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‘Dreamy Goat’ Review – I Wish I Had Dreams Like These

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One of my favorite aspects about iOS gaming is being able to check out games that are so outlandish in design that they probably wouldn’t be made on any other platform. Dreamy Goat [$0.99] is one such game, telling the tale of Goat as he wanders from dream to dream eating random items and jumping on dream entities.

With trippy visuals and catchy tunes, Dreamy Goat is a short but intense experience for gamers willing to forego traditional gameplay for something different.

Let’s get one thing clear: Dreamy Goat is less of a game and more of a visual experience. Players can embark on seven different levels each with their own visual and auditory styles along with their own items for Goat to eat and jump on. Goat walks on his own through each level with your only control being a tap that causes him to jump as much as you want.

Each level is fixed in length, and when you’re finished you go on a wild ride on top of a space whale that eats stars while teleporting you to the next dream (I swear I’m not making this up). Players are free to simply play each level in succession, moving to the next for as long as you wish.

Dreamy Goat defaults to ‘Zen’ mode, which allows you to do whatever you want in each level without repercussion. Switching to ‘Sun’ mode turns on a scoring mechanic that forces the player to pay attention to collectibles, as the level will end if you don’t eat enough items. While Sun mode actually provides a goal and challenge to gamers, it really doesn’t add much to the actual gameplay.

For that matter, there’s very little in terms of any gameplay. There are no achievements, or leaderboards for the ‘Sun’ mode. There’s also no additional mechanics other than being able to make Goat (and the space whale) jump. This really shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone familiar with artistic games such as this, but deserves mentioning nonetheless.

Where Dreamy Goat is intriguing, however, is in its visual presentation. The graphics are simultaneously its most striking feature as well as the element that’s hardest to describe. Many portions of the graphics are simplistic hand-drawn pieces. Yet, all the visuals tie together and simply look and feel right together.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that everything is just so bizarre or if the developers have conjured up some magical spell of fascination involving goats. Regardless, when you combine the visuals with the musical scores (which range from serendipitous to heavy metal), it all just melds together into an interesting experience.

As many other similar games have shown, that sort of experience is only as much as the player makes of it. I also have no doubt that a lot of gamers will simply glance over this game for its lack of gameplay. However, the sheer psychedelic nature of the game is worth noting and at least struck a chord with me. If this sounds appealing, then I encourage you to partake in Dreamy Goat.

  • Dreamy Goat

    “My journey is everything” - Goat Featured as "Game Of The Week" on AppAdvice * APPTUDES.COM - "A Sublime Endless…
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