Cows In Space is an odd game with a weird premise.  But like most of Donut Games’ games, it is pretty fun to play.  This does lean towards the difficult side as far as their games are concerned, so be prepared for a bit of a challenge.  What you can also expect is good, cute visuals, decent music and a 3 tiered scoring mechanism that will keep you striving to get all the stars on each level.

All you know is that due to some failed experiment, Earth’s cows are floating out in space in protective bubbles.  It’s up to you to bring them back home.  Each level is filled with bewildered cows that just want to get home.  There are one or more teleports per level, cleverly disguised as stars inside of bubbles.  Your job is to get each and every cow to come in contact with one of the teleports.  Fortunately, just about everything in space is highly elastic, and you’re equipped with a gun that fires balls to get things bouncing.  You must start some chain reactions that result in the cows bouncing into the teleports or vice versa.  On each level you start with three balls, and very rarely do you get the chance to earn extra shots, so you must plan your attack very carefully.

Along the way you’ll encounter many things that will help or hinder you.  There are a few objects that just refuse to budge when you hit them, and instead just deflect whatever comes in contact with them.  Other objects, like the little green balls, add some more ricochet power to your attack.  vacuums suck everything towards them (as long as the objects are already in motion), while fans blow them away.  The triple ball icon gives you three extra shots, but must be bounced into a teleport first.  Then there is the dreaded skull, which will wipe out any cow it comes in contact with (in a non-violent family friendly way, of course).

The Cow Torch

Each level starts out with a certain number of points, and as the cows start bouncing around you start losing points.  You’ll always score at least one point, so as long as you clear all the cows you’ll get one star, but to get two or three stars for most levels will require a lot of skill (and probably multiple tries), as it doesn’t take long for your points to fall bellow what’s required to earn additional stars.  To control your gun you just drag your finger across the screen, and a quick tap sends a ball (or two, if you’re not careful) flying towards it’s goal.  Thankfully there’s a guide to show you roughly where the launched ball will go, though you have to keep in mind that doesn’t account for the ball bumping things along the way.

Graphically the game maintains the look that most Donut Games products share, which means the overall quality is good.  However, due to the space theme the background tends to be a bit more sparse than some of their other offerings.  Some of the objects are also not quite as detailed as what I’ve come to expect from a Donut Games production, and there isn’t a whole lot of animation.  The important part, however, is that the cows and the teleports look really good.  The sound effects are decent enough, and the music is good, though it’s a lot more subdued than most of their efforts.  It’s got kind of a “2001: A Space Odyssey” vibe to it.

Overall this is another stellar effort from Donut Games.  Sometimes the individual levels push the limits of my frustration tolerance, but in the end there haven’t been any levels so far that I could beat with some patience and a little mumbling under the breath.  While not my favorite Donut Games product aesthetically, it still looks and sounds good.  This is definitely a great puzzle game to have sitting in your collection right next to Spikey’s Bounce Around.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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