Hearken ye souls to a tale from the abyss, a legend entrenched in the grim annals of history best left forgotten. A tale of platforming puzzles most tawdry in Home Sheep Home from Aardman Animations. In it, you must guide three wayward souls home across a treacherous landscape of... sorry, what's that?
Wh... no! No, stop that! It is not cute! What's wrong with you?!
You control your small flock of sheep (dangerous sheep!) with the [WASD] or [arrow] keys, swapping between them by either clicking on their icons (grim, gritty icons!) at the top of the screen, or numbers [1], [2], and [3]. You'll need to get all three of them to the sign at the end of the level to proceed. You'll also need to figure out which sheep is best for the job, since the, ah, dimensions of each beast make some better suited for some tasks than others. Namely, pushing trampolines and hay bales, or crawling through tunnels. Truly, these are dark, unnatural tasks!
And it is definitely not cute! It's a seedy story of vengeance and utter darkness in the darkest of dark places that, um... are... dark-ier... oh, forget it.
Analysis: Okay, so, hey, you guys, maybe Home Sheep Home is a little cute. Like, girlish squealing, "Lookit his wee little trotty hooves!" cute. There's a lot of personality packed in these sketchy little graphics that gives the whole thing an appealing, children's book aesthetic. Unsurprising given its roots in Wallace and Gromit, where Shaun made his first appearance when he was shorn. (Say that with the proper accent and you'll make the name connection.)
The problem is that Shaun and company occasionally feel like they're relying on that top-notch presentation to see them through. Gameplay is extremely simple, and most levels probably won't require a restart even if you're playing without hints. While a few levels do contain a sort of "cross your fingers and hope for the best" physics trickiness, most of them can simply be bulldozed awkwardly through. The levels are so small that their designs don't allow for a lot of complexity. Which, while admittedly making the game accessible to pretty much anyone, means those of you who pride yourselves on your unfathomably intricate brains and reflexes aren't going to find a whole lot of challenge here. Sorry, fr4gm45ter66. Looks like it's back to pwning newbs.
Play all the Home Sheep Home games:
But you don't always need a challenge to enjoy yourself, and Home Sheep Home is the sort of fluffy, bouncy fun that we could all use once in a while. There are only fifteen levels, and in most cases this is probably just the right size to fit into your lunch break. (Or, depending on your age, before The Fairly Odd Parents come on.) Short and sweet, Home Sheep Home is a gentle adventure for any fan of puffy wool and stampy hooves. It's just the thing to make you feel better when you're feeling baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!
... where are you going?! Oh come on, I had to put that pun in somewhere! Don't act like you weren't expecting it!
Play Home Sheep Home
Aww! That was cute! I finally turned the hints off though, it was almost getting conscending.
I just came to JIG to suggest this game! What timing huh?
While it IS quite simplistic and most levels can be muddled through a multitude of "wrong" ways it's doggone fun to play.
Consider it a casual game snack.
And Dora they're going to send you to the PUNitentiary...
for years of PUNishment.
:D
This looks like an interesting game. I'm not far enough into it, to actually say if its good or bad.
As an off color question, is this 'every other post a 'demo' to download' a 'short time thing' or is downloadable demo's appearing EVERYwhere going to be more permement?
[They're ads and they don't appear everywhere, just on the homepage. Feel free to skip over them if you're not interested. -Jay]
Fun, with the usual amount of cute and polish that is expected of Aardman.
I think the two most glaring problems are that it is very short (I didn't even realize I was on the last level), and (for myself) I didn't like one level in particular:
The seesaw level. The concept was obvious, but the fact that you had to control the bouncing sheep to get him over the gap wasn't.
If it weren't for that level, I probably would have enjoyed the whole experience better.
This game was really easy. I pressed retry alot because I liked how the hints got more and more into detail.
Overzealous: You can select which sheep you're controlling by pressing the 1,2,or 3 keys. On some levels you have to do that pretty quickly.
An amusing thing to try regarding that: hold the up arrow then press 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3. They could make some really tricky levels using that concept.
Not really a spoiler but... I solved one level by having the small sheep stand on the back of the middle one. Then I had Shaun jump and Timmy jump while already up in the air. Super jump! Hey, I wonder if I could do that with a stack of three. I have to try that!
OK. Thanks Jay. Wasn't sure where to ask or that.
