By Adam Smith on January 13th, 2012 at 12:33 pm.
iOS physics puzzler Cut The Rope is a game about feeding candy to a little monster called Om Nom that people kept describing to me as ‘cute’ and ‘charming’. Naturally, this caused me to sneer and make a noise that sounded very much like ‘pfneurr’ while wafting their words away as if they were a lingering odour. When I actually played it during a long train journey I was, just as naturally, charmed and delighted, so it’s only right that I now tell other people how lovely it is, especially since it has been ported from iOS and a cut-down version can be played via a web browser. More info below.
Decent ports of iOS games are always welcome, the mouse being a suitable replacement for most varieties of prodding and swiping. Cut The Rope is a clever puzzler and in its later levels becomes quite complex, with spiders, fans and spikes aiming to kill the candy before it reaches its destination. I’m not sure exactly how many of those later levels are included – not too many from what I can gather – but there’s a suggestion that more may be added.
There’s lots of info on how HTML5 has made the port possible and more levels are available for those playing through IE, but a good amount of levels are available through your browser of choice as well, although I did get slight slowdown on Firefox and Chrome. Very slight. It’s free, fun and polished, and if you haven’t had the pleasure of touching screen with Om Nom, I suggest you have a look immediately.
13/01/2012 at 12:40 aircool says:
On it already :))
14/01/2012 at 10:39 SuperNashwanPower says:
Stopped playing because addictive tendencies
13/01/2012 at 12:45 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Origin or no sale.
13/01/2012 at 13:37 rayne117 says:
If Origin takes off, really takes off, that could be the beginning of the end. Ubisoft, THQ and all the others will look at Origin’s success and say “Well, we can do that too! Screw you, Steam!” And before you know it you’re running 25 programs just to play all of your games.
13/01/2012 at 15:57 StooMonster says:
rayne117 is correct. Be careful what you wish for. If EA’s Origin really takes off expect to see independent and exclusive stores from Activision, Ubisoft, et al.
No only will you need a dozen client apps to run you games, but you’ll also find that with lack of competition the prices will be console high and stay high too.
14/01/2012 at 10:41 SuperNashwanPower says:
I too demand Origin. I also demand a wire brush to be scraped across my eye, and three staples punched into my scrotum. Thank you.
13/01/2012 at 12:48 Ridnarhtim says:
Meh. I found this game only marginally more appealing than Angry Birds or Tiny Wings. It just gets boring very quickly.
13/01/2012 at 13:08 Gnoupi says:
Still can’t figure out the appeal around Angry Birds… We’ve had such games on pc for years, and with a better feel. Still can’t stand the way physics work in this angry birds game. Sometimes you’ll have the whole building fall on a pig… but since it didn’t fall fast enough, it’s still alive and now inaccessible. No care for the actual WEIGHT of pieces.
13/01/2012 at 13:02 MadTinkerer says:
Come to think of it, is Angry Birds on PC? I don’t care because I want to play it (we already have it on my brother’s iPhone), but it’s been ported to a bajillion other platforms already.
Oh well, at least Cut The Rope is in my browser now.
13/01/2012 at 13:09 Ricc says:
It’s in the Chrome App Store.
13/01/2012 at 13:09 Gnoupi says:
http://www.google.com/AngryBirds
13/01/2012 at 17:01 SquareWheel says:
That’s not how Google works.
http://chrome.angrybirds.com/
13/01/2012 at 17:46 Gnoupi says:
Hm, interesting, since it’s the URL they advertise: http://www.google.fr/search?q=angry+birds. On this page, the advertisement is saying “Play angry birds directly in your browser”, with this URL.
Weird.
13/01/2012 at 13:21 yhancik says:
Ah! D:
I just realised that every time I heard about “Cut the rope”, I thought it was about “You Have To Burn The Rope”
13/01/2012 at 16:31 Skabooga says:
I was thinking the same thing! I always wondered how a 3 minute joke game could gain such wide popularity.
13/01/2012 at 20:56 aerozol says:
Because it’s short, and funny.
13/01/2012 at 13:22 Berzee says:
I thought you had to Burn the rope?
13/01/2012 at 13:34 V. Profane says:
It’s been on Android for many months too.
13/01/2012 at 13:38 Lars Westergren says:
I also discovered this just a couple of days ago on Android. It is really rather good. “Where’s my water” by Disney Games of all people is also good. The gameplay is slightly different (draw with your finger through sand and use fluid physics to deliver water to a shower-loving sewer alligator). The art style of the game and especially Swampy the adorably mascot feels is very reminiscent of Cut the Rope though.
Oh, and also get Elder Sign, the Lovecraft horror boardgame. There are so many shameless clones in Android Market, this is an original game published by Fantasy Flight games. It is a very simplified version of their Mansions of Madness boardgame. Great graphics, atmospheric music. Highly recommended!
13/01/2012 at 14:02 mrwout says:
The really great thing about this game is the monster his little expressions. When you dangle the candy right above him and his starts looking towards it, and then you drop it right next to him so he can’t eat it….that’s just 102% cuteness !
13/01/2012 at 14:26 Triangulon says:
I’d rether play DEATHWORM!
13/01/2012 at 15:39 Nice Save says:
Sounds like Obulis
13/01/2012 at 17:15 Jad says:
They’re closely related. Obulis has a stronger emphasis on rolling the ball around on platforms whereas the candy in Cut The Rope breaks if it hits anything — its more about using the momentum of candy swinging on the ropes and avoiding dangers. Of course I haven’t finished either game, so maybe both have twists to their formulas later on. Both are fun games.
13/01/2012 at 17:21 FecesOfDeath says:
HTML5 and JavaScript means that Cut the Rope is open source. Just select “View Source” on your browser menu.
13/01/2012 at 17:26 bear912 says:
That doesn’t mean you’re licensed to actually do anything with that code, though.
13/01/2012 at 18:15 Alextended says:
How do they handle levels that required you use two fingers (perhaps later more?) at the same time to cut different strings to get the proper result?
13/01/2012 at 19:07 field_studies says:
I’ve been playing Contre Jour recently on the iPad. I read it described as World of Goo crossed with the aesthetics of Limbo, which isn’t far off (though add in what sounds like the music of Anouar Brahem… it’s a beautiful package), but I see now that there’s a fair bit of Cut the Rope in it too.
http://www.chillingo.com/games/contre-jour/
Anyhow, Contre Jour does require you to use two, three, maybe even four fingers at once as well. For that reason it rises in my estimation as an iOS game (for using the unique technology) but at the same time I had the same thought as you: how could this ever be ported to PC? What sort of mouse mechanic would allow for it? Sort of a shame.