Sheep? You hav’ta be kidding, right? Say it isn’t so? Why, there’s nothing so boring as sheep. In real life, perhaps such is so. But within Empire Interactive’s world, the sheep come in four flavors, and your job as one of the four, selectable sheepherders, is to save them from remaining lost, or even worse, killed! No easy task, for there are a number of obstacles that’ll stand in your way, from rolling stock on the roadways, electric fences, even corn sharks!

You see, these critters are not native to Earth. Oh, no... eons passed, their space faring and wooly brethren deposited them on this clump of dirt to observe the progress of mankind. Er, the only problem is, they’ve been here so long, they’ve forgotten their mission. They’ve melded with our environment and become just sheep! And now you’ve got the job of trying to get them through the various worlds to Mt. Mouflon with as few casualties as is possible.

Sheep are perhaps boring, but they are also quite, well, how to put this politely... well, they’re stupid! Sheepherders have known this for ages. You must "push" them in the direction you wish them to travel. Become too pushy, and they flee before you in all directions. It requires skill, patience and a firm hand to have sheep move where you want them to move.

With Sheep, you select one of four sheepherders. There’s Bo Peep, a real natural, who also happens to be able to charm sheep with her pleasant manner. Then there’s Adam Half Pint, who hand is far firmer than the other characters. For those with a more anthropomorphic bent, try Motley the dog who has more energy and enthusiasm than other sheepherders (dreaming of becoming a sheep dog, no doubt). And the fourth selection is Shep, a true sheepdog in every sense of the word, save that his age can sometimes cause him to react somewhat slower than the others.

You position your sheepherder near your sheep and then move... move to the right side of the sheep, and they’ll move to the left. Try to retain a certain, respective "distance" between yourself and your wooly charges, for they can go astray at the slightest misstep. Fortunately, you can learn a great deal about herding any of the four sheep types in four, tutorial games. Practice well, for when you enter the "real world of sheepherding", your number of saved woolies can be decimated by overzealous action on your part. Intruding implements such as farm machinery, gigantic presses, fences that are electrified, the oh–so–evil hench–cows, and so on, do take their toll. There’s nothing worse than watching one or two of your sheep slain because of thoughtless motions on your part after you’ve taken precious minutes to herd them toward the level’s collection area.

There are seven tricky worlds to herd your way through, with each world possessing four levels. You must succeed in each level to progress onwards. There are a number of little tricks you can employ to help you succeed. One is the ability to pick up a single sheep. This can be done by creeping toward the sheep and then pressing the activation key or button you’ve signified for that action. You’ll then retrieve that wooly burden and you can them carry the bleating bundle to whatever area you need them to be in... even directly into the collection van. Just toss the sheep in the direction you are facing by depressing your activation key or button once again.

As far as the sheep themselves are concerned, there are four breeds. First comes the sheep that’s literally afraid of everything... they’re called Modern Pastoral. They’re followed by Modern Factoral and they have no clue as to what’s dangerous or what’s safe... they seem not to fear much of anything. You then have the breed known as the Long Wool, true, counter–culture woolies who love rock music and are possessed of a wee bit of bravery, as well. The fourth breed is the Neo Genetics, who are into computers and seem to be able to handle traffic. One characteristic can truly be said to apply to all, however... they’re all stupid and they NEED you to save their fuzzy butts.

With power–ups, great graphics, a nifty soundtrack, the only element that might get on your nerves after several sessions is the constant bleating of the sheep. The only known cure is to turn your speakers down.

Sheep is a highly enjoyable game and one that can be enjoyed by the entire family — only one player at a time, please. There’s no multiplayer support, which is a shame. We feel it would be twice the fun if two to four gamers could be involved rounding up the sheep as separate herdsmen, or if time trials could be run to see which gamer could handle the "sheep saving" in the quickest fashion.

Sheep is currently available for Sony PlayStation and PC gamers, and this review tackles the PC version of the game. This is definitely a FGN4KIDS safe game and is rated E by the ESRB. Certainly this game will add both enjoyment and frustration to family game time at your house. Nicely timed for a holiday season release!

PS: Click here if you’d like to download a short, QuickTime movie of this game.