Reviews: Sheepo and Islets
Perspective on two games by Kyle Thompson played on Steam Deck Oled
At Margot Plays, I review games that I have played focused on my experience, which is evolving as I play more games. In general the games’ story will have been completed.
In this review post I wanted to speak about two games I played many months apart but I could really tell that they were made by the same developer. It is not easy to have a brand or style, therefore I want to call it out and talk about the evolution from Sheepo to Islets. You can really see how elements of Sheepo turned into Islets, and I appreciate this iterative development approach.
Side note: I got Sheepo when it was free. It is now ~ £8.
About the game - Sheepo
Explore a strange planet, collect the creatures you find, and then shape-shift into them to expand your world. Build your own path, chat with the locals, and discover the planets sprawling secrets in this quirky metroidvania platformer.
Sheepo Steam page
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: Easy combat
Completed: yes - main story
Time: ~4 hours
Summary:
Verdict: Recommend if you like metroidvanias, simple puzzles and platforming challenges, and low poly atmospheric art style. Also it is good to know that while there are boss battles, there isn’t actually any fighting. You just kinda learn the attacks and avoid them, and the creature tends to hit itself.
Narrative & Gameplay
The story is about exploring a new planet and getting to know the local creatures. By collecting their eggs you gain abilities of these creatures, which then allow the character to explore further.
The gameplay and exploration follows the metroidvania standard. Once you start to unlock an ability, you can explore various areas of the map until you get stuck and have to explore somewhere else. None of these seemed too tedious as sometimes can be the case in metroidvanias.
You do unlock some fast travel abilities as well, which helps with the backtracking.
The atmosphere is quirky and a bit magical/mysterious. You are on an alien to you planet after all. I enjoyed the simple, almost geometric graphics together with the simple colour palette.
I am a bit of a hack and slash game play lover and this game was refreshing in that there was no actual combat. You never gain an ability to cut grass or creatures down. This makes the boss fights more about avoiding attacks until the bosses hurt themselves enough. It was a different approach which I appreciated.
For gamers who enjoy completion and collection challenges there are many hidden feathers to collect all over the game. These unlock a secret area that I have not achieved yet.
The platforming feels good and not too frustrating at all. It is a small game that is a fun palette cleanser before playing something deeper and more involved.
Kyle’s brother did the soundtrack for the game, and it adds perfectly to the quirky vibes. I am not sure how to actually describe it. It is a bit like melodic and laid back? I am sorry I am not an audiophile. There is a variety to the sounds and background music but it is not complicated.
This actually takes me to the next game by Kyle Thompson which is Islets.
About the game - Islets
Take to the sky and reunite a fragmented world in this surprisingly wholesome metroidvania! Help Iko adventure across beautiful hand-painted islands, receive letters from a quirky cast of characters, and face powerful monstrous adversaries.
Islets Steam page
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: Easy
Completed: yes - main story
Time: ~8 hours
Summary:
Verdict: Recommend if you like metroidvanias, some fast paced and tight platforming, with cute aesthetics and a nice way to explore the maps. This game does include some combat and boss battles, but nothing too difficult.
Narrative & Gameplay
Islets is a cute metroidvania, with a lovely premise. You explore a world in a flying boat, discovering that the world has been split into 5 islands. There used to be magnets holding these worlds together and your goal is to explore these islands, and find the magnets and reactivate them to reunite the world.
This creates a map within a map. As you discover different islands different map fragments become available and once you activate the magnets these become joined.
I was drawn to the game due to its lovely hand drawn aesthetics and as you might already know, playing as an animal is always a plus for me. :)
While Sheepo doesn’t have any combat, in Islets the protagonist Iko, has a sword and bow and arrow. The latter will be upgraded with different abilities to allow more exploration and traversal, resulting in some challenging platforming.
The world is nicely filled with some quirky characters and conversations. There is even a scavenger hunt from a mysterious person, who is sending you anonymous letters to your letter box.
I thought it was a lovely engaging world, quite wholesome and cute. The art is an evolution of Sheepo’s with some changes in style, as this is definitely more cartoon like. The world biomes across the islands are diverse and fun. I really loved some of the assets.
You can really see how it is an evolution and improvement from what Sheepo was. While both have slightly different styles to me Sheepo does feel like version 1 and Islets is the metroidvania that was built as a result of the learning from Sheepo. This doesn’t mean Sheepo has many bugs or anything, Islets is an evolution of style and art and clearly an improvement of skills. It is a great little game and with 10-15 hour game and simple but effective story.
I feel like this is what Kyle is being really clever and good with, Simple effective stories, progressed with some little puzzles, and platforming challenges and some interesting upgrades and mechanics in the game play to further the exploration.
His sense of humour is evident in the bits of dialogue and I appreciate his quirkiness. As you progress you unlock not only movement mechanics but also you need to upgrade your flying ship to be able to explore further.
Boss battles come in 2 varieties. One is on the islands and often involves movement and platforming mechanics, and the second is while flying the ship to get access to the different islands in the first place. I liked this dynamic.
The way I connected Sheepo and Islets was actually through the music though. Some of the soundtrack seems to be the same or similar? I can’t easily find the evidence around this without comparing track to track but the music was the bit that triggered my memory of Sheepo. How clever and nice to have a brand identity so early on.
Verdicts
I recommend both games to metroidvania lovers, that want something a bit quirky and wholesome to play. If simple combat is something you enjoy then go with Islets to check out Kyle’s style. These are more laid back games, unlike something like Hollow Knight or Nine Souls, so could also appeal to gamers who want to give metroidvanias a go. These games are great on the steam deck and work really well with a controller. I now want to play Crypt custodian to really experience where this sole dev took things next.
Have you played either Sheepo or Islets? Or perhaps Kyle’s other game Crypt Custodian?
Kyle Thompson is one of my favorite emerging indie devs! You’re right about the OST carrying a signature style through both games and that continues into Crypt Custodian as well. I like how you put Islets feeling like a step up in skill to Sheepo. It really does feel that way and is also true of CC.
I loved Crypt Custodian so to hear both are great games makes me excited to play them. Also, I am going to add the difficulty I select in my reviews going forward thanks for that insight!