Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

Top Hat Studios

Developer

Kyle Thompson

Genre

Action, Adventure, Platform, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

346 MB

Release Date (NA)

Aug 26, 2020

Purchase From

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Sheepo is a Metroidvania platformer developed by Kyle Thompson and published by Top Hat Studios that may remind players of Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Sheepo has players attempting to save the planet Cebron using nothing but the main character’s quirky ability to help them navigate the landscape and reach deeper portions of the planet. Although the game features no typical combat, it is full of puzzles, boss battles, and fun.

Big Job, Little Pay

Sheepo, an armless rat-like creature, starts a new job at an intergalactic species database and is given the monumental task of saving the Planet Cebron from extinction. Sheepo appears to be paid for a single day of work despite a day on Cebron lasting 8,000 Earth days. Sheepo has to traverse the uncharted planet to gather specimens of each living species on it. To gather a specimen, an unhatched egg, Sheepo must defeat the corresponding species queen. With each specimen collected, Sheepo gains special abilities to aid in delving deeper into the planet.

Jumping to New Heights

In general, the controls are basic and straightforward, which makes learning to play quick and easy. Aside from movement via analog stick, there are different buttons to jump (and double jump), to activate save points or engage in conversations with NPCs, and to launch characters between locations. Sheepo is able to jump off or between walls, which can be helpful when vertically navigating a chute. There are also solid white dots throughout that can be used to launch characters in any direction from said dot, which can be helpful in reaching higher locations. Additionally, there are solid blue squares that function more like a slingshot, launching Sheepo from their current location. With both of these launchers, there is a dotted white ring that forms as the character gets close enough to engage with them.

In addition to the launchers, Sheepo can acquire special abilities after collecting each species. For example, there are flying white birds scattered on the way to the first boss area. After beating the boss, Sheepo can transform into those birds after getting close enough. These special powers only last for a few seconds but allow you to access areas that were previously unavailable, such as using the bird power to fly to a new area. Another special ability is digging, which allows the character to transform into a bone worm-like creature and tunnel through walls (generally limited by locations that have tunnels already). However, this ability comes with a caveat: if the power expires while you’re in the wall, you will perish.

Life in a Puzzle

The game slowly introduces harder and harder puzzles, which allows players plenty of time to learn the puzzle mechanics, such as using a launcher to quickly cross a series of spiked rocks that go up and down. Initially, puzzles seem overly simplistic, such as double jumping to higher platforms or jumping back and forth to climb a chute. However, later in the game, around the 25-30% completion mark, they become more complex, such as having players alternate between different colored fans with a lever to traverse a lengthy section. In these longer sections, a small mishap can lead to having to repeat an area that takes a few minutes to get through each time. Overall, the puzzles are challenging enough to traverse, but some portions become a little predictable, such as needing to launch the character into a chute to climb.

Some of the difficulty in puzzles comes from avoiding environmental dangers, such as spikes or toxic waters. If you get hurt, you lose some life. Sheepo has three life points at the start of the game, but they can be expanded by one point upon finding three special health fragments hidden on the planet. Fortunately, after taking damage, you’re given a temporary chance to escape the situation. Sometimes, this means pushing forward, and other times, it may mean retreating. Life points are signified with a glow bug that follows Sheepo and changes from green to yellow to red to show how many life points are left. Life points are restored after reaching a save station, after you’re defeated and thus returned to a save point, or after obtaining a red heart, which recovers one life point.

Stealing Eggs like a Boss

Boss battles aka ‘Queen’ battles feature a closed room in which you battle an oversized member of a species. Since Sheepo does not have any fighting moves itself, it has to utilize other objects in the room or even the boss’s own attacks against it. While the first boss is pretty straightforward and easy, the difficulty ramps up for the next few. For example, the first boss, the Longbird Queen, requires ascending from the floor to the ceiling to activate a lever while dodging simple attacks and projectiles, whereas a later boss, the Spineworm Queen, requires dodging as the boss charges across the screen and also avoiding the toxic, exposed floor underneath. Although the boss difficulty increases as you progress, the bosses themselves are not too difficult for the average player. Plus, the game resets to just before the boss room in case you are defeated. Additionally, some of the boss mechanics get a bit predictable, such as dodging for a while and then using the boss’s projectile against it three times to win. After defeating the boss, Sheepo can claim the unhatched egg of that species to add to the collection and gain a new special ability.

Feathering Along

You’ll traverse several distinct visual zones on your way to saving Cebron. The Landing is an area with a crimson and pink background and green leafy vegetation on the ground, while Deadmall is an area with green hues in background, green sludge, black spikes, industrial pipes, and beams. In the overall planet map, each one is sectioned off by color (e.g., red for The Landing and blue for Deadmall) and further broken down by individual rooms in those zones. Each room on the map shows the corresponding connection points to reach the next room. Overall, the map is fairly easy to navigate if you know where you need to go. That said, one challenging aspect, common to the genre and here it occurs after progressing about 20% into the game, is figuring out where to go next. There don’t appear to be any cues as to where to proceed in the main storyline aside from a possible connection earlier in the game, so you’ll basically run around until you figure it out (i.e., trial and error).

There are feathers to collect, which appear to revive you in case you’re defeated outside of boss battles, that can be used to purchase an upgrade to the map. This upgrade is helpful for determining where save locations are located (be sure to save after a tough puzzle). Fortunately, there are enough save spots to avoid having to repeat too much content, which keeps the tension from building too much.

Well Done, Sheepo!

Overall, Sheepo is an enjoyable, under-the-radar addition to the Metroidvania genre. While some puzzle aspects and bosses can become predictable, the game is well executed in design and is quite a quirky adventure from top to bottom. So take an adventurous leap alongside Sheepo!

A Nintendo Switch code was provided for this review and gameplay footage.