there’s one thing that left me clueless right from the start: during the so-called campaign mode, you don’t play as the Chimp on the cover (which really makes me wonder why the game’s called Hail to the Chimp). Instead, you’re forced to take the role of Ptolemy, a lame hippo, through most of the game. When you don’t play as the hippo, the game gives you a pre-chosen character. Talk about a rigged election!

Up until there, the game isn’t too shabby. And then, the game starts its downfall…

Gameplay

The controls are maybe the biggest negative point of Hail to the Chimp. When they aren’t clunky, they’re simply unresponsive. But don’t get me wrong here. The control scheme is simple so it’s not a matter of intuitiveness or difficulty level; it feels more like the controls weren’t balanced and tweaked enough to fit into the different modes of the game. Oops…

Also, the A.I in Hail to the Chimp isn’t at is best, especially if you play the game all by yourself in solo. Sometimes you’re opponents will let you win or won’t pick-up different power-ups in order to score some points against you and most of the time they just run around like headless chickens preventing you to have fun. It’s very sad. However, since it’s a party game, most of the gamers will skip the single-player mode and go straight to the multiplayer aspect of the game where you can play offline and of course online and not worry about the stupid and broken A.I. Online experience didn’t suffered from any major or frequent lagging during my review so your online sessions should go very smoothly. But then again, the fun might be short term considering the control problems Hail to the Chimp faces…and we’re not done yet.


Graphics & Sounds

Graphically, the game has this interesting cel-shaded look, which is not bad at all. But it looks unfinished and mostly unpolished. Add to that the occasional glitching and framerate issues…it makes it very hard at times to see what’s happening on the screen. Picture this: a WoW 50+ level instance running on a poor graphic card while your internet connection is dying and you’re having a headache…even Leeroy Jenkins would’ve waited before getting his chicken!

Also, I can understand that occasional collision glitches are sometimes frequent in some games but when the main purpose is a button-smashing-combat-crazy experience, the least a developer can do is make sure that the characters can hit each other correctly…or is it too much? Then again, it’s not frequent put happens often to a point where the frustration builds up and you’re hesitating if you should shout like a pirate or throwing the controller in despair.

As for sounds, it’s better than the graphics. The comedic scripting is well written, the voice-overs are well done and the soundtrack fits well the premise of the game. On the other side, sound effects during gameplay are very simple but not great.

Value

It’s hard to hate Hail to the Chimp. Really and I’m serious. It has major flaws but you tend to give the game a chance because of its funny presentation and original idea, which proves that your game doesn’t have to be called Mario Party to be successful.
Still, you can find the game for lower than 40$ (maybe cheaper at different places) but it remains expensive. If this game would’ve been presented as a downloadable game, around 20 or 15 bucks, Hail to the Chimp might have gotten some forgiveness simply because the developers could’ve make the game smaller and spend the money more in the gameplay department rather than the funny jokes and scenarios (which once again are the strongest points of the game).


Conclusion

The main concept behind Hail to the Chimp isn’t bad at all. But the overall experience is so painful at times that you won’t play the game for hours…unless you play it with your buddies…and then again, it’s a long shot. Hail to the Chimp deserves a tap in the back for its originality and wit, but it doesn’t deserve my vote…not until a better and revamped Hail to the Chimp…or Hippo.

Verdict: Rent

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