Critical Play: Theme Only Games

I decided to revisit two classic games from my childhood: Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, which through this assignment I discovered were both classified as “physics games”. As a regular player I obviously understood that physics (i.e. the mechanic of falling and shooting/cutting) were important elements of the games, but never thought of the games as related. Now with a more critical eye I can see how similar the two games really are.

Both Angry Birds and Cut the Rope require the player to solve the same physics-based type of puzzle. The player is in charge of cutting/aiming/launching an object through a series of obstacles and has to predict in their mind the way the object will land/fall. Both games are also level-based, with each subsequent level being more challenging often by the means of adding more obstacles.

The reason I did not connect the games earlier in my imagination is because the objectives of the game and superficial themes feel quite different. Cut the Rope is centered around cutting ropes to feed candy to a little monster, while Angry Birds is about birds shooting themselves to destroy pigs who have stolen their eggs. The narrative of these games is quite different, but the idea of predicting and “toying” around with the laws of physics remains the same. Overall, both games were enjoyable and I relished the physics challenge!