Herdy Gerdy is a misspelled play on words.
The title refers to the fact that you play as the herder Gerdy, yes Gerdy, and the awkward
instrument of the same name that's cool in its steampunk, fiddle-like appearance.
But here's the thing: I'd rather not hear the music produced by it.
You could argue that it's more important that the instrument, with its primary function
of producing music, should be better in that regard.
You'd be right.
Why am I talking about the weird Hungarian instrument so much?
Well, I think it's an amazing and specific coincidence that Herdy Gerdy's namesake is
a nearly perfect analogy to the game itself; that is, Herdy Gerdy looks as theoretically
awesome as the instrument, and plays...well, it plays as well and annoyingly as the instrument
sounds.
Herdy Gerdy not only artistically looks well in its watercolor, animated film style, but
it also looks like a 3D platformer.
It may be strange that I'm disappointed that it's not, as any belief that it is a 3D platformer
would imply an uninformed amount of research.
But, yeah, I just picked up the game for 99 cents because of cute designs and, once again,
my belief that it was a PS2 era 3D platformer, the best era of 3D platformers.
Instead, it's a poorly-controlling herding simulator that's not fun at all.
OK, so maybe Herdy Gerdy is a little bit of a 3D platformer in that it takes place in
a 3D environment and, as Gerdy, yes Gerdy, you can jump.
But when his father, Master Herder Gerdryn, yes Master Herder Gerdryn, doesn't wake up
on the day of the annual herding competition, yes annual herding competition, Gerdy sets
out to remove the evil spell placed on his father by...winning the annual herding competition.
Sounds like the father's just dead and this game is really just about a farm animal-obsessed
boy in denial, but regardless, the story makes no sense and isn't interesting in the slightest.
Luckily, other aspects of the presentation fill in the whimsical and likeable gap left
by the story and characterization.
As mentioned earlier, the game has an awesome watercolor aesthetic, and environments and
characters look like video game adaptations of some characters in an animated movie that
exists somewhere.
Character and creature designs are as weird as they are charming, and while the naming
of said creatures is lackluster (doops and gromps), there's nevertheless a certain level
of charm to it.
Too bad it's all ruined by the gamplay.
I'm not sure I've ever played a game where the quality of presentation and gameplay are
in such stark contrast.
As I mentioned, Herdy Gerdy is a herding simulator, one that plays like a short portion of a 3D
platformer I wish the game would actually be.
What I mean is that it plays badly, like it was designed without the fact that the whole
game has to be played like this in mind.
You just run at creatures to direct them towards their pens.
To be fair, that's at first; later on in the game, you get items that more effectively
help you direct creatures in the right direction.
But the poor controls still stand; Gerdy moves with flailing limbs and the amount of precision
you would expect out of a kid running around with flailing limbs.
In order to move onto the next area, you need to corral a certain percentage of the creatures,
which is like whatever, but sometimes you have to come back with a certain item to get
the rest in order to embark on a different path.
That would be cool, too, getting a little Metroidvania style gameplay in there, but
the herding of the creatures is so paradoxically boring and frustrating that you don't want
to go back and prolong the game any further.
I could explain to you the irrationality in having to prove to old gypsies that you can
herd and the frustration caused by the predatory, bear-like Gromps that eat the docile creatures
and cause many a level restart, but I think I've talked about this game long enough.
Almost.
It may sound like I'm bashing Herdy Gerdy.
That's because I don't like it.
Its neat aesthetic, that I do enjoy, somehow makes my distaste for the game itself even
greater.
A game that looks like this would be great...if it played well.
The argument could be made that I suck at the game, and...yeah, I mean, I probably do.
But Herdy Gerdy's gameplay does nothing to incentivize.
Conflictingly stiff and loose controls, frustrating creature AI, collectibles that just unlock
concept art and the like, and just a boring gameplay premise effectively cancel out the
likeability that could be brought out by the game's visual style.
I'm all for obscure, different games, but maybe this obscure, different game just isn't
for me.
Maybe hardcore Herdy Gerdy fans can point out what's so great about it.
Otherwise, I think this one can just stay in its 99 cent, mediocre obscurity.