At first glance, the cute and lovable looking characters of the Happy Tree Friends may look innocent, but they are actually quite twisted and strangely hilarious to those with the right sense of humor. The Happy Tree Friends has grown a lot from a series of Internet flash cartoons to a full blown TV show, and now it has an arcade title to its name. Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm puts the player as the character Lumpy who must guide the other Happy Tree Friends through various levels against plenty of deadly obstacles.

Gameplay:

The way the game is set up will surely remind some people of Lemmings, where actions must be used to manipulate the environment to allow safe passage for the characters who move by themselves. The type of dangers the Happy Tree Friends will encounter include deadly X-Rays, grinding machines and industrial presses to name but a few. To help guide them to safety, four actions are available, each one assigned to the four main face buttons on the controller and they include flames, freezing ice, explosive and a general action button for switches and levers. The characters will move along by themselves, so its best to look at what lies ahead, this can be done fluently using both the trigger buttons to scroll left and right and the analogue stick to aim the cross-hair for one of the actions. The fact that the characters move by themselves can be a let down at times however, sometimes they will get stuck in places, for example behind a door that swings open. Some obstacles mean the characters have to be split up since a line of all five of them wouldn't make it out of harms way in time. The freeze ability can be used at certain points on the actual level but its very useful for encasing the Happy Tree Friends in a block of ice making them stationary either to split them up or give the player time to plan ahead. The flame ability will get them back to normal but it can also be used to scare them and force them to speed up. Making the Happy Tree Friends move a little faster isn't just good for avoiding danger but also helps reduce the time it takes to finish a level. Each location in the game contains three levels and a gold rating must be achieved on at least one to open up the next three levels at a different location. Lining up the cross-hair can be a bit frustrating at times as it moves painfully slow, so much so that it's best to keep it around one area and move the screen with the trigger buttons. As far as the level design goes, there isn't much variety, and apart from the visuals they all feel very similar. The game is also pretty easy but some parts can make getting a gold rating tricky on the first play through. A gauge on the screen which constantly drains from gold to bronze acts as a kind of rating timer. As far as gameplay goes it's very simple which means it can get a little repetitive and a lot of the obstacles feel repeated.

Graphics:

The visual styling of the game is bang on when you look at the cartoons it's based on. The colours are easy on the eyes and the levels are designed to look like something from a children's show. The Happy Tree Friends look like their usual innocent selves but when they take damage some comical gore is clearly visible.

Sound:

The Happy Tree Friends theme tune is ever present in the game but can become a bit much given how it repeats itself alot. There is no dialog from the characters, just the odd cute babble from them but if they set a foot wrong then their cries of pain will begin to shriek from their adorable faces.

Longevity:

The game should take no more than a couple of hours to complete and offers little in the way of replayability. It might be worth doing missions again to get a better rating, but even that shouldn't be too time consuming. Online leaderboards are available but there is no multiplayer or extra single player modes.

Overall:

The Happy Tree Friends has quite a faithful fan base, but most people will be left disappointed with the level of difficulty and the shortness of the game. Very few of the puzzles will actually require solving as they are so straightforward and obvious. The fact that you have to keep the Happy Tree Friends safe is also kind of disappointing considering that the main selling point of the show is watching them die in terribly gruesome ways. The looks and simplicity of the game may appeal to younger gamers but the mature content means it will be aimed for more mature gamers, but the chances are the experience wont offer a big enough thrill to justify giving up 800 Microsoft points.