Grumpy Goats is what happens when Angry Birds moves to the barnyard

In this modern era of mobile and social gaming, it would be difficult to find someone who hasn't at least heard of Angry Birds and the phenomenal success that comes to everything that brand name touches. With such a popular franchise, it's not uncommon for copy-cat apps to try and gain a piece of that glory for themselves. Such is the case with Grumpy Goats on Facebook, an Angry Birds clone that pits goats against sheep down on the barnyard.

It's sheep-sheering season on the farm, and the goats are finding enjoyment in making fun of the newly "naked" sheep. The sheep don't take too kindly to this, and set off to sheer a few goats of their own. Seeking revenge, the goats dig out cannons to fire themselves at arrangements of wood, stone and other obstacles, with the sheep barricaded within. Through this level-based format, you'll fire goats at the sheep, just as you would fire birds at the green pigs of Angry Birds.

You'll have a limited number of goats to fire on each level, and will be given a score and star rating at the end of each level. There are dozens of levels to complete in all, but the gameplay itself doesn't really bring anything new or interesting to the genre. In fact, Grumpy Goats comes with a few technical problems of its own. For one, you'll have a very short aiming trajectory with which to predict where your shot will land, making accuracy difficult, and the cannon's motion sensitivity means that you'll have to frequently reposition your cannon as you accidentally drag too far to the top or bottom of the screen.

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Additionally, the physics are a bit dodgy in spots, as sheep can be hit and even tilted to around a 45 degree angle or more and still won't fall over. These instances are particularly frustrating, as realistic physics are absolutely necessary in these kinds of games. Without realism, you're left with completing levels based on luck, which simply shouldn't be the case.

You'll be able to hold the cannon steady while allowing the power meter to charge, giving each shot more force (or less, depending on when you release your goat), and will earn coins over time that can be spent on power-ups to boost your game. These powers allow you to customize your goats to do more damage per shot, or can be one-time-use items for those particularly tricky levels (say, a bomb that you can drop on the battlefield).

If Angry Birds wasn't already available to play for free on Facebook, then perhaps Grumpy Goats would earn more of a recommendation. As it stands however, there's just not enough to step Grumpy Goats apart from the game that inspired it.

Click here to try Grumpy Goats on Facebook --->

Will you try Grumpy Goats on Facebook, or are you fine sticking with the original Angry Birds and nothing else?