Review: Slice-It

Score:
79%

Author: Com2us

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The concept of the game is exactly the same as the 8 year old's cake problem - how do you cut a shape into a certain number of pieces, making sure that each piece is the same size. Complicating matters, you are only given a small number of cuts that you can make per level and you must use all of them. If the puzzle asks for six sections using just three cuts, that's what you have to deliver, no more, no less... Even if you can do it with just two.

There's a nice learning curve on show here, with some basic shapes and easy cuts to start with, but it doesn't take long to build up to some weirdly laid out shapes with the game demanding an awkward number of pieces. Oh and it's the area that counts, not the shape. That should get you thinking, you don't need to have identical shapes (although that does make getting equal sized shapes a little bit easier).

Naturally, there is a bit of geometry going on here, and if you can recall the tricks from your days of mathematics, you'll have a slight advantage in the early levels. To be honest thought, these early levels serve as a good tutorial no matter your background - once you get past around 20 levels you're just going to need to think about creating equal sized spaces with whatever you're presented with.

The pace of the game is best described as steady. Once you've drawn your line, you have the chance to move the ends of the line, giving you a chance to reposition it within a few pixels before it is fixed. This means you can do a coarse slice with your finger on the touchscreen, and then refine it before leaving it for the three second pause that 'fixes' the slice in place. Neither is there a penalty for undoing a previous line, so if you've got it wrong, or you need to place it again, then go ahead.

Slice It goes for a very "pencil/art" look, if you can remember cartoons like "Roobarb and Custard" and "Henry's Cat", with its shifting and jumping graphics, that's what you'll get here. It lends an almost 'doodle in a boring school lesson' style to the game, and it works very well. It's all laid on top of graph paper, which has a bonus effect of giving you regular squares under the shape you need to slice - it's not quite a ruler, but it's more than enough to measure out some lengths to help you find the right starting point on one of the shapes.

It's also nice that you don't need to get a perfect sharing when you slice, there is a tolerance to the percentages - so as long as you are close, you'll pass the level. Of course, if you want to go for an exact split, to two decimal places, then there's a "perfect!" badge when you complete the level. I've managed that twice in about fifty levels, so thankfully I'm happy that a star rating system augments the simple pass/fail you mightn't have expected. Anything from 1 to 5 stars can be earned, and you get a running count of stars in each episodic level pack.

You can also earn hint points, which can be cashed in on later levels to give you a 'correct slice line' to follow, which might also give you a clue as to the rest of the slices you need to make. I like this, as it gives you a reason to play the earlier levels (to earn the points) and it also ensures that you don't get indefinitely stuck on a particularly challenging level.

Couple this with the steady pace to draw lines and get the results at the end of each level, Slice It's extensive level pack is going to keep you frustrated and amused for at least the 8 hour flight to New York (in my case), and more than likely the return leg as well.

And at the end of that, no matter the shape of pizza, you'll be able to share it out perfectly. Your sister might not agree with your precision though.

Apologies for the iPhone video demo of the game - normal screenshot utilities wouldn't work with this title!

-- Ewan Spence, May 2011.

Reviewed by Ewan Spence at 13:32 UTC, May 24th 2011