Close your eyes. Imagine yourself as a pleasant-natured shepherd-boy in an airy British glade, running about grassy hillocks, guiding groups of chickens and badgery whatzits into pens using your trusty stick. Oh, look out, young herder-in-training! A fuzzy pink bear has come to pilfer your poultry! Quickly, lad, play your pipe, lest the chickens be filched, and father grow weary of your shenanigans! Now open your eyes, take a deep breath, and be prepared for a shock: This premise actually makes for quite a compelling adventure game. A Murder of Doops As Gerdy (the game’s title is a thoroughly British play on words that makes absolutely no sense to Americans), ’tis your role in life to herd. Luckily for you, the world is arranged so that herding is essentially unavoidable as travel routes and essential items are entirely off limits until you herd the necessary quotient of animals in a Mario-64–ish realm. Animals in Herdy Gerdy land come in a variety of forms, from the benign Doops (they stick together, run away from you in droves, and are attracted to musical sticks) to the adorable purple Bleeps (they like high places and can fall from any height) to the ferocious black Grimps (they chase you, eat whatever they walk past, and are soothed by flute music). Big things eat the little ones; the biggest ones smack you off to who-knows-where. There’s no hopping on enemies’ heads or punching things in the teeth…just herding and jumping and, if you’re so inclined, collecting bells to unlock DVD-style extras. Even “boss battles” are contests to see if you can get the right colored ducks to the right colored squares faster than the posted time. Since gallivanting all willy-nilly through a level just results in one giant food-chain disaster (which, in turn, results in having to restart the level), most 3D platform gamers will find Herdy’s pace and philosophy a little frustrating at first. Once the game “clicks,” however, you’ll realize that careful planning is your best friend, and that each level is essentially an extremely complicated slide puzzle...Herd Duck Contingency A into Pen B. Guide Giant Bear C to Slot D. Oops! Toothy Black Thing Flock E just ate Fluffy Purple Koala Pack F. Analyze your herding error; begin again. Careful planning is a must, and lots of time is devoted to staring at the map (a.k.a. the “Atari version” of Herdy Gerdy), which is easily accessed, removed, and manipulated with the directional pad, devising your “herding strategy” (…how odd…) before actually getting your hands dirty with the herdin’. Despite how dull it sounds, it’s a fun, rewarding task once you wrap your mind around it. These Picturesque Hummocks! Herdy Gerdy tries its damnedest to look and sound like a big-budget cartoon: The music is charming; the voices are pleasant; and the sound effects are superb—especially the onomatopoeic animal noises. The graphics are gorgeous, and the character animation is absolutely awesome, rivaling that of a high-class Disney cartoon. The characters are drawn with lots of goofy personality, and the lack of black lines around the edges makes them one step away from cel-shaded, and one step closer to being unique. Unfortunately, PS2 technical limitations (and programming problems) muck things up—the beautiful animation finds itself chugging under the stress of slowdown, and the game’s camera is thoroughly unpleasant to deal with, often blocking your view during critical herding moments, causing trouble negotiating the levels’ frequently air-tight spaces. Herdy Gerdy earns its biggest points for originality, daring to do something different with a tired genre that ain’t particularly known for doin’ things differently. You get the sense that with a little more polish (or a more powerful machine), it would have been the British PS2 equivalent of Pikmin, minus the Shigeru Miyamoto tender loving horticultural care.
