Peter und Vlad

The line-drawing genre has strangely chosen to go in every possible direction before it’s finally come around to the obvious playpen of sheep herding. Putting you in control of yokel farmer Peter, Peter und Vlad charges with herding your Bavarian flock into your barn through the now familiar line-drawing mechanic.

The idea is to trace lines on the screen for Peter to follow, concentrating on paths that scare the assorted sheep towards the bottom right corner and into the barn. Typically, it’s not that simple, and while most farmers have to contend with foxes and fly tippers Peter’s nemesis is his brother Vlad and his weather machine.

Vlad has unwittingly created an airborne weather machine that feeds on wool, which it seeks out on Peter’s fields. The game is split into waves: any sheep that Vlad’s machine manages to liberate from the playing field reduces the maximum score that you can achieve for that wave.

Along the way, you can run across power-ups in the form of various fungi that give you speed boosts. Some of them are poisonous, however, so you need to pay close attention.

Joining the Normal mode, which features both local and global leaderboard options, there’s a Zen mode in which you can practise your herding skills without worrying about any bothersome weather machines.

Peter und Vlad is perhaps one of the most polished line-drawing games to arrive on the iPhone yet and the combined weather effects, slick menus and animated title screen make for a very attractive offering. The music and ambient effects are great, too, featuring an impressive breadth of sheep noises.

It might seem like a facile criticism, but the sound effect for successfully herding a sheep into the barn is piercing to the point of painful, especially if you're racking up an impressive high score.

Otherwise, Peter und Vlad is a great line-drawing title that rarely puts a foot, or wellington, wrong.