Update: I’ve been informed that an update has been made to the title and so I will look again and add notes this weekend. It will most likely improve the score a fair bit as they added a lot of things I mention as being missing in this review. -Christophor Rick (see end of review for notes)

Why the farmer looks like Waluigi and has a rocket pack is beyond me, but never mind as you’ll be far too frustrated to even concern yourself with such matters. Woolly got to me just prior to the Christmas break and I promised I would look at it as soon as I could. I played it all through the break and I have to say, it’s one of the most frustrating games on the iPhone today.

Why? Here’s an example, hitting the screen where the tutorial tells you to, can lead to failure. How do you know a game is messed up? I think I just told you. It’s not that the tutorial is bad, it’s that the screen is not as accurate as is needed. We all know by now how much I hate a precision-based game on a non-precise game control scheme (a lot if you’re new to GDN). In fact, this is the sole reason why I do not recommend getting this game. Yes, I am telling you to stay away from Woolly who might not appear it at first but will be dangerous to your mental health and the health of your iPhone.

Often the game would not even start and in order to get it to play I would have to reboot my iPhone. That’s a waste of five minutes and completely defeats the purpose if I’ve only got five minutes to play.

All that and I haven’t even told you about the game itself yet? Well you see, you’re in control of Woolly who must jump from platform to platform in order to outrun the RPF (rocket-propelled farmer) who will come after you when the timer reaches zero to shear off a layer of fluff. Three shearings and you’re done for.

How far and high you jump depends on where you touch the screen the higher on the screen the larger angle of jump, the further away from Woolly, the more power. Unfortunately, and this is where major frustration comes in, it’s not exact and often hitting the same place twice will result in two different jumps. This is mostly due (I’m sure) to the poor sensitivity of the iPhone touch screen. This can result in a premature de-sheep-ulation (otherwise known as shearing) as every time you miss a platform and plummet into the sea you lose 3 seconds on a timer that is already perpetually counting down. Every two successful jumps or so you are given another 5 seconds of time. There are four seasons to work through and 4 quarters of each season.

Now one might think that when you pass a mark like quarter, half, 75% etc, you would have hit a save point. And you would be wrong. Which is why I have been unable to even finish the first season and barely stop myself from throwing the iPhone across the room (I warned you in the second paragraph about it). Another wonderfully frustrating facet of the game is the fact that the game board only moves when it feels like it (which is when you are on the platform nearest the right edge. So even if you thought to make a Herculean leap of faith, you can’t because you will never hit the platforms beyond the edge. In fact, I think they don’t even exist until they are drawn on the screen which is usually too late for your poor wet woolly. Even though it might be a gameplay mechanic, it’s a poor one. Additionally, the counter continues while you helplessly watch the screen scroll.

There are all manner of other issues with this game, like the timer keeps counting down even when you cannot play as you are helplessly waiting for the game to move the screen so you can continue.

While the graphics on the game might be interesting and the sound appropriate I still don’t think it’s enough to cover the flawed gameplay. Overall this game is just not all that much fun and when you can only play one level over and over again and continue to fail, well, it’s just not worth the money then is it? Some simple fixes could easily move this score into the 6-7 range, but right now it’s less than 50%.

It’s obvious that a lot of work went into this game. I just wish a little more would go into it and fix the flaws so it’s actually playable.

Update: I took another look at the game with the new update and the game is far more playable than it was previously. I’ve spoken with the developer and they’ve even stated that they are working on a way for the screen to move more quickly as well. Now the game is actually worth playing and further improvements I think will surely come and make the game better.

At present I am rating the game at: 7.0

Further Screens: