Clouds and Sheep
Platform: Android
The cute and captivating sandbox meets simulation game Clouds & Sheep is going to be the number one reason you can't keep a full charge on your Android device. Combining elements from games like Tiny Tower, Pocket God, Virtual Villagers, and more, you are put in charge of a pasture of lovely little sheep, your only goal being to make them happy and make them multiply. To do that, you'll take control of the weather, utilize dozens of items, and complete challenges that range from zapping things with lightning to rolling sheep into rocks!
Sheep are pretty helpless on their own, so it's your job to take care of their needs, from providing food and water to keeping them away from poisonous mushrooms and encouraging them to find mates (aww, you're a matchmaker, too!). You can combine clouds to form rain clouds that can then be moved around to produce puddles. Sheep can drink from puddles to quench their thirst, or new tufts of grass will grow from the pools of water. Perhaps related to this low intelligence, sheep also love to have their tails snapped and to be thrown around the pasture, something you'll delight in doing when they start to crowd your work area!
The currency that measures progress in Clouds & Sheep is happiness, represented by little stars that content sheep will toss in the air. The more stars you have, the more sheep you can buy, the more items you'll have access to, and so on. You also receive challenges to complete that allow you to gain levels and move on to greener pastures. Signposts that show up on the ground offer up tips as well as these challenges, and they range from the simple to the more obtuse in nature.
Analysis: There's a lot going on in Clouds & Sheep, from managing the sheep's needs to keeping them safe from dangers, herding clouds for your own benefit, and keeping an eye out for challenge signposts. There are over 30 tasks to complete over the course of the game, but if you're not interested in doing them, you can always ignore them and just manage your herd. Besides, you never know when a thundercloud will waft by and give your fuzzy friends a good zap!
Clouds & Sheep has an in-app purchasing system you can use to speed things up if you find the gameplay a little lagging. It's very well-tuned, though, and doesn't force you to do anything unless you want to. The one purchase you might be interested in is the inexpensive ad removal item. It'll free up a bit of your screen real estate and make things look nicer. Also worth noting: the game features a parental lock that can disable in-app purchases, making it a safe game to give to your kids!
The screen can get pretty crowded, and since there's no way to zoom in for precise action, you'll have to resort to tossing sheep around to clear some space. It can also be difficult to nudge sheep into doing what you want them to do, perhaps owing to the imprecise nature of the gameplay, or maybe because these sheep really are daft.
There's plenty to do, plenty to see, plenty to unlock, and plenty to manage in this adorable little game. It can feel a little cramped from time to time, but when you've got a dozen mindless drones to take care of as well as a sky full of clouds to manage, life is bound to get a little "full"!
It's a cute time-waster, but a couple levels on, and I realised that I have so many dark thunder clouds and unhappy/sick sheep that it's so much more fun to
just kill them all! ZAP ZAP ZAP!
this app seems to really drain my battery like no other game or other application on my phone does. it heats up my phone so much i get a bit terrified of using it for more than a few minutes. even when it's in the charger it still seems to somehow drain my battery more than the charger is helping to put in!
other than that relatively straightforward game but all my sheep keep getting sick and angry! so i do the same as hikari no sakura and keep them to a manageable five to ten sheep.
Update