Balloon Shepherd

Fly around the screen in a hot air balloon, rescue sheep, and return them to the target on the top of the stage. Replenish your balloon’s forces by grabbing helium tanks and continue until the time runs out.

This concludes Slop Bucket Games. There are no bonuses to unlock, nor any extra levels to achieve. You can finish the story mode in less than two hours, and though that may not matter to young kids, the mini-games tell a different story. Shufflemuck is surprisingly decent, Balloon Shepherd has solid controls (and should be utilized more deeply in a future game), and Whack-a-Rac – while technically a rehash of the same old thing – is one of the better whack-a-mole clones I’ve experienced on the DS. Flag Defender isn’t bad either. But that’s four of the 10 games. All of them are very short – most last a minimum of 30 seconds but do not go beyond a few minutes in length.

This means that the replay value must be really strong in order to keep kids from getting bored. As a car trip, play-it-once-in-a-blue-moon time-killer, Slop Bucket Games should entertain the six to eight-year-old market. But keep in mind that if I – an adult gamer – am getting frustrated by the Cowapult mini-game, kids are likely to as well. They are bound to be bored by the Junkyard Hijinks, especially those who have full-fledged racing games in their collection, and may not welcome how easily melons fall out in the Melon Race.

With all this in mind, think carefully before making a purchase. Slop Bucket Games is definitely not for kids over the age of nine.