Handheld
Shaun the Sheep
By George Damidas
Oct 24, 2008, 7 :57 am

I’m not going to pretend that I’ve ever seen an episode of Shaun the Sheep, but I’m also not going to pretend that claymation (or whatever material it is) sheep aren’t cute either. I’m also not averse to going on some amazing adventures as a sheep. A combination of a cute sheep going on adventure, then, would seem to be a pretty baaaa-awesome (too much?) time. But with a fussy detection system, confusing map, and a playtime shorter than in infomercial, Shaun the Sheep isn’t too great a choice for either the younger or older gamer.

It can’t be easy being a sheep. I mean, what with all the grazing and the growing wool, I don’t see how they have the time to learn how to communicate with a dog, much less take on the responsibilities of a cowboy. Then again, I can’t imagine how many sheep are under the care of a crazed farmer that listens to c-grade techno and only mumbles to communicate. When the farmer heads out of town, he forgets to lock is gate and ends up with a ranch full of wandering sheep. Ahh! It’s a good thing Shaun and his good friend Bitzer, the farm dog, are ready and willing to get to sheep wranglin’.

The story mode, as it is, consists of collecting these 15 wayward sheep. The farm is split up into a handful of sections, with a large middle area acting as the hub for each. There is the farmer’s house, a pile of junk, a shed, the farm itself, and a circus tent. I can only assume that makes sense in the context of the show. The game’s problems really begin here, because navigating is a lot harder than it needs to be. For starters, you can only go to another area at certain points where arrows indicate, which doesn’t make sense since the threshold to pass between screens is on the very edge, so why create an invisible walkway? Older gamers will just find this strange, but younger ones will most definitely attempt to go to the next screen by just walking near the edge of the area, which will get them right into an invisible wall. The camera also switches once you go into the southern half of the screen, making it seem like south is north. A mini map at the top helps you through the area, often with stars marking just where you need to go, but it is mirrored in spots due to the camera shifting, meaning the junk pile will be to the opposite of the map’s location; again, something I can see being a problem for younger gamers.

Collecting the sheep can be as simple as running across one and telling it to go, but more often than not, a puzzle has to be solved. These puzzles are often very easy, with Shaun getting an idea of what to do, indicated by an icon, then either tracking down the item (whose location will be indicated on the map) or using the item by simple hitting the action button on the hot spot. The sheep already saved will also help Shaun when called upon, and activating them also works in a similar way to items, with Shaun sometimes seeing the appropriate action icon for that situation and simply scrolling through and selecting that icon. The game does a lot of handholding.

The puzzles often require a lot of rubbing and blowing on the DS. The mini games are also available through the main menu, and some additional games, along with art, can be unlocked by bringing baby chicks back to their mother. The games vary a good deal, between blowing on the mic to shoot up moles that need to be whacked to rubbing an umbrella to keep Shaun afloat and knocking back oncoming obstacles. Aside from only a few of them being decent, there is the problem of stylus detection with most of them, as the control feels lagged. In particular, there is a guitar game that involves dragging a certain colored not off to the side of the screen, and for whatever reason the game hated recognizing my stylus. It is also very annoying that you cannot get out of a game once you get into it, which I did a handful of times on accident; if you didn’t mind going through once, your opinion will certainly sour after sitting through them for a second or third time. The pictures that can be unlocked are also puzzles in and of themselves, with each broken up into tiles and scrambled; these were bad, but I stopped after the second or so picture.

Aside from being aggravating, the game is also unbelievably short.  I spent my time looking around – which is often a giant waste of time, with most searches coming up with junk that Shaun tosses…back onto the farm – and going through the mini games a few times, and I was only able to squeeze 1 hour and 47 minutes out of it. I have little doubt that a younger player will seek the assistance of an older one, so unless they absolutely loved it the first time, I don’t see anyone getting more than a couple of hours enjoyment out of this – and that’s if they even like the mini games to begin with, which are actually fairly weak for a system so strong on mini game collections.

Overall: 4/10

Not so much horrible as it is baaa-ad (hah!), Shaun the Sheep attempts to deliver a rudimentary game for the younger crowd but ends up largely excluding them with its poor detection and confusing navigation. The lackluster collection of mini games and simplicity of the puzzle limits its appeal to older players, and the extremely short playtime, even if you replay the games a few dozen times, puts it really deep into bargain bin territory. If you or your youngin’ is a fan of Shaun, then get the upcoming DVD set advertised on the manual; if you’re a fan of collections of mini games, then get one of the dozen or so better ones out there for the DS. Either way, it’s not recommended.