Games have a long, storied history of incorporating cute, mindless creatures. From the classic Lemmings to the more modern Pikmin, there are many examples of putting you, the player, in either direct or indirect control of a number of such often suicidal beings. Cute Things Dying Violently, the third day’s release in the Indie Games Summer Uprising lineup continues this tradition and adds a twist in the form of some sadistic glee to the failure to save your critters from doom. But in the face of such a pedigreed genre, does Cute Things survive the level? Or does it mindlessly tumble from a cliff?

Gameplay

Much like other games of the mindless creature puzzle variety, Cute Things features the eponymous cute things in every level, milling about awaiting rescue in the form of a suspended hanging doorway. Unlike other games however, which allow you to give the creatures “jobs” or direct them in some action, you take a much more active role in their salvation by way of a movable sight which allows you to hold them in place, or more importantly to fling them with varying force in a direction of your choosing. This is accomplished by using left trigger to hold them, and the right analog stick of the Xbox controller to both aim and control the amount of force used in the toss.

The use of such a simple mechanic belies the complexity to be found in this puzzle game. From the start you are asked to take your critters and toss them around, bounce them off walls and avoid spikes. But it isn’t long before further twists are introduced to liven things up. Between buttons, springs, oil barrels and bubble generators, there’s quite a bit of variety to be found. I found there to be a pleasantly surprising amount of innovation to be found in a few of the levels. This includes the final stage of each world, which is occupied by a very angry robot boss, resulting in some of the most fun I had playing.  There is also a number of special levels (unlocked by gaining “Achieve Mints” or very specific actions on set levels) which put forth new challenges, mostly in the form of timed events that nicely break up the normal puzzle aspect when you need a break.

In general, Cute Things is a well balanced puzzle game. Elements of a level are lined up in a very exacting manner to provide for a solution that is fairly obvious after either some thought or at least some trial and error. Thankfully on that front there is a “restart” button handily available, and level reloads take a minimal amount of time. While some gimmick levels require you to save only a single cute thing, most contain between three and seven and your goal is to save as many as you can. I very much liked that a level is considered “beat” if you manage to save even just one. At the same time, progression through the six “worlds” (each world having 9 stages and a boss for a grand total of 60 stages) is determined by your total of saved creatures, with a fair amount of leeway given so that all told you don’t have to score perfect on every single level to continue on with the game. And scoring perfect is the real challenge of the game.

This brings us to the problems I encountered with Cute Things Dying Violently. While I am an adamant proponent of difficulty in today’s modern age of toned down easy-to-consume gaming, it is possible to go too far. Although most levels are well balanced, a select few felt to me to be far out of line with the balance of the remainder of the game. First, there is stage 4-8: Quick Dip. It’s fairly obvious what is necessary to beat the level. But the sheer amount of trial and error and false starts it took me to finally chance across a winning throw took me out of my enjoyment of the experience. Also, world 6 has two levels that I have found to be out of line in difficulty, for differing reasons. The first is 6-3: Hop and Skip and Jump, which requires not only a perfectly executed hairline bounce off a wall, but also a catch and re-throw in midair with another wall bounce to finally make the goal. This has to be executed four times for a perfect score. I have yet to achieve this task even once. The problem in this case, is mostly in the usage of the analog stick for the primary mechanic. The actions require a precise control of direction and force, as well as fast reflexes of an input method that is inherently imprecise. I simply can’t seem to control the actions well enough to be within the exceedingly exacting confines required.  The game does give quick access to a sensitivity control, but that’s mostly to overcome the other problem with an analog stick, the dead zone problem. The final level I found outside of the difficulty level is 6-5: What a Shock. This level features an almost Rube Goldberg level of complexity in its placement of switches and electrical zappers. Here I found my problem to be not that the creature flick shots required are difficult, but that they are difficult and must be accomplished within a very limited time frame after manipulation of another critter to hold open a switch. The first shot, which gives you a mere five seconds to  move the cursor, grab the critter, throw him, and have him land I have managed to do twice in the hundred or so attempts I have made, only to have that minimal progress taken away when I couldn’t perform the next part of the level. In this case, I feel the fault isn’t completely in the controls, but in the layout of the stage itself, which coupled with the physics applied to the creatures caused me to lose my target to an electrical death even when I had appeared to land the initial shot perfectly fine.

Audio/Visual

The audio and visual components of Cute Things are about as well polished as the game play. The game features a very cartoony aesthetic which it juxtaposes with the displays of graphic violence upon the death of one of the cute things. I get a special kind of glee from the faces of the critters, many of which are parodies of well known meme face drawings. The art isn’t the best, but it’s not terrible either. The user interface is minimal, and consists mainly of the sight you use for control, and a counter of the number of creatures saved. When tossing a creature the sight shows an arrow which is color-coded to the amount of force you are currently lining up. The colors are very helpful, and I would say required for the player to learn exactly what distance throw  each color corresponds to to really solve some of the puzzles. Selection of creatures and items by the sight is also obvious and helped greatly by a glow effect.

I also very much appreciate the effort put into the graphic design, as each “world” features a theme, with corresponding graphical element changes. You’ll find grasslands, deserts, snowy plains and rainy concretescapes which contribute to a graphical variety that I feel very much helps the games polish.

The game also features a limited few songs as a soundtrack, but they along with the sound effects are a good fit to the aesthetic of the game, with their jaunty cartoony stylings. The cute things themselves intermittently spout phrases in high-pitched voices, and react vocally to actions you take as a player. There’s an option in the menu to change the pool of these random phrases to include some more “mature” vocalizations, which can be amusing, but I found the constant blathering to quickly be an annoyance. Thankfully, the menu also includes a separate volume control for the voices along with the sound effects and music so you can turn them down, or off completely if necessary.

Summary

Cute Things Dying Violently is on the whole, a good action puzzle game. It is polished in ways that many independent games (especially on the XBLIG channel) simply aren’t. The graphics  and sound effects are good enough, and the music fits rather well. The mechanics are new and fun, and make the best of the controls required of them. If you don’t mind a challenge, Cute Things is a definite buy for the mindless creature puzzler genre fans. Besides the few levels mentioned earlier which marred my experience, I found Cute Things Dying Violently to be a very balanced and rewarding game. However, in order to give it a more emphatic recommendation, I firmly believe the game will require a further balance patch to smooth out the bumps along the difficulty curve. Alex Jordan, the developer of Cute Things has already expressed desire to continue development of the game by adding new worlds with new mechanics and new challenges, and with what I can guess will be a fair amount of success under his belt by now, we’ll  hopefully see that balance patch, along with some new innovations on an already solid game.

Cute Things Dying Violently is available now on XBLIG for 80 Microsoft purchasing power units.