Sheep Up!’ Review – Adorable, Attractive, Demanding

‘Sheep Up!’ Review – Adorable, Attractive, Demanding
Admit it, we all love sheep.

Admit it, we all love sheep. The cute and adorable animal has stolen the heart of many, and caused numerous high-pitched exclamations that torture your ears. If you bring Sheep Up! to your female college roommate right now, chances are, you might got that reaction to see for yourself (we aren’t responsible for any ear related injuries whatsoever).

If there is anything Sheep Up! did right, it was the appearance itself. Featuring colorful cardboard with (probably) your favourite pink covered-in-fleece animal I’ve mentioned up there, it was a delight to stare at the visuals in the game. Decals of cupcakes, trees, stars and you-name-it, sharply rise up and stand out from the wall and look lovely. Our sheep’s ears and limbs flap smoothly and adorably with every bounce. The cheerful and upbeat soundtrack adds a ton more into the joy you may get out of looking and playing the game. In terms of look and sound, everything was well-done and did not leave much room for complain.  You may have been tired of oversaturated retro looking pixel arts lately, and this could be your great break away.

But, of course, we have been talking about a videogame on iPhone here. Sheep Up! is a top-up accelerometer-based platformer, with a slight modification. Think Little Metal Ball with you (which is a sheep instead of a ball) constantly jumping and bouncing around. The game’s setting and objective is never been clearly explained. With cardboard, gift boxes and the game’s constantly-on-the-move feel, shipping service easily comes to my mind, but that’s probably another story for a different time.

What’s great about accelerometer-based platforming is the suspense and on-the-edge emotional state of dying and restarting, or making it through, just with a few pixels and miliseconds difference. The game offers no less. It’s the thrill of holding your breath, timing for the next jump and suddenly turn your phone like an epileptic patient, wishing that you did it far enough to reach the otherside. Unless you’ve been jaded with the genre, it’s an enjoyable feeling, and I appreciate it.

While most other titles span through a large map, the game takes place within a single screen. By traverse through tiles, gaps, traps and enemies and reaching the destination, the camera moves upward as you are brought to an upper levels. Five or six levels are packed into one boxes, and with 20 boxes to offer, it has quite a handful of content. In each box, three lives are given for your mistakes and once depleted, you would be taken back to your last checkpoint. Your rank is based on both time and the lives you lost in the process. What’s great about the boxes is the new element of the game being introduced, be it a new enemy, a new trap, or a new puzzle. It maintains the refreshing feeling of new challenges and never really feel repetitive, even though the core mechanic never changes throughout.

Considering the praise so far, is Sheep Up! a perfect game on iPhone? Of course it isn’t; the game suffers from a handful of issues. One of the first thing you may recognize is that you’ve been platforming with accelerometer in one hand. Running in portrait mode, it’s your natural response that the device is to be held by one hand, and after a few taps to start and before you know it, you play the game in the same position, which is both awkward and inaccurate. While you could always turn the device and and hold it horizontally for a slightly better comfort, the game was never designed that way and eventually you would have to turn it back. It’s a shame that such issue was not considered by the developer.

Sheep Up! might looks attractive to casual players, but don’t be fooled. It is, in fact, a difficult game that takes some skills to deal with. Following quite some of time of playing and having fun, you probably realize that you’ve been dying and restarting quite a lot. While platforming at first is extremely fun and enjoyable, the game starts throwing in a good deal of hazards a bit too soon. For my personal experience, it does not take long before I realize making through the level starts to like a chore. In a early box, it took me almost 30 lives and a hefty 7 minutes to make it through. New hazards being introduced in each new box in this case feel more like a suffering. It baffles me that, the audiences the game’s looks and style attempt to attract, and the people who have the skills to make through the game, don’t quite coincide.

It should be noted that a calibration tool that’s vital to the genre, is available in the game. An expert control mode is also present, but given without any explanation, in which I did not notice any difference besides the omission of the tutorial. The game also suffers some rare crashes, but none occurred during gameplay.

For what it’s worth, Sheep Up! is an attractive game I really had fun with. The enjoyable setting and the fun of platforming with accelerometer is a worthwhile fun to experience. For 99 cents, you might have some good screams and exclamations around the house. Just remember to beef up your skills, ’cause it will take some.

For more information, visit the official website. The iOS version can be downloaded from the App Store, universal for both iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[review pros=”Great look and sound, introduce new feature every level, enjoyable gameplay” cons=”High difficulty curve causing frustration, mandatory uncomfortable portrait mode, some minor issues” score=70]