There is only one hedgehog in the gaming world - he's blue, he's fast and at one point in time he was the ultimate in cool. Unfortunately, Sonic has fallen by the wayside recently, trying to live up to his glory days, he is subjected to game after game that does nothing but tarnish his legacy. So enter a new gaming hedgehog, or should I say a bunch of them, courtesy of Hurry Up Hedgehog! Sadly however, this game is yet more proof, if proof was ever needed, that hedgehog games beyond Sonic 1 and 2 just don't work.

Hurry Up Hedgehog! is possibly the simplest and yet most complicated game I have ever played. Based on an old German board game (and we know how famous the Germans are for their sense of fun), each player is given four hedgehogs, which are placed on a chequered, chessboard-like grid that covers the DS's bottom screen. The aim is simply to move your hedgehogs across the board (a bit like the old quiz show Blockbusters, only without the letters or the questions or requiring any intelligence) and the first player to get three hedgehogs to the other side wins. The board game style gameplay occurs in two stages. At the beginning of each turn, one of the lanes becomes active. First you have the option of moving one of your own hedgehogs up or down to the lane above or below the active one. Then you must move one hedgehog in the active lane forward by one space (if there is one). However, the twist is that you can move any hedgehog - yours or one that belongs to an opponent. Now, you might wonder why you'd want to move your opponent one step closer to his or her goal - well, you wouldn't, but you might want to move them into one of the hazards that litter the board! This means that the strategy of the game lies not only in inching your own hedgehogs forward, but in trying to keep them out of harm's way while you sabotage the efforts of the other players.

This is a reasonable concept and the strategy of being able to move enemy hedgehog into hazards, or pits, is a nice touch, but there is a high price to pay - once your hedgehog is in a pit (thankfully when this happens the animated hedgehog in the top screen starts to cry, otherwise you'd just think the game has frozen on you), you cannot move that hedgehog until all the other players are level with you, which is very frustrating. I could compare this to being sent to jail in Monopoly, but I actually find playing Monopoly fun! Whereas some games (like Monopoly or Snakes & Ladders) would thrive on this diabolical element, all that happens is that the fun is sapped from the game and you begin to care less and less as you play.

If you do play on, there are at least a few options to tinker with, although the box's boast of 'thirty-two different ways to play' is a bit of an exaggeration, as all this refers to is the number of options to alter the game rules - but changing the number of players should not be classed as another way to play the game! You can play with two players, then three, then four, and so on. Some options are interesting though, like 'doping', where the first hedgehog to reach the other side is disqualified, making for quite a different strategy in ensuring that someone else's hedgehog reaches the other side first, but with your hedgehogs close behind. This makes for a fun and slightly surreal way to play, as you move each other's hedgehogs slowly towards the other side, trying your best to keep yours back, but not too far back.

Despite these options, I found very little on offer as each level progressed and while the board changes each time, these changes are so superficial, like the same trap but with a different colour or items in different places, that it is ridiculous. In its defence, multiplayer does score points for the simple fact that you don't need a second player with a DS and game to do this, which is handy, as I doubt very much that you would ever find one. Almost like a round robin, you just take it in turns to move a piece and then pass the DS along as you play, which is entertaining to some extent as the reactions to your move make the game a little more exciting - not by much, but it is better than playing against the computer, who is pretty tough to beat.

Graphically the game is simple and though not an eyesore, it's not exactly on the cutting edge of design either. Use of animation is basic throughout and while there is at least a slight charm to the onscreen antics of the characters, when compared to most cartoon-based games this is a little lame and should have been a lot better. The music is horribly sweet in that 'trying to eat six tonnes of toffee after drinking a cup of syrup' way and it was the first thing I switched off; it just doesn't have the addictive quality that should accompany a puzzle game and keep you humming for hours after you've switched the game off.

Usage of the dual screen is effective and one of the few positives I can find. The top screen is filled with information concerning the players and a fun animation of a hedgehog who reacts with horror or glee depending on how well you are doing. The bottom screen is filled with the board whose size is manageable, so you won't find yourself making mistakes because of a small pointing area. The use of the stylus to move the pieces is simple; nothing fancy is done within the actual game and it's probably only two or three steps ahead of an online Flash game in terms of the complexity of what you have to do.

Truth be told, I played Hurry Up Hedgehog! for several days without actually understanding what I was doing, which created a pit of bile that is usually reserved for the most horribly complex games on the market. I hated the game and began writing this review by ripping it to pieces for being ultimately unplayable. However, all of a sudden I had the rules spelt out in very big words. Bits I missed because the manual doesn't explain them (such as the absolutely crucial ability to move your opponent's hedgehogs, which is essential if you're going to have a chance of beating the AI) began to fall into place, which sparked a curiosity in the evil little goblin that lives on top of my shoulder. I sat back down and began to play the game again, now that I actually knew how to play. I was convinced that I had misjudged the game and that I would be rewriting my initial review, with my tail between my legs, as I gave a more positive verdict. But did it make a difference to my experience? No, not really. The game is still dull and repetitive, and there is just not enough to do to justify playing it for more than a few hours. The fact that I now had a better winning average against the computer and that the movement of the pieces made a lot more sense still didn't cover up the fact that this simply isn't much fun to play - and now I've spent even more time playing this that I could have spent playing Mario Kart WII!

Hurry Up Hedgehog! is a simple little idea and a reasonable conversion of a board game that might provide a bit of entertainment for casual gamers who enjoy a playing board games now and again. However, the lack of a decent explanation of the rules, the mediocre presentation and the plodding, turn-based nature of the gameplay make it one that will be too slow, lacking and dull for the majority of gamers. This really is a board game on your DS, and not a particularly entertaining one at that - so unless you're a big fan of board games, playing Hurry Up Hedgehog! will probably result in you becoming a bored gamer.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).