Before Candy Crush was committing players to a virtual sweets addiction, Cut the Rope was introducing people to the original digital candy enthusiast: A cutesy green creature named Om Nom. Though he never amassed the cult of personality following that the stars of the Angry Birds franchise, Om Nom’s unapologetic need to consume candy has kept players thinking through puzzles and slashing through restrictive ropes since 2010. For the most part, every iteration of the game has built upon the same formula with minor tweaks and new levels. Cut the Rope 2, the first full sequel to the original, is the biggest addition to the franchise yet. Though the formula is still familiar, there’s plenty of new stuff to enjoy.
Though the game is titled Cut the Rope 2 it’s actually the fourth game to bare the Cut the Rope moniker, after Cut the Rope and its spinoffs, Cut the Rope: Time Travel and Cut the Rope: Experiments, which both introduced themed levels and gameplay elements. Cut the Rope 2 returns to the original brings in more of what made it great … more levels, more creatures, more power ups to help you cheat your way through the tougher portions of the game – more of everything.
With 120 levels in the initial install of Cut the Rope 2 (we’re sure there are more coming as ZeptoLab usually updates its games regularly) there’s plenty of fun to be found in this title. As always, Cut the Rope has a significant amount of replay value inherit in its design. Delivering the candy to Om Nom is always the goal, but clearing the three stars that are spread across level means the OCD side of you will require you to try again and again until you clear the challenge entirely. And in case that isn’t enough for you to do, levels also come with additional challenges like, for example, completing it without cutting a rope. So multiply the 120 levels by the three stars and add a challenge on top of it and you have, by our calculations, a whole lot of stuff to do.
Accomplishing these goals are aided by the addition of some new friends that are willing to help Om Nom acquire his beloved striped sweets. The collective of creatures, as a group know as “Nommies,” offer their own skill set to manipulate levels. They are all aptly named, too. Roto flies like a helicopter; Blue is a big blue brick; Lick uses his tongue as a platform; etc. If the Nommies’ services aren’t enough, you can call upon other items left at your disposal, like balloons, candy rain, or solution-providing fireflies. These are purchasable power-ups that let you cheat your way to a higher score, but you can handle all the levels without having to rely on in-game purchases.
More subtle than the new gameplay aspects in Cut the Rope 2 is the graphical update the game received. The game is still filled with bright, vibrant color schemes and the characters are as adorably drawn and animated as ever; Om Nom’s face is especially expressive. The lines look sharper and the background is more detailed, but doesn’t distract from the action in the foreground.
Cut the Rope 2 is everything you’d expect from a new installment in the series. It maintains the core of the game, never straying too far from the expertly designed physics-based puzzles that make the game equal parts challenging and rewarding, while adding new elements to make sure it feels fresh and unique enough to attract players to it. It’s not just a new level pack that ZeptoLab is having you pay for, it’s a new installment in a series that has yet to feel old despite this being the fourth version we’ve played. That’s either a testament to solid game design or to the undeniable cuteness of Om Nom, but either way we have some more ropes that need cutting.
Cut the Rope 2 is now available on iPhone and iPad. It will come soon to the Kindle Fire Amazon Appstore and the Android Google Play Store.
