Herd Herd Herd Deluxe is one of those games that aims to bridge the gap between young gamers and adults alike thanks to its smooth difficulty curve that plateaus at a high level. No punches are pulled, so you'll need to get your tap and drag on to help save the somewhat docile farm animals in your care.

As mentioned, things ramp up quite slowly, and indeed it may feel like the game never really takes off as it drills new skills in to you with each stage, only to provide one or two genuine challenges to test what you've learned. This is no mistake as the controls take a lot of getting used to. Indeed your primary method of moving animals is to literally herd them by placing a finger behind them and steering.

This is no easy task, especially if you manage to capture two or more animals in the thrall of your commanding finger. Thankfully a tap will separate them or trigger special abilities such as being able to make sheep jump.

You'll have to avoid wolves and disease ridden animals in order to make it back to the pens, but as you'd expect there are also stars to collect too, making life much harder when you're restricted by a time limit. Thankfully the game regularly mixes things up with mini-races and puzzles in order to give the player a break before unleashing stages that combine all you've learned.

Ultimately your enjoyment of Herd Herd Herd will come down to how successful you are at manipulating the game's controls. At times it can be a frustrating bore, and at other times it's smooth as silk. Sadly the lack of consistency mars the otherwise appealing gameplay and its cutesy, polished charm.