iPhone game of the day: Cut the Rope

Game: Cut the Rope
Price: $0.99 / £0.59
Size: 12.4MB
Buy it now from the iTunes store:US/UK

All most folks really need to hear about Cut the Rope is that it’s from the same developer who brought you Angry Birds. For the rest of you, let me tell you why this app is screaming up the charts like a rocket-powered jackrabbit slathered in greased lightning.

Cut the Rope has one of those simple-but-wide-open premises that seem as shallow as a puddle at first. You have a box. In that box are a stupidly adorable little monster with a sweet tooth and a piece of candy suspended by a string. You drag your finger across the screen to cut the string and drop the candy into the hungry monster’s eager mouth. That’s it. However, like so many great puzzle games, things get more interesting really, really quickly.

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There are stars floating in air that you’d like to collect by hitting them with the candy, which swings around with realistic physics. And there are other obstacles. Before long, you’re cutting an elastic string in such a way as to catapult the candy into one star, just around some spikes, then onto a bubble, which raises it, then near a balloon you can tap to puff air out and change the bubble’s direction so it hits another star right before you tap to pop the bubble, dropping the candy into a spot where another rope will snag it and swing it right into your critter’s mouth. Then you move on to see what new gameplay wrinkle the next box holds (candy-thieving spiders and electrified fields, for example).

The touch controls are dead-on, there are tons of quick, bite-sized levels to consume, and again – the monster is beyond cute. It’s also available for iPad under the name Cut the Rope HD, so you tablet-sized gamers can step up and see what it’s all about as well. You’re probably already shelling out for some Halloween candy this week. So spend a buck or two on this one and drop some virtual candy into this little green glutton’s mouth. You’ll enjoy it at least as much, and won’t even have to get up every time the doorbell rings.

Oct 28, 2010

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I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.