Shaun the Sheep > Video Game News, Inc.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Shaun the Sheep
By Sheep @ 3:02 PM :: 2951 Views ::

:: DS

Before you even think about playing Shaun the Sheep, you need to do yourself a favor and go watch the television show it’s based on. The show is produced by the famous Aardman Animations, which is the same company responsible for Wallace and Gromit, among other great creations. After spending five to six minutes of your life watching some Shaun the Sheep, just imagine someone is holding a gun to your head and demanding you create a portable game based on the property. In this scenario, you get one week and a staff of ground squirrels to help you complete your task. Imagining all of this while playing the game doesn’t necessarily make it any more fun, but it does help explain the lack of entertainment.

Why did someone insist on taking an enjoyable animated show about a flock of sheep and force it into video game form? I kept asking myself that question while playing Shaun the Sheep on the DS. This game makes the all too common mistake of transforming the source material, which can be enjoyed by all ages, into something that can barely be enjoyed by very young children. The humor and personality so present in the television show is completely erased and replaced with a boring game of hide and seek that has you endlessly fetching items for other characters. Every so often, you need to complete a really basic mini-game to advance. As you progress through the main game, these mini-games unlock for you to play on your own. I’m not completely opposed to mini-games, but I really wish developers would add a little more depth to them. Nintendo’s Wario-Ware micro-games last mere seconds but are somehow consistently entertaining and have actual replay value. Shaun the Sheep’s mini-games seem to last far too long and just feel like work. Blowing into the DS microphone to force gophers out of their holes has never been less exciting but it might cause you to pass out, which could be cool.

The game has average graphics for a DS game, which means it basically looks like an old Nintendo 64 title. The bright and cheery music is just what you would expect from the television show, so no complaints there. You can choose between controlling your sheep with the stylus or the control pad, but the menus and mini-games pretty much stick to the stylus. You spend much of your time searching bushes for sheep and items. Once you encounter a character, they usually want you to go find an item for them located on the other side of the farm. Once the item is found, you bring it back and they either give you another item or they give up another sheep. A red star on the top screen’s map represents where you need to be going, which helps cut down on the totally needless wandering. As helpful as the top screen map is, however, it doesn’t seem completely accurate since I found myself going left on the bottom screen but the opposite direction on the top.

Unlike the television show’s title character, Shaun the Sheep for the DS does not break from the flock of other apparently rushed, licensed video games. Young children will at least find this game playable and maybe that was the only goal the developers had to reach. They succeeded in making a game that is playable, but boring and drained of what makes the actual show so entertaining and fun to watch. I will now leave you with some cherished sheep related puns. Wether you play only one sheep game this yearling or not, ewe would be better off skipping this pile of sheep biscuits entirely and spending your bucks somewhere else. It’s funnier when you know that a wether is a castrated sheep.

4 out of 10

Comments

By jessica @ Sunday, November 08, 2009 8:33 AM

where can i buy it

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