LOL. One of the Google ads is for "Used and new sheep slaughterlines in all sizes" ;)
Now we know why the sheep have to be brought 'home'.
I love anything to do with Wallace and Gromit, and I think this is pretty much the perfect coffee-break game. I played without the hints, which meant that I even had to engage the brain occasionally. 5/5
To follow up Ashiel, those down load a demo articles are very annoying. I can put up with two side bars with adverts, the advert banner at the top, the box add between articles. But when we have adverts pretending to look like adverts on top of all that then its really getting to be too much.
[Our revenue has been declining due to the recession and we are struggling to survive. Expect to see even more ads in the future. We may offer a special account upgrade that removes all ads from the site for a donation, would you support us if we offered something like that? -Jay]
While more in-depth level design would be appreciated, I love this one simply for it's incredible level of polish and style. It's always a joy to play something that feels like it works and looks exactly like it's supposed to.
I think you may have messed up on one of the tags -- usually you use "platform," but here it's tagged with "platformer."
Well, it's a Shaun the Sheep game, so it's bound to be good. This coming from a 16 year old avid lover of the show. And might I say, Ms. Dora, having read your review I think I'm in love. Us PUN-dits are a rare breed these days.
Good eye, Stephen, thank you! Fixed now!
Rofl. I love thinking of Shirley as Cartman and Timmy as Kenny. It makes for some really accurate portrayals of South Park situations, despite them being sheep.
Just couldn't get the see-saw level to work. I knew exactly what to do, but couldn't get the little sheep to go to the right. I'll give it one more college try...
...got it! :o)
Cute game. Cute animation. Would have liked a proper happy ending.
hehehehehehe
I can't help it. I open this game and I start giggling. I never play with sound on, but this one I can't turn it off. Perfect in every way!
That was cute and fun. Now I want to watch more Shaun the Sheep!
By the way, is there a place to post comments about the site or other topics that aren't about a game, aside from the thread for a specific game? (If there were, I would have posted this question there, instead of here. Err...)
[Please use the 'contact' email address, a link to which is in the footer of every page. -Jay]
I have favorited the entire website. They only show clipits of the show on TV sometimes here, but I fell in love with what I saw. Glad to see that they've got some game designers with mad-skills. Simply adoreable!
The way the sheep interact with each other is priceless. The sheep physics -- or perhaps shysics -- is extraordinarily well done. I was always very nervous whenever Shirley leapt over Timmy, because I was so afraid the wee one would be crushed!
And their voices! Shaun's normal bleat, Timmy's ultra-kawaii baby bleat, and Shirley's understated "uh-oh" just complete the package.
I do agree with others that at 15 levels, this game is much too short. If the creators are listening, please add more levels or make a sequel or something. You've really left us wanting more!
I miss lost vikings :D
That is fun. Thank you for a nice little game, played end-to-end in under and hour with some but not too much dexterity and puzzle-solving.
ROTFL on the intro text, Dora! More of it! :-)
Ahhh, sweet. Tiny Timmy is definitely my favourite sheep. On the first level, I spent 3 minutes simply switching from Shirley to Timmy purely to hear his cute little bleat.
On another note, more levels are needed. It was fun, but I didn't realise I was on the last level until my "N" button refused to give me more sheep.
Still, adorable game, perfect but for the lack of levels.
Hi, I'm part of the Aardman Digital team who created Home Sheep Home. Just wanted to say thanks for the review and all your kind comments.
Time was against us when developing the game, so there's not as many levels as you may have hoped, but who knows in future...we'd love to create another level pack :)
Concerning the Ads here at Jayisgames... I support Jayisgames doing whatever it takes to keep this fantastic site alive and well.
I absolutely LOVED this game! Is it a superbly designed platformer? No. Is it intriguingly challenging? No. Is it innovative? No.
But it's charming, full of personality and downright FUN! And sometimes, you play a casual game to have fun. This delivers. Great job by the developers and thanks to JIG for featuring it.
I mean... c'mon! You gotta love those sheep! Ha,ha!
I loved this game. A bit too easy on some levels, but then it was fun at the office.
I loved the last level...
listen im trying to figure out how to get past level 12 so yeah
Um, I've beaten this adorable, yet slightly tricky platformer before. I decided to try it again, but I'm a little stuck on Level 13. I can get Shaun and Timmy through, but not Shirley. I already
pushed the safes, but I can't jump over them. I tried using Shaun with no success. Should I use Timmy?
Please help.
Update