Cut the Rope vs Angry Birds
Both Cut the Rope and Angry Birds are physics simulators. In Cut the Rope, the player uses swiping gestures to cut ropes, feeding a cute little monster pieces of candy while collecting stars. In Angry Birds, the player uses a slingshot to fire birds into pigs, which are sometimes protected by various structures. Both games have the system of stars as a way to measure performance — in Cut the Rope, stars are earned by navigating the candy to the star’s position, while Angry Birds awards stars based on the number of birds left when the level is completed.
While the goal of this critical play was to examine differences in theme, I couldn’t help but notice that these two games had, in fact, a different experience playing as well. In Angry Birds, the player first fires a bird into the level, not really knowing what there is. Then, they have the chance to look at the level, make adjustments to execution or strategy, and try again. The core loop takes place multiple times during a level. The player fires, then watches the destruction, then readjusts. However, in Cut the Rope, the game involves precise timing of swipes and taps, and the game is more like a fast paced puzzle-action game. The action takes place continuously during the course of a level, as opposed to the brief moments of action followed by longer periods of inaction in Angry Birds.
The theme does still play a role in the experience of the games. Angry Birds is about catharsis as the player exacts revenge on the evil pigs. Cut the Rope is about helping the cute monster eat his favorite candy, and is about the joy experienced in making the little monster happy. Cut the Rope’s constant background music also instills a sense of action. The comparatively barren soundscape of Angry Birds serves to heighten the less cutsy atmosphere of the game, though the graphics and sound effects still give it a light tone.
Although theme played a role in the experience of these two games, it is perhaps more apt to say that it is the theme combined with the mechanics, that makes the experience different in Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.
