When I was younger, one of the favorite summertime activities was riding the roller coasters at Kennywood Amusement Park (in Pittsburgh).  Of course, part of this annual summertime ritual was visiting the arcade, where you could play such pre-digital favorites as skee-ball, shooting range, water guns, and Whack-A-Mole.  What better stress relief can be found than chasing a bunch of plastic moles around a game board with a giant foam hammer.  Ah the good old days.

Now, Astraware has found a way to turn back the hands of time and bring back those good old days. Their latest game (licensed from PopCap Games), Hammer Heads, revisits that old fashioned arcade hit, Whack-A-Mole.  This time, replacing moles with an even more annoying nemesis: The Garden Gnome.  So, ready your mallets, and get ready to Whack-A-Gnome.

Installation and Registration: Download the desktop installation package to install the trial version to your device via ActiveSync.  Once installed, you will be able to play one game before the trial expires.  Register to unlock unlimited playing time.  Additionally, registered users can post their high scores on Astraware’s web site.

Gameplay:  This game is almost exactly what you would expect from a game based on Whack-A-Mole.  The screen consists of various fun-filled backgrounds (such as a grassy field, snowy tundra, the moon and more).  Within each background are a group of large holes.  Each hole contains an elevated platform, allowing the gnomes to rise to the surface.  Your job is hit the gnome with your floating hammer as fast as you can.  Keep hitting them until they smash (some may take more than one hit).  If you miss, or if they escape back into their holes, you will lose a piece of one of your hearts.  Lose all of your hearts and the game will end.

There are two modes of gameplay: Classic Bash and Marathon Bash.  In Classic Bash, you progress through 25 levels, trying to earn the maximum number of points.  As you smash gnomes, you will receive coins and extra life in the form of hearts.  Gameplay in Marathon Bash is identical to Classic Bash.  The main difference is that your goal is to last as long as possible (the game is on a timer).  As such, the gnomes will not give you any help, or extra life (although you will still be able to earn coins which can be spent at the in-game Shiny Shop.)  Marathon Bash can only be unlocked by completing ten levels of Classic Bash.

Gnomes: As I mentioned, the main object of the game is to smash the garden gnomes as they rise onto the screen (come on, now, who hasn’t had the sudden urge to do this at some time).  Of course, just when you get used to smashing the standard gnomes, you begin meeting gnomes who are more powerful and will take multiple hits to smash.  Other gnomes explode when you hit them, causing damage to you.  As you progress, you will meet numerous other varieties of gnomes, all with the same purpose: to get smashed by your lightning fast mallet.  Of course, the more difficult a gnome is to smash, the bigger your potential reward.

Special Items: Throughout the game, you will have various opportunities to earn special items.  Sometimes, when you smash a gnome, they will leave items behind, others will rise on the gnome platforms by themselves.  Additionally, most of the available special items can be purchased at the Shiny Shop.  Among the special items you can find are:

• Coins: Collect coins and spend them on special items at the Shiny Shop
• Hearts: Replenish your health
• Ice Cream: Freezes all of the gnomes in place for a short period of time
• Clover: Makes you lucky.  More gnomes will leave behind coins and hearts
• Hammers: Purchase more powerful hammers at the Shiny Shop.

The Shiny Shop: The Shiny Shop is where you can go to spend all of the coins you have earned throughout the game.  When you see the Shiny Shop rise out of one of the gnome holes, just smash it with your hammer to enter.  There, you will see numerous special items which you can purchase.  Additionally, you can purchase a more powerful hammer, replenish your existing hearts, or purchase additional hearts.

Tower of Gold: When you see the Tower of Gold rise out of a gnome hole, you know you are in for a special treat.  The Tower of Gold is a bonus world, where only gold coins rise out of the holes.  Smash all of the coins with your mallet to earn a special bonus.  Be quick, though, or the coins will disappear.

Trophy Room: As you progress through the game, you will earn various trophies recognizing your (gnome) smashing accomplishments.  You can earn trophies for not having any misses over a sequence of rounds or not smashing a bomb.  There are also trophies which can be earned based upon the number of total points earned, total gnomes smashed, and total coins earned. 

You can even earn trophies by imposing discipline on yourself.  Do not pick up any coins for 15 levels and you will earn the "Vow of Poverty" trophy.  Earn the "Supply Challenge" trophy by purchasing no supplies for 10 levels.  Likewise, if you pick up no hearts for 15 levels, you will earn the "Golden Heart" trophy.  I really liked the trophy room (which is accessed from the menu on the main screen.)  It added some extra challenges to the game.   I am now hard at work earning my "Trophy Master" prize for filling up the entire trophy case.

Saving:  Frequent readers know that most of my game playing is done during those short snippets of free time that appear during the course of an average day: riding the train, waiting in line at the grocery store, sometimes even when I am stuck in traffic.  What this means, however, is that I need to be able to quickly stop a game when that short snippet of time ends and pick it up again at a later time — without losing any of my progress. 

Hammer Heads was exceptional in this area.  At any time during the game, just tap the exit button and your game will be instantly saved.  When you want to continue, just hit Continue Game and you will find yourself precisely where you left off.

Additionally, after every five levels, a snapshot will be taken of your progress.  If you lose a life, then you will be able to restart at the point the last snapshot was taken.  Once I got into the higher levels, I certainly appreciated not having to start the game from the beginning when I lost a life.

Conclusion: Howard Tomlinson, the CEO of Astraware Games, had this to say of Hammer Heads when it was released earlier today, "For each problem there’s a solution, but when the solution involves a hammer, you can be sure that it’ll end up being rewarding to the soul. What could be better for testing your reactions and tapping accuracy than teaching those pesky gnomes a lesson!"  I could not agree more.   Video games generally are a great way to escape from the stresses and rigors of everyday life.  When that escape involves a giant hammer and hundreds of fragile garden gnomes…you will be in for a smashing good time.

Vital Statistics:

Name: Hammer Heads

Version: 1.0

Platform: WM 2003 SE

Also Available: WM5, Palm OS 

Developer: Astraware

Available From: Astraware

                           JAMM Store

  Price: $19.95

Technorati Tags: Astraware – PopCap – Hammer – Heads – Just – Another – Mobile – Monday

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