Sheepish

I always say, if you can't laugh about yourself, who can you laugh at? And what better way than to 'take the proverbial' than to launch your first iPhone kiwi game based on a long standing joke about New Zealander's....our love of sheep.

Pixelthis Limited are no stranger to the mobile market and the game is a very very pleasing first effort for this Palmerston North-based company's journey into the iPhone/iPod Touch market. It's polished, got great graphics and cool sounds that go well with the game. And some of the levels have been quite curly already in the early stages of play. I'm becoming addicted quite quickly. Now at least I can see what a former staff member (hey Mike!) has been busy working on with colleagues.

The main thrust of the game is puzzle solving. You have one (sometimes more) sheep who, when you push the play button, are going to do nothing but move forward in a straight line in a paddock on screen. That is until you put all manner of items in front of them...from pipes that cause them to turn 90 degrees, trampolines that bounce them over objects, paint sheds that turn them from white to black (or vice versa) or other neat gadgets that you are slowly introduced to.

So why do you need to use all these tools? Well, because a sheep's life is full of obstacles and a hard to reach exit point that isn't always right in front of their nose. The sheep might start off in a straight line, but to get to the final exit point on the map that you are viewing, you might need to use these tools to guide the sheep to do the right thing...ewe get the idea, don't ewe?

Those that know Lemmings will understand the concept. Lemmings was just about getting some tiny creatures from point A to Point B...but that was putting it way too simply. iPhone and iPod Touch users might be more familiar with Enigmo (although it's the path in which water travels that you affect in that game) or the very similar "Mouse About" and "Mouse About Lite".

The game starts very well, with a very amusing startup/splash screen leading to the company logo. From there, there are some very detailed instructions...possibly too wordy, but I had a quick read to understand the concept and then dived in.

At first, starting a game was a bit challenging. You are faced with a very large map on which there is a starting point. I failed to appreciate that the sheep holding a sign didn't just have his hand open, but was in fact pointing...to a hard-to-see dot on an island, which you need to press to get started.

In fact, at this point, I'll probably level my only other criticisms, and that's that I don't really get the concept of the islands and the path you work through at all. As a person with some colour blindness and not too skinny fingers, I just found the island layout an annoyance. I'd much rather, on the completion of a level, just be faced with an arrow pointing right saying "Next level" and go from there...going back to the island just frustrated me after each level.

The only other thing I'd like to see is a very simple pause option similar to ToyBot Diaries. In other words, tap the screen twice and the sound stops and the game pauses.

The levels are brilliantly thought out...in fact, I'd love to imagine how the developers have sat around and come up with each of the levels. I really like how the levels start off basic and introduce you to one or two tools (pipes, trampolines etc) that you drop into a screen and try out, before moving on to more challenging levels. What I really liked also, was that after a few levels that got progressively harder, I was suddenly introduced to a new tool and an easy level or two to complete with that tool (ie, to get used to it) before ramping up the challenge again.

That was a nice touch. It wasn't "information overload" trying to remember or deal with all the tools in one go. I also really like the fact that in some of the levels you get provided with more tools than you need, leaving you to really think about what is the easiest way to get the sheep from one end to the next. I'm dreading (or feeling....sheepish...ouch!) about just how challenging these levels will get in the future.

While we've come accustomed to some fairly cheap games on iTunes, at %5.29 NZD, this isn't an expensive purcahse...and if the 100 levels get quite challenging, I know I'm going to become very obsessed with this.

I used to like my lamb well cooked with rosemary, garlic and gravy...now I like them on my iPhone too!!