- Title: Hail to the Chimp
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: Gamecock
- Developer: Wideload
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Party/minigame collection
- Pros: Easy achievements; decent presentation
- Cons: Dull gameplay; not all that funny; could have taken political theme much further
It seems the king of the jungle, the lion, has gone missing so the other animals go about trying to elect a new leader. Maybe my expectations were too high for a game inspired (I assume) by a joke on The Simpsons, but Hail to the Chimp just isn’t all that funny. Instead of a goofy little monkey signing bills into law with his own poo, declaring war on India (the world’s largest producer of bananas), and then taking a vacation at his ranch in Texas, we have a bland collection of minigames starring a whole cast of generally unfunny animals.
There are some chuckle-worthy moments here and there. Such as the game’s TV station GRR where you can watch news broadcasts, commercials, and other shows relating to the campaign. Some of it is funny. A lot of it isn’t. And in general I think that they could have gone a lot further to really skewer the political process than they did. In the end, the game seems incredibly conflicted. It is too smart for most kids, and it is too dumb for most adults, so I’m not really sure who the audience is.
Gameplay
Also, during the actual gameplay, there is basically no humor beyond awful puns and catch phrases that just repeat over and over. For a game where the entire appeal is supposed to be the humor, making the gameplay this bland is a huge letdown.
The game is slightly better when playing with actual people rather than filling the slots with A.I. characters, but the repetitive and shallow core gameplay wears thin rather quickly. The game does have some pretty easy achievements, so you can add several hundred points to your Gamerscore pretty quickly, which is the sole redeeming quality of the game.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Hail to the Chimp looks pretty nice. It is very bright and colorful. The arenas look good and the animals are all very distinctive and nice looking.The sound is also pretty good. The music is at best catchy and at worst not obnoxious, which is a success compared to a lot of games. The voice work is also fairly good for all of the characters, even if the writing isn’t spectacularly funny.
Bottom Line
