I believe there are two kinds of people in the world: those who see garden gnomes and think they are cute, and those who see garden gnomes and have an overwhelming urge to smash them to pieces. Astraware’s newest game Hammer Heads (for Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices) is going to be a smash hit (pun intended) for anyone who falls into the latter category (like me!).

In Hammer Heads, you use a hammer to smash different types of gnomes in a variety of locations. The premise of the game is simple: gnomes rise up from the ground and you smash them with your hammer before they go back underground. It’s a lot like the old “Whack-A-Mole” game I used to play as a kid, but with garden gnomes instead of moles - and it doesn’t make my arm as tired after hours of play.

There are two game modes in Hammer Heads: Classic Bash and Marathon Bash. In Classic Bash your goal is to complete all 25 levels and defeat the Gnome King. The game starts out easy with gnomes that can be destroyed with a single hit of your hammer. As you progress through the higher levels you will encounter a variety of different gnomes that keep the game challenging and interesting. Some gnomes take two or more hits to smash while others will blow up and reduce your health meter (a row of red hearts at the top of the screen). At the higher levels you really need to pay attention to what type of gnome is appearing because if you swing your hammer too few or too many times you will lose health and the game will end.

When you smash a gnome it will break into pieces, but sometimes a gnome will leave behind coins (which can be used to buy things like a bigger hammer) or a heart (which can be used to restore your health). If your health meter reach zero then the game is over. You lose health points when you swing your hammer and miss a gnome. You will also lose health points if you take too long to smash a gnome and it escapes underground. Bonus points and trophies are given for a variety of accomplishments such as not missing with your hammer during an entire level and smashing 1,000 gnomes.

Every so often you will have a chance to enter the Shiny Shop where you can use your coins to upgrade your hammer, restore your health, and buy more health containers or other goodies that will help you succeed in your quest.

Additional features include bonus levels where you can collect a lot of extra coins, the ability to save your game every five levels, and support for multiple players so each player can keep track of their scores and awards. The game also automatically saves your current status when you exit the game so you don’t have to restore from a previously saved game unless you lose all of your health. While I like being able to restore from a saved game, I really wish that you could save your game at each level rather than every fifth level because I hate having to replay several levels just because I died on the level just before where I could save my game.

The Marathon Bash game mode is a lot like the Classic Bash mode with a couple of differences. Your main goal is to play as long as possible, which means destroying lots of gnomes without losing all of your health. In Marathon Bash the gnomes no longer leave hearts when you smash them, so you can only restore your health by buying hearts at the Shiny Shop using the coins you have collected. There is a timer at the bottom of the screen that shows how long you have been playing. One last comment about Marathon Bash game mode: it is only available after you have made it past Level 10 of Classic mode. I’m still trying to finish Classic Bash, but expect that Marathon Bash will be fun to play afterwards since you can keep trying to improve your score and longest time playing.

One other thing I noticed when looking at the pictures on the Astraware site is that there appears to be at least one undocumented “easter egg” in the game called “Tough Cookie”. I’m not sure how to unlock this game mode, but I’m guessing it might be based on earning one or all of the trophies.

Conclusion

Smashing garden gnomes in Hammer Heads is both addicting and entertaining.
Even if you think garden gnomes are cute, you will likely enjoy smashing them with a hammer so you can see new ones pop up. With 25 levels, the Classic Bash mode should keep you entertained for hours. But even if you defeat the Gnome King you can stay challenged with Marathon Bash mode.

Pros

• Easy to learn and quickly addictive

• The variety of gnomes and power-ups keeps the game interesting and challenging
• Supports both low-res (160×160) and hi-res (320×320) Palm OS 5 devices
• Trial version allows you to try the game before buying

Cons

• At over 3,000 Kb, it requires a lot of free memory, but can play in low-res mode if insufficient memory is found for hi-res mode. The music file is optional, but it is also relatively small.

• Minimal built-in help and no written documentation so you need to just start playing and figure things out as you go.

Tested using Trēo 700p

Related Links

Buy Hammer Heads

Other Astraware games

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Filed under: Software reviews