REVIEW | Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition |

Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition Review | I have to be honest and announce a little bit of bias towards Aardman Animations. I grew up watching Wallace and Gromit and it became the forefront of my Christmas TV time from when I was much younger, and Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition features Shaun the Sheep from a Close Shave and the following spin-off children’s series with Timmy and Shirley also from that spin-off also in this game. However, with all my favourites from my childhood, I seem to be keener to criticize any shortcomings as I demand perfection from my favourite franchises. Developed by Greenlight Games and co-published by Aardman Animations and Mobile Pie sees Shaun, Shirley and Timmy traverse farms, space, London and the underground in this puzzle platformer in which the weights and the size of the sheep are the main barriers to success.

Developer	Greenlight Games
Publisher	Mobile Pie, Aardman Animations

ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer. Got unanswered questions about this game? Get in touch on Twitter!

What we Liked!

Sound and music are polished | It is no surprise the music quality is good in a title such as this one. The music has been taken straight from the Shaun The Sheep TV programme, and yes I did watch a few episodes of the TV show to see if they had used something similar to the programme and indeed I confirmed that it is straight out of the opening sequences of the episodes I watched. It’s a simple case of why try and re-invent the wheel, if the music is of high quality, why try and develop something new when it already works well and you instantly have that link from the game to the cartoon. Also, the sound effects are polished and well worked, the bangs of the metal as you jump on it and the TNT booms are of very good audio quality and don’t detract from the game at all.

The animated graphics are excellent | When playing Home Sheep Home I expected a high level of graphical quality with it being a Shaun the Sheep/Aardman product and, whilst it cannot use the usual clay motion/stop motion style animations that it uses for the TV show, it uses a hand-drawn style of animation for the game but it still creates a very high-quality visual style which is appealing on the eye.

Puzzles are challenging and varied | For a game that is obviously tailored and intended for children, the puzzles vary greatly in difficulty. From the opening puzzle in the game which is Farm level one, which is very simple to Farm level fifteen which is very challenging, the variation makes the game entertaining to play. The puzzles have plenty of different problems to overcome also. Level challenges include Big Ben, Chimney jumping and the Queen’s Guards in the London levels. Teleportation, rockets and gravity in the space levels. Trampolines and hay bales in the farm levels. Water and TNT in the underground levels. These extra challenges make for an added difficulty level and therefore adds to the game experience.

Tutorial is clear | The tutorial is short, but it gives clear and concise advice and tips on how to move and use the game’s functions, such as Shirley being able to move heavy stuff that Timmy or Shaun cannot, Shaun being able to move quickly and jump very high and Timmy being able to get into small gaps. It sets the player up very well for the challenges to come

Mixed Feelings

Collectables and bonus levels | This is entirely dependent on how much you 100% games but whilst there are some achievements that you can win which have special requirements on individual levels. The content that gets you replaying levels is finding all the collectables and unlocking the bonus levels. The bonus levels are unlocked by collecting the joysticks (there are 15 bonus levels in total), and this is a welcome bit of extra content for the game. However, the main collectables are the socks that are plastered all over each level and although they contribute to a few of the games’ achievement total, it doesn’t provide any more content for you and are simply there to be collected for bragging rights. I think they should have made extra content for collecting the socks as well, even if it’s development concept art or bespoke videos, at least it would be some reward for that effort.

What we Disliked

Lack of cutscenes | With the game being made in conjunction with TV royalty such as Aardman Animations you would have thought they could have made a few cutscenes in the game to assist the storytelling efforts here. Sadly, this was not achieved and I think the narrative of the anthologies does suffer as a result of this.

Too Short | Home Sheep Home is far too short of an experience for my liking, as you can complete each level in less than a minute each so the whole experience can be done within an hour, 15 levels for 4 anthologies. It can be 100% in about 2/3 hours, depending on how easy it is for you to find all the collectables as well. I would have liked the levels to be bigger and more in-depth or to have more than 4 anthologies to lengthen the experience. When the game is of a high quality and is very enjoyable you always want more of it especially if the experience is a short one.

How long to beat the story | 1 Hour
How long to achieve 1000G | 2 Hours
You’ll love this game if you like these | Caatch, Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Conclusion
82/100

Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition is a fine little puzzle title which kept me entertained throughout the game’s shelf life. The only real drawback was the shelf life is limited and the story could have been developed more and made a more complete experience. But the puzzles are engaging and vary in difficulty, actually for a game that was obviously intended for children the puzzles can be quite difficult. The graphics and sound are both of a high quality that you would expect from a TV publisher like Aardman to the point that the music has come straight from the TV show. This gives an immediate call back to the TV programme but also the music is of high quality anyway so why change it?

Gameplay 🎮

Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition’s puzzle platforming gameplay uses Timmy, Shaun and Shirley’s size and weights as the central gameplay dynamic, using Timmy to get in small gaps, Shirley to move big obstacles and Shauns jumping abilities to navigate the challenges of each 60 levels. It’s a very well-worked puzzle platformer which doesn’t get boring due to the variations in the puzzles and the extra nuances that some of the levels provide.

Visuals 🖼️

Whilst the visuals don’t use the claymation stop motion style Aardman and the TV show has successfully used for decades (nor does it have cutscenes with that style, which is a minor setback) the graphical quality and polish are high and the drawing style visuals are attractive on the eye all the same.

Sound 🎧

The music has been lifted straight from the TV programme. The menu theme and the level completion music are very prominent themes from the show, and whilst that doesn’t win many originality awards, I like the music quality and they are good themes to use. Don’t reinvent the wheel as they say. If it works, it works and the music certainly does here. Add the usual Shaun the Sheep bleating and the effects of the items you move and jump on, the audio quality is very high in Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition.

Story 📖

The story elements are short, to be honest. Four small anthologies detailing Shaun, Timmy and Shirley on the farm, going to London, in space and getting trapped underground, there isn’t much in the way of cutscenes or dialogue. It has 15 levels a piece of you filling in the gaps for yourself and what the puzzles on each level consist of. For example in the London story, you get packed in the car and it sets off, a couple of levels on the road and then in London doing puzzles at on Big Ben and on a building site etc.