Tiny Tim Games‘ Sheepstacker takes the traditional baa-lance game and introduces sheep. Is this combination good or baa-d? Hopefully after reading this review ewe will have a better idea if you want to spend your hard earned £1.19 on this title from Tiny Tim. Oh and I promise, no more baa-d sheep comments.
I have to admit that going into this review I wasn’t expecting great things from Sheepstacker. I’ve played Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D from Digital Chocolate before and whilst enjoying it, didn’t find it had any long term appeal. So I wasn’t expecting Sheepstacker to improve on the formula; but I have to say I had jumped to conclusions and Tiny Tim have impressed me – taking the stacking game premise and expanding upon it.
Gameplay
If you’ve never played one of these stacking games before, let me briefly explain the premise. In this case you’re a farm worker who doesn’t have enough room in the fields for all your sheep to graze, so you decide to solve the issue by stacking them on top of one of one another. The sheep are dangled over the field from a swinging crane and you tap the screen to release them. You get points for each sheep stacked and extra points for how accurately they are stacked. As expected if your stack gets a bit wonky, then it will start to sway, and the wonkier it is, the more it will sway.
This is basically all there is to the game, and for these type of games that’s the key problem – there is no longevity to the game play. They usually rely on the draw of high score tables, which Sheepstacker does too, but in their favour Tiny Tim have done a few good things – they have introduced two additional game modes and also badges to earn.
Additional Game Modes
The modes are:
- time attack, and
- Baa-lance
In Baa-lance this mode rather than you controlling the sheep dropping sheep onto the field, the sheep automatically drop. You are controlling a cart using the tilt sensor and are having to try and catch the sheep as they fall. These game modes work well and do add to the game as they give you a bit of variety.
The badges I referred to are similar to Achievements on the Xbox 360 and Trophies on the PS3. I’ve seen quite a few iPhone games implement a similar idea and I think that is good as it gives you additional aims and adds to the replay value as you want to try and earn all the badges to complete the set.
But as good as these points are, it doesn’t change the fact that unfortunately Sheepstacker is repetitive. Despite the badges and three game modes it doesn’t have the longevity to keep you playing in the long term.
How could Tiny Tim improve Sheepstacker?
They could introduce an online highscore table to compare your scores with others, potentially Facebook Connect would serve a similar function, providing updates as to your best results and new badges you have won. I think a platform wide badge/achievement/gamerscore system provided by either Apple or a 3rd party could provide and expand on some of these features. Another area that would help with longevity would be some form of multiplayer, be it online or just local.
As much as I think there are areas that could be improved on I think that Tiny Tim have done well with their first release on the iPhone, it has good graphics, good solid game play and for a pick up and play casual game I think it does well for giving you good solid game play. Would I recommend it to a friend? Well it wouldn’t be the first game I’d recommend, but for a cheap fun game you do get a lot for your money. I look forward to future releases from Tiny Tim Games.
UPDATE: Sheepstacker 1.1.1 released.
Sheepstacker
Version reviewed: V1.1
Category: Games
Company: Tiny Tim
Current Price: £1.19
Works on: iPhone & iPod Touch
UK App Store Link