“Did you know that I approve of this message? Well, I do.” No doubt the candidate would also approve of our enthusiasm for the new game from Wideload that he stars in: Hail to the Chimp.

When the lion is dethroned, the animal kingdom goes animal republic with it’s first presidential election. GRR news covers the campaigns with cute speeches, political ads, and goofy commercial parodies (for Orcah’s talk show and a new drug called Vertebrexstracil, among others) as players party brawl their way to national office.

From the ten different characters, each with their own backstory that comes out in their speeches and ads, I played as Daisy the Platypus, the host of a popular Australian kid’s TV show. Our session started with a game mode about bashing broken polling machines–something we’d all like to do!

Another mode we tried involved dodging bombs long enough to outlast all the other candidates. Often winning depends on who collects the most clams (literally), which determine who the front-runner is. After each individual event, GRR news has some commentary, and then of course there are concession and victory speeches at the end of the process.

Basically, you’re just running, jumping, and whacking each other, but each of the ten stages has different triggered events that mix things up. One we played took place on a dock with cranes players could activate via switches, plus a platform that would sink if everyone stood on it at once.

With these extra details, the sixteen different game modes, and Wideload’s brand of poltical humor we’re hoping to find Hail to the Chimp well worth the $40 price tag when it’s released for 360 and PS3 on May 27.

Tags: Gamecock, hail_to_the_chimp, political_ads, wideload

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1 Comment » Cenobia on March 7, 2008 7:21 pm $40?! I thought this was a PSN/Live Arcade title. I wasn’t sure I’d even spend $10 on this, let alone $40. This is probably gonna be a pass for me… RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.