Sunday, January 9, 2011

Burn the Rope

2.75/5 OK
Price: .99

Burn the rope comes out with a fun creative new way to use the tilting feature of the iPod. The main menu hits you with a replaying man saying "Burn the Rope" with background beats that extended listening to would cause it to stick in your head. With full level select options and SFX choices. The goal of each level is to burn all the rope on the screen. The rope is usually forming some picture like a flower or a UFO. The trick is that in order for the rope to burn you have to tilt your device so that the flame burns upward towards the rope. Multiple flames can exist at a time and trying to maintain them all can cause you to lose all of your flames. The scoring system for each level is based on the percentage of rope burnt. While the idea for the game is novel the game does not reach it's full potential. The flame is relatively large compared to the rope so on corners the flame covers the rope and it's is impossible to know if you have turned the corner or not. This problem ends many games from a snuffed out flame after a quick tilt. Also the medal system forces you to burn all the rope on the screen for a gold. This is neat impossible on levels where small branches come off ropes and two flames must be used to burn all the ropes. There is also no definite way to win a level with a user choice start to where they want the flame and generic images to burn, not complex geometric shapes. The biggest help for the game would probably be allowing a flame to jump from one rope to another. Overall a good idea fails to hit on all levels and a fun first five minute app turns monotonous in seconds and fails to satisfy some one looking for a game to strive toward an all gold finish.