I counted to 93 apps with goat in the name from a search query in the Apple App Store before

The search results

I stopped counting. I originally thought that the number of apps devoted to goats would be small, that I could download them all and then do a short review of each. As it is, there’s no way I could go through all of them in two blog posts like I had hoped. I’ve decided instead to pick my four favorite apps from the top 20 results, and discuss those.

The first is game that I have devoted more time to than I would ever admit, lest I lose all dignity. It’s called “Goat Evolution”, and it’s weird. It’s part of a series of games made a single company that all feature the same premise of game play. Basically, when you drag two goat of the same type together, you make a mutant goat to add to your goat index. It eventually takes a pyramid of goat combinations to get to the later mutant goats.

The more mutated the goat is, the more money it makes you. Goat poo translates into coins (I warned you it was weird!), which you can use to buy goats, little goat hats, and upgrades. When you reach a certain point in the game, a little Martian man asks for a goat to do experiments on. From there, you can play the game in the exact same format on Mars as well as Earth. For some reason unbeknownst to me, this game is fun to play and there is a strange sense of achievement that comes with mutating a new type of goat.

One of the best-designed “goat” apps isn’t about goats at all. It’s all about sneakers. With the rise of the designer sneaker, there was a need for a forum to buy and sell sneakers. Both independent marketers and shoe companies can sell shoes on the app, and they can be sold as either new or used. There is a search page where one can enter terms of the search, such as size and color, and a way to save your favorite shoes onto a wish list. If you want to show your shoes off, you can connect the app to your Facebook or Instagram and contribute photos of shoes you have bought to the product page of that shoe. When you add photos, they are put on your “collection” page as an easy way to virtually keep track of your shoe closet.

The user interface is stunning. The app’s logo is a simplistic outline of a goat in black on a white background, and the tabs to buy and display shoes are easy to use. That’s coming from someone with little technological inclination, and no great love for sneakers.

From games that simulate you as a destructive goat, to a goat-named virtual shoe marketplace, there is a seemingly endless stream of varied goat apps. Next week, I’ll cover two more of the goat apps that grace the app store.