Cut and Slice

Summary

I remember my first encounter with origami: it was at a classmate’s birthday party, and the origami master, a cranky, elderly Asian man sitting behind a folding table half-heartedly tried to kindle the love of folding little sheets of paper into delicate objects in the hearts of a bunch of rowdy eight-year-olds. As you can imagine, origami did not go over well at the time, but you live and learn. If you want to give origami a virtual spin, read on to find out if Cut and Slice is the right app for you.

Thanks to Paulina for today’s review!
 

Test device: HTC desire Z
Android version: 1_02_2012
Root: No
Will run as of: 1.6

The gameplay is a very simple one: you’re equipped with carton and a cardboard cutter and the goal is to make geometric shapes out of the carton, which is different in every level.

Follow the instructions carefully; the carton will have to be cut a certain amount of times and you have a certain amount of cutter strokes to do so. Every time a level is completed a percentage of how much surface area remains is displayed and if it’s sufficient the next level will be unlocked. The amount of stars you’ve obtained is also displayed here. By the way, the more precisely you cut the more stars you will obtain. To do so, mark the line along which you wish to cut by tapping outside the carton and tracing a line across the screen.
The line will have a beginning and an end point and can be corrected by moving the end point. Once you’re happy with your line, hit the cutter button and Bob’s your uncle.

Once you’ve reached higher levels you will not only have to create the geometric shapes but also deal with obstacles which consist of grey areas on the carton that cannot be cut through. It’s your job to find a way to cut the carton regardless of these pesky grey bits. If ever you don’t manage to complete a level you can always skip ahead, which I think is a big advantage. I don’t know about you, but I will occasionally get stuck when playing puzzle games, and I find it infuriating when the only way to get ahead is to successfully complete a level that seemingly cannot be solved. Sometimes skipping an infuriating level is a nice alternative.

Bottom line:
Cut and Slice is ideal for whenever you have a few minutes to kill seeing as you can pick it up and exit the game whenever you please without having to worry about saving your level/score.
 

A very nice how-to animation can be found in Cut and Slice’s main menu.

Go to settings to make changes to the sound effects.

When commencing a game for the first time you will play in training mode; once that’s done you will be able to select from three different episodes, each hosting a ton of levels.

The stars you’ve managed to earn are displayed at the top right, and the top left reveals how large the bits that have to be cut need to be, as well as how many cuts you will need to make.

All in all the app is set up very logically, and the menu is nice and easy to use. The graphics are nice enough, though nothing you won’t have seen before.
 

Cut and Slice performed very well throughout our test runs and we are overall satisfied with both the app’s speed and stability.

Cut and Slice can be downloaded for free; an small ad banner is displayed at the bottom of the display.