SHEEPO

A bit quirky, fun, and lovely looking game. Weird creatures and the fictional dystopian environment are quite reminiscent of Rain World, as well as Badlands, sharing some gameplay mechanics as well. And although the gameplay isn't anything spectacular, it's undoubtedly very well executed, making it not only very fun to play but also to fully complete it as well. It's not frustratingly difficult. It's solidly made, with some nice touches, like most areas being accessible from both ends and having progression shortcuts. The soothing soundtrack not only fits the atmosphere very well, but I also found it very nice to listen to. And while it's quite an ordinary platformer, it still works well with its elements, reveals, exploration, and the light narrative.

Not just incredibly well made for a first game, but a great game in its own right. Nearly every element that Kyle Thompson has refined over his next two games - Islets and Crypt Custodian - were already well realized here. Well, except for the combat since this game doesn't really have any, but the exploration, slick movement, quirky humor, and bullet-hell-lite enemy patterns are here and already great. It is a bit on the short side, but that's not a negative. Every room has purpose and your time is respected, not wasted. If you haven't played any of Kyle's games yet, I highly recommend picking up the whole bundle and starting here. If you have played one or both of his later games, I still recommend picking this up to appreciate just how innately skilled he is at crafting a great Metroidvania. Super excited for Well Dweller, and whatever else he makes in the future.

I want to be able to recommend this because I love the dev's later games and humor, but Sheepo is a 2D platformer with [i]extremely[/i] loose movement (and the only things you can do are move, jump, and selectively interact) and a very large, very sparse world. It has a metroidvania-style map, but is a huge pain to get around because the loose controls make precision impossible and you often have to wall-jump back and forth over and over and over and over just to get around a (usually empty) room. There's a lot that could be great, here--it's silly and funny, the sparse world fits the narrative, the way the character can get upgrades to temporarily transform into other creatures is neat--but the loose movement kills it for me, especially because I do not like (and am not good at) platforming. I may keep playing to see if it becomes fun for me, but can't currently recommend this to anyone who doesn't love 2D platformers.

This is an exceedingly charming and fun little metroidvania.

A very fun little metroidvania!

The best platformer I've played since HollowKnight. Sheepo is that good.