It Slices, It Dices, and Om Nom Noms the Candy Good (Cut the Rope: Experiments)

This game was reviewed on the iPad.

Om Nom is hungry again and, as always, the sure way to keep that smile on his face is MOAR CANDY.  Continuing with the theme from the original game, the rules are simple: cut the rope, pop the bubbles, avoid the traps, and guide the candy into the little guy’s mouth.  Gluttony has never been this cute.

When the title was first announced, there was a lot of speculation about what the game would actually entail.  My first assumption was that Experiments was a spinoff, with completely different gameplay while keeping the sugar addicted Om Nom as the star of the show.  What the game actually delivers is the same gameplay as the original, but with new puzzle mechanics.  In the initial release, we get 3 different game modes: Getting Started, Shooting the Candy, and Sticky Steps.   More levels will get introduced in later updates.

Getting Started doesn’t introduce anything new; it’s a good refresher for fans of the series and an introduction to new players.  We get to play with bubbles, ropes, bouncing surfaces, whoopee cushions, spikes, and rope crawling spiders (while trying to avoid the latter two).  Definitely a fun set of levels, but for old hands, it’s nothing spectacularly new.

Shooting the Candy introduces a suction cup cannon which you can fire by tapping it.   Once fired, a rope will lock onto the candy providing a life line.  The rope will be set in length based on the distance to the candy when the cannon is fired.  It’s an interesting mechanic, and of the 25 levels, only 2 gave me real pause.  For those who get stuck, something to note is that while the candy is in a bubble, the plunger fired by the cannon will weigh the candy down.  This can be very useful.

Sticky Steps brings out suction cups that are attached to the candy by rope.  Being able to attach and detach them, they can be used to reposition Om Nom’s tasty treat.  As before, only a few of the levels actually caused me any real brain scratching, but this doesn’t diminish the entertainment value, just game duration.

For those familiar with the original game (or Cut the Rope: Seasons), the only real change of note is the Einsteinian voice running the experiments.  Succeed or fail, he’ll be there cheering you on.  Overall, Cut the Rope: Experiments doesn’t feel like a new game, but rather an opportunity to sell additional content to users who enjoy the original.  I’m not sure if I’m actually complaining about this; for the whole dollar that I spent on the game, I received quite a bit of enjoyment out of it.  On the other hand, Rovio has managed to keep up the free updates on Angry Birds without the additional charge.

I hope in future updates “experiments” will mix and match these new mechanics together, as we got to see with updates in the original.  All that said, I give the game 4.0/5.0.  I held off buying my morning coffee to afford this game; I’m sure some of you will too.