iCut is the latest game from Grabarchuk Puzzles and uses a freemium model to top up the puzzle packs included with the game for a grand total of 432 levels. But when you download the game you’ll find the puzzles included are extremely easy and many duplicate challenges that were found in another mode. Each “distinctive” mode is just simply a different way of displaying the blocks on the board; unlike LetsTans which had modes that changed the gameplay in a more profound way.

The gameplay is simple. You have to paint the plain white blocks into congruent shapes, ending up with two or more objects that are identical in form but may have been rotated or translated slightly. It works by dragging your finger over the area you want to paint, then tapping the palette at the bottom to select a new colour. Later on puzzles get more challenging, should you purchase an additional level pack, with complex shapes and four or more colours to pick from. Certainly, you’ll breeze through the included puzzles, with some only taking seconds to decipher.

We can see the advantage of a freemium model for a puzzle app as opposed to a lite version; it allows people to try the game out and then extend it rather than downloading a new game and having to complete the easy set again. However, using in-app purchases for things like level skip or hint tokens is ridiculous. Ergo, we think that such a system should be dropped in favour of one that gave you a limited number of skip tokens, with more being collected as you completed level packs and that could be reclaimed if you completed a level that you had missed.

The presentation is clean and functional but lacks personality; like its counterpart. Without a strong, definite style iCut just looks generic and at worst, bland. For us the presentation is definitely an important factor especially with the huge amounts of puzzle games already available for the device.

In all, iCut isn’t one to avoid completely especially as you can pick it up for free. There’s some good in here; the fluid controls, the large amount of puzzles available for a cheap price and the fact that it uses the same engine that LetsTans uses; notably the iPod music integration and multiple puzzle save states. On the other hand there’s the unnecessary in-app purchases of hints and level skips, the fact that the three modes offer no real variation and that puzzle duplication is also fairly common. We suggest that you give this one a shot if you’re looking for something easy to pass the time.

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Review by Ben Briggs, January 04, 2010

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