Hay Ewe

Hay Ewe doesn't quite feel right. There's a lack of snap to proceedings, a woolliness to the game that manifests itself as frustration.

It's all a little too safe as well. A by-the-numbers mobile puzzler with cute animals, power-ups, and a star-based rating system.

That wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the core gameplay was more interesting, but everything just feels too samey, or too bland, for the game to really sink its teeth in to you.

The aim of the game is shepherding your flock to the level's exit. You control a sheep, and you wander around farm-based levels, collecting lambs and leading them to safety.

You control your sheep by drawing lines on the screen, and it's here that the game's first problem throws itself up. The controls just aren't sharp enough for some of the tasks you need to complete, and it sours the whole experience.

They're perfectly adequate for the first few levels, but as soon as you're confronted with more complex obstacles, you'll find them lacking.

Those obstacles include milk-spouting cows, charging bulls, a fox that'll steal your babies, and switches you need to stamp on to open gates.

Nothing ever gels together though. Positioning your sheep to open the gates is fiddly at best, and often you'll have been attacked by something before you've had any chance to react.

It’s a shame, because there's a thread of silly humour running through Hay Ewe that makes me want to like it. It's cheeky and irreverent, and you get the sense it's trying to poke fun at App Store culture.

But it never manages to rise above its slightly dull ideas. And the fact that the whole thing feels like it's lacking a layer of polish is telling.

Hay Ewe isn't a terrible game, but it's one that we expected a lot more from. As it stands it's a disappointing experience that shuffles along when it should be striding, and stumbles when it should walk tall.