Cut Him Up! Review

By , on August 12, 2010


Cut Him Up!
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Great print-style cartoonish art direction.
  • Easy to pick up combo system.
  • Meaty hits and a good splash of blood where it counts.

CONS

  • Hit detection will drive you up the wall.
  • AI that seems a tad berserk at times.

VERDICT

With bit more polishing, Cut Him Up! could really be a great brawler on the App Store, but for now it's more for fans of the genre desperate to fill their quota of face mashing.


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Bloody single-minded violence, thy name is 'Cut Him Up!'. Following in the best traditions of side-scrolling brawlers before it, Iskander's latest release is a sometimes exciting action title that keeps things simple in just about every possible way.

There are no major surprises in store for those who have played brawlers in the past and the game's '8-way' virtual stick with two buttons certainly gets the job done. Punching your enemies or kicking them in the face with a flying heel is brutal and sets blood flying with a meaty 'thud' sound effect to drive everything home. Combos are especially interesting, with several variations requiring timed presses to pull of crowd-destroying sequences that will clear the screen in no-time-flat.

That is, of course, if you can actually HIT anything. Despite the amazing amount of detail in the art-direction it seems the collision detection was overlooked making it painfully difficult to hit your enemies if they're not perfectly lined up and a very specific distance away. Add in to this a basic AI that will sometimes 'spaz out' and rip you to shreds with uncanny accuracy and you'll find yourself restarting the level until you manage to blunder through.

What could have been an excellent mindless brawler becomes an extended exercise in frustration and those rare moments where everything comes together almost taunt you to keep playing despite a constant fear of death that's out of your control. Until some patches roll in 'Cut Him Up!' is for the hardcore fans only.

Screenshots

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