Sheepo (Nintendo Switch) Review

The story of Sheepo is about arriving on an alien planet and being tasked to collect six eggs belonging to the local inhabitants with the motivation being to preserve them before the planet dies out. This is plenty justification to explore and offers a goal to work towards. How to reach that goal is up to the player.

As a 'Metroidvania', open-world exploration is the name of the game for Sheepo and it has all the hallmarks of this genre such as the map design, item progression and optional or hidden content. This is where the similarities end however, as this title is not afraid to buck traditions through its game design.

For example, while the map is blocked off into the memorable squares that players will be familiar with from games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid, the actual shape of the area in each square varies greatly. Rooms are sometimes massive while others can be tiny and it can leave the player guessing at when and where the exit to progress can be found.

Items are also unusual as there is no way to fight in this title. Instead the gameplay takes a page from an old classic, Silicon Valley, and has the player character transform into the local wildlife by getting close to them and hitting A. Each animal allows for a new form of movement, such as flying, digging or swinging and these make up the game's power-ups. They can only be accessed once an egg has been collected.

The rest of the collectables are mostly just for that 100% score. Feathers are scattered around the map and while a certain amount are needed to reach the end, not all of them are required. These are obtained mostly through platforming challenges or puzzle rooms scattered around the map and really test the player's ability to use the power-ups to manoeuvre around obstacles. These challenges are well-paced to break up the progression and get suitably harder the further the game progresses.

This title is very well designed. It's not perfect as there are one too many slow wall jumping segments and while it doesn't do anything better than any of its contemporaries, the game makes up for it with lots of fun encounters. Boss battles are a good example of the way the game combines this fun with a challenge. They are not easy and the lack of combat means each fight turns into a bullet hell or difficult platforming challenge (or sometimes both).

Additional enjoyment can be found in the game's dialogue. It's quirky but not in a way that might make the player groan. There are some genuinely good lines from some of the game's NPCs that earn a chuckle and help to stop the tone of the game from getting too dark. Despite the looming threat of extinction from a planet that is dying, the local inhabitants, and even some of the non-threatening wildlife, are goofy in a charming way.