Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf (no it’s not Wile E Coyote) have this weird working relationship. They both clock on in the morning, then Sam stands and watches over a flock of sheep, whilst Wile E, sorry, Ralph Wolf tries to steel the mutton in a variety of ACMEaugmented antics.

The game takes the original cartoon and updates it into a more modern idea, however. Ralph Wolf is invited by Daffy Duck to take part in a gameshow called ‘Who Wants To Steal A Sheep?’ To win, he must steal one sheep per level from under the ever-watchful eye of Sam Sheepdog.

As far as cartoon-inspired games go (and let’s face it, there have been some bad ones lately) Sheep Dog ‘n’ Wolf is one of the best yet, managing to capture the look and feel of the ACME universe perfectly – and it’s a pretty good game to boot!

Every level has a flock of sheep with Sam standing guard. You have to sneak up and grab a sheep without him seeing you, then high-foot it to the end-zone. The game incorporates stealth elements – Sam looks from left to right, and an icon in the top of the screen shows you where the mutt’s looking. So you have to sneak around, hiding behind different objects. If Sam spots you, you must run away with Roadrunner speed or face a pummelling.

The real fun of the game isn’t in the stealth, however – it’s in using the ACME objects dotted around the levels (you order them by bashing mailboxes.) Everything from humble lettuces to rocket packs, fans, sheep perfume, disguises and much more is yours for the taking! Getting the sheep is never a case of just grabbing them – you have to figure out a way of using these insane items to lure the lambs into your grasp.

The game is a very mixed bag visually, and ranges from brilliant to meanderingly average. On the one hand the design is fantastic, especially the facial expressions of the characters, but there’s a lot of fogging and at times, the levels look very murky instead of bright. Oddly enough, it’s one of those games that starts to look better as you get further into it though, and despite its faults, it still manages to look amazingly good at times. When Ralph jumps into a bush to hide, and you just see his eyes and nose poke out, craftily looking left and right, it’s pure Looney Tunes.

The only real problem is with the levels, which tend to be very linear. You do one puzzle at a time. If you get stuck, that’s it – you ain’t going nowhere until you figure that puzzle out. The only other thing to do in each level is find a hidden time-clock, and once you’ve done that there’s no reason to return to that level. With only 18 levels, we do have concerns over the long-term life of the game, but it is fair to say that after the first few sheep are stolen, the levels get larger and more complex.

Ultimately, Sheep Dog ‘n’ Wolf is a good game, which captures the atmosphere of a Looney Tunes cartoon perfectly. With a few tweaks, and more to do in each of the levels, it would have been truly great – but it’s still good!