Candy In The Media

All this month on the Candy In The Media segment of the Candy Critic blog we're going to look at candy themed games for tablets.  All of the games will be tested on my Nexus 7 tablet running Android Kit Kat.  Keep in mind that I'm not really a gamer, so my past experience is pretty minimal.  I'll mainly be focusing on how easy it is to play, how it incorporates candy, and any tech issues that may come up.  We welcome your suggestions for games you think we should try out on future posts.

This week we're looking at the first candy themed game that I ever downloaded for my tablet, Cut the Rope.  I have to be honest, when I first downloaded Cut the Rope I didn't even know that it was a candy themed game.  I just saw the cute little picture of the monster that eats all the candy and thought he (or she) was really cute.  Fortunately for me the creature was not only really cute, but the game was kind of fun and candy related as well.

The best part of this game for me is the theming.  Most puzzle games have a theme, but it's rarely more or equally clever as the games themselves (unless the games are really, really lame).  I can assure you that the Cut the Rope game is also really clever and fun, but so is the story that follows them.  You're basically trying to feed this little monster that comes in boxes delivered to your doorstep.  You have to complete puzzles that collect stars, and eventually feed the little monster a piece of candy.  The sound effects of the little critter are great, and the look of the game is perfect with the theme.  And the thing that drew me to this game, the cute little monster, is very cute and likable.

The basic design of the game is fairly simple, yet each puzzle varies in difficulty.  I found that the order of each puzzle didn't really reflect the difficulty of the puzzle.  In other words the puzzles didn't really get progressively harder as you move on.  Some of the puzzles at the beginning were very challenging, and some later or were very easy.  I did have a few puzzles were I gave up on trying to collect all the stars, and one that I even used one of the free firefly cheats to win.

As a game I found Cut the Rope to be a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the way candy was integrated.  Candy wasn't just used as a decoration, but it was part of the storyline.  My biggest problem with this game is the advertising.  It's pervasive, constant, and interrupts game-play a lot.  I have never been so disturbed by advertising while playing a tablet game before.  It's physically impossible to ignore the advertising.

CC