Shortly after purchasing Herdy Gerdy, I realized one thing: I shouldn't have purchased Herdy Gerdy. The game is little more - very little more - than a complete and utter failure. Its biggest problem is that it is painfully trapped within the N64's limitations, and I mean painfully.
The game was originally in production some three or four years ago for that system. But as it lost steam, the developers at CORE (a division of Eidos, of Tomb Raider fame) shifted production over to the Dreamcast. We all know how the Dreamcast fared - it flared brightly but died a quick death. Thus, Herdy Gerdy was moved once again and this time to the PS2.
And I would have rather had them simply scrap production than make the PS2 conversion that they did. But they could have done this game right. Just take Maximo for example: developer Capcom shifted Maximo from the N64 to the PS2 and created a stellar platformer. They did it right; CORE did it wrong.
Gameplay
Well, in case you couldn't tell from the title of the game, the main objective in this game is to herd. Yep, it's a game about herding. It sounds ridiculous, and guess what? It is.
Herdy Gerdy, the main character, finds his father asleep as the game begins. What's so odd about this, you ask? Well, honestly, I don't know. It looks to me like the guy is simply taking a nap, but apparently Herdy knows otherwise. His father has been put to sleep by an evil spell! Let's hear a collective: "Oh no!" Not that you should care. But Herdy does. And thus he finds out that if he enters the great herding contest and wins, he can get the spell on his father reversed. And naturally, his father was the great herder of his day. So Herdy is, of course, destined to be a great herder himself.
Oh boy, let the games begin. Herdy wanders around moderately sized landscapes herding various animals. The act of herding itself is hard to explain. First off, there are only a handful of animals that you can herd. There should at least be a dozen, really. But there are only three or four. To herd some animals, all you do is walk near them and they'll start running away. So if you want the animals to run to the right, you move Herdy to their left and they'll run to the right. Neat, eh? No, not really. But hey, there is some variety. After all, to round-up Gromps - which are giant pink bear-like creatures featured on the game's cover art - you get to use traps. Rather then scaring them you merely let them chase you around and you run to the nearest trap. Again, brilliant gameplay... or not.
Also, I thought with the faster systems, the DVD drives, etc. that load times were supposed to be concerns of the past. For some reason the load times for Herdy Gerdy are outrageous. You're treated to this surprise before you even get to the opening menu screen. You know those static images that the original Playstation displays as the real game loads in the background? Apparently, CORE thought that was a trend that should make a comeback - because you're lucky enough to face two of those load screens for about 90 seconds as the menu screen loads. Not to mention another load screen after you select "Start New Game." Like the rest of this game, the load times are absurd for a PS2 offering.<$>
@right:Grade: D-<$>
@bodytext:
Graphics
Ouch. Here's where the N64 really shines through. If by shines, of course, one means really sucks and looks awful. Jaggies, jaggies, jaggies. Jaggies everywhere, I say. This game has massive aliasing issues. And the textures are classic 1996. That's great, but last I checked that was, oh, six years ago. And six years old isn't quite old enough to be considered retro vogue just yet, but rather just old enough to be thoroughly repulsive to those who appreciate the finer graphics in other new games.
Honestly, when I first started playing Herdy Gerdy I couldn't help but immediately draw up two conclusions from the graphics alone: first this game is either six years old, or second, this must be a beta version packaged as new in some gigantic conspiracy probably plotted by the evildoers over at Microsoft led by the Lord of Darkness Bill Gates. Well, maybe the whole bit about the evildoers at Microsoft is a bit far fetched, but this game really does look like a beta version.
And one more thing - the fences! Why can't I make Herdy run free through the world? There are nice little plots of grass that you can explore but those forests twenty yards distant? Nope, sorry, can't go there. There's a two-foot fence penning you in. Shucks.
