Neighbors From Hell – Review

If you thought the reality show hype is over, let me assure you; it’s not. A new show has been launched, not on television, but in a game. The show’s theme is revenge, sweet revenge and it’s up to you to annoy your neighbor from hell with dirty tricks in “Neighbors From Hell”. Watch Woody, the main character, how he gets even with his devilish neighbor.

Woody really had it with his stinky, ugly looking and annoying neighbor but has no intention of moving to another building or area. Oh no! It’s payback time and the neighbor has to pay for the trouble he caused in Woody’s life. Not that we exactly know what happened in the past, but some really bad things must have happened to Woody as he now is planning a big revenge on his neighbor by setting booby traps.

Ready, set, go:
Audience prepared, characters in their places ? Ready, set, go and keep those camera’s rolling. Hey what’s this? A sarcastic version of Big Brother? Seems that way as every level will be broadcast as a TV show. We kick off in the neighbors house where you control Woody and start sniffing in the bookshelves in the living room, the medicine cupboard in the bathroom or checking out what’s inside the refrigerator. What are you looking for? Useful items! But not all items are hidden and are just lying around the house such as a hot iron. Grab all of them and start assembling some nice booby traps. If you want to prepare some special tricks you need to find special items. These can be unlocked by playing mini games like matching 3 pictures in a row like a gambling machine. In the first level or episode you and the neighbor are in the house, but the neighbor is either too occupied observing the ladies or having dinner. He doesn’t have a clue that you are in the house and it’s better to keep it that way. Lead Woody safely through the different rooms, search for useful items, assemble the correct parts together, set out the booby traps and for god sake please avoid the neighbor!

Game-play:
Luck is on your site as the neighbor has a repetitive life style and walks the same rounds through the house. A thinking balloon (bubble above the head) displays the neighbors thought and where he’s heading to. First he’s standing in the living room, he becomes hungry and a kitchen machine is being displayed in the balloon. If Woody is standing in the kitchen right at that moment it’s urgent to get him out of there without leaving a trace and without getting eye contact with his neighbor. Please don’t let that happen as he’ll beat Woody really bad and one life will be deducted. It is very important to start a level with observing how the neighbour spends his time, in which direction he walks through the house and where a hide out is for Woody. After known the neighbors rituals you can safely visit the rooms he’s not in and which are safe for a short period of time; let’s start searching for the parts needed to build a trap.

Booby traps:
To set booby traps you need to combine the correct items found in the house. In the cupboard we found some glue and a binocular in the fridge. What can we do with these two items? Hey, hold on a minute, wasn’t it the neighbor who is always peeking at the girls with this binocular? What would be the effect if Woody combines the glue with the binocular? Correctly, the neighbor walks to the window, takes out his binocular starts peeking and then he finds out that he cannot remove the binocular from his face as it has been glued and he totally freaks out. Woody scores! For every successful booby trap Woody earns a coin and in each level a number of tricks needs to be done before you can move on to another level. If you’re capable of setting out several traps and the neighbor falls for them one after another he really goes insane and the audience is on your site. They’re cheering and laughing and they also reward Woody for his spectacular booby traps! But the audience isn’t the only one who is entertained, I’ll bet as a gamer you’ll have your fun moments as well, watching the neighbor behave in strange situations.

Episodes:
A total of 24 episodes are available and after the levels cleared in the house, you’ll move to a lovely beach or hop onto a nice cruise ship. And if you thought that the neighbor alone was the bad one, you’re mistaken. There’s a watchful dog called “the Mutt” and the cheeky parrot “Chili”. As soon as these lovely animals discover Woody they raise an alarm by barking to attract the neighbor’s attention. Hide Woody, hide quickly the mad man is coming after you! Don’t let him get you otherwise he’ll beat Woody up. There’s only one way to get past the animals by sneaking through the room, yes on your toes if possible. Watch the animals alert degree meter to see if you’re sneaking in a good way. If it increases to red, it’s time to find a safe hide out. Mission failed, try again!

Graphics:
A cartoon book starts to live in this game when it comes to graphics. Cartoon like designed, balloons above the character’s heads visualising text or images. The environment and the characters are funny designed and act in this way (behavior). The only minus is for the way a level is displayed. The house for example has 2 floors. If Woody is below, you can see ¾ of the complete house. You need to scroll upwards to get a complete overview of the upper floor, to see what the neighbor upstairs is thinking. It’s sad that the level isn’t completely visible, but understandable on the other hand. Otherwise the game field would be too small and you wouldn’t noticed the detailed funny items and expressions on faces and so on.

Controlling:
The controlling of the game is really easy. No button bashing or strange button combinations. Actually almost only the A button and the controller stick needs to be controlled to game on. Sounds simple but I had some problems while playing a mini-game where I needed to hold an item in the middle of a small screen for a short period of time. Controller stick only to keep the item balanced, it was hard…Easy things please. Okay, doors open automatically and picking up items by using the A button and you use the stick for walking around with Woody.

The female gamer angle:
Well look how the designers portrayed the female characters with huge boobs, a big behind walking around in a bikini, almost tossing around with her boobies. Gosh, the designers did a great job creating ugly funny female creatures, just as humorous designed as the ugly male characters!

Conclusion:
Humor, it’s all about humor in Neighbors from hell and is a must have for sarcastic gamers. The design, the way items can be combined to trick your neighbor and to see the end result of Woody’s inventions all is funny to watch. Drive your neighbor insane with wicked inventions, tricks and booby traps en enjoy watching him go out of his mind. The only thing missing in the game was the warning: Don’t try this at home!

Review by Wencke
Thumb Bandits European Correspondent & manager of GGU.