[3] Gameplay involves guiding three playable woodland creatures through suburban houses to collect items and return them to their forest.

[6] The game was praised for the technical achievement of displaying full 3D on both of the Nintendo DS' screens,[7] but some reviewers found the gameplay repetitive.

[5] In Over the Hedge, the player controls one of three animals, who attempt to steal items and destroy construction materials from suburban homes.

Verne has the strength to push and carry large items and can retract into his shell in order to avoid detection, but cannot jump as high or run as swift as the other characters.

Gladys Sharp, president of the homeowners' association, returns and plans to bulldoze the forest in order to build a swimming pool.

Given an idea from Hammy, RJ decides to have endangered species move to the forest in order to have it declared a protected habitat, preventing its destruction.

[3] The householders have been warned about RJ and company's intentions, and have created traps from everyday objects to repel the thieves.

[11] As a result, Vicarious Visions decided to write a new story, and create in-game cutscenes using full motion video (FMV).

[11] The use of FMV was unusual for the Nintendo DS due to software limitations, such as only having one 3D engine and ROM space restrictions.

[12][11] In a 2007 Game Developers Conference lecture, programmers Chuck Hommick and Gregory Oberg explained how the company avoided many of these obstacles by not including fog or night levels, and by using texture matrices in animated cutscenes.

[11] Craig Harris of IGN called Over the Hedge "one of the most impressive Nintendo DS products this year - at least on a technical level".

Nintendo World Report's Lasse Pallesen stated Over the Hedge is not engaging to adults or children due to "the repetitive collect-a-thon nature of the game and the one-dimensional gameplay".