He’s Shaun the sheep. He’s Shaun the sheep. He’s Shaun the SHEEP. He’s Shaun the… Sorry sorry. But whenever we write about Shaun the Sheep, we get the theme tune stuck in our heads. And we’ll be damned if we’re not making you get it too.
But yes: Aardman Animations had a new Shaun the Sheep TV special this Christmas: The Farmer’s Llamas. It was great. And its official Llama League mobile game is good too.
The game sees you playing as the mischievous llamas rather than the sheep. In fact, the aim of the game is to boot a football straight at Shaun and his friends, scoring points the more you hit them.
In the one-player mode, you move your llama left and right, then tap the screen to kick or head the ball when it’s near, with little arrows showing where it’ll go. Each level gives you a target number of hits, with the sheep popping in and out as you play.
Customisation is a big part of the game: you can choose different arenas to play in, from a barn and a basketball court to the moon. You can also buy new outfits for your llama, as well as bonus items to help you play.
They’re bought with virtual gold coins which are earned by playing; or by watching adverts for other mobile games; or by spending real money as in-app purchases: ranging from 79p for a pack of 5,000 coins to £3.99 for a “huge” pack of 75,000.
You can tell that Aardman has kept a tight ceiling on those purchases: no £39.99 or even £69.99 option as we’ve seen in some other children’s games. And in truth, you earn coins from playing at a decent enough rate to buy new items: so the game isn’t aggressive in nudging kids to pay.
Our favourite feature is the two-player mode, though. Two people can play on the same device – admittedly better on a tablet than a smartphone – where the goal becomes to hoof the ball into your opponent’s goal before they can get it into yours. Cue shouting, but also lots of fun.
Shaun the Sheep – Llama League is a free download for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, and a free download for Android from the Google Play store.
• Read about more Shaun the Sheep apps for kids on Apps Playground