Developer: Kool2Play
Publisher: Kool2Play
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Nice Slice – Review
Many games come with stellar background stories that carefully develop as you play, causing the games to become lengthy. As gamers, we can all appreciate these games but sometimes we want to play a game where our brains aren’t needed. A game we can play casually, to relax or simply to make time move faster during those moments we need to patiently wait. Nice Slice is one of those arcade games that you can start and end just as quickly but is it worth your effort?
Story
The blade has been sharpened, the hilt has been carefully crafted. It lays in your hands, a perfectly balanced weapon with a tip that can slash through anything. Yet it’s not the knife itself you should worry about. It is you, the master of the knife, the wielder whom you should be worried about. For it is your wits that can achieve the high score. Honestly, all of this is made up as there isn’t much to tell about Nice Slice story-wise. It doesn’t come with a story mode and it certainly doesn’t come with a fantastic introduction of how you got there in the first place. As it’s a quick-paced game, we feel that a storyline isn’t necessary either.
Graphics
Visually, the game is what it is. It’s cartoonish and simple, as a fast-paced arcade-like game should be. Yet the game does come with minor details that allow the visual aspect to be just slightly better than most quick games. For example, there are three backdrops you can play in. The first that is immediately available to you, is a cute cottage bakery which includes several crates, wooden barrels and mice. It is a nice touch when you consider that the goal of the game is to cut up food.
Two other backdrops are unlockable. The pirate ship comes with more wooden barrels, parrots and crates on wheels. The third backdrop is where the details really pop as the spaceship includes a plethora of space crates, high-tech balls and equipment and aliens preserved in jars with green liquid. What is best about the visuals are the animations, or more specifically the interaction of the environments as things will start to fall and move around when pieces of food are flying around touching the objects surrounding you.
Sound
The sound design in the game menu is super relaxing. It has a slow rhythmic beat, with plenty of birds singing in the background. The same sounds become ambiance sounds when you start cutting loaves of bread, with the addition of sounds that mimic knives being sharpened or hitting objects halting their movements with a blunt ping and plenty of whooshing sounds. A game like this shouldn’t have too many distracting sounds so the sound design is just perfect.
Gameplay
Nice Slice is an arcade-like game in which you cut food into as many little pieces as you can before time runs up. All-in-all, it is very similar to the popular fruit-slicing action game Fruit Ninja, except for the fact that you can cut the food into more pieces than one.
Originally, the game was released on PC quite some time ago, but it is a quick game that is easily playable on handhelds on the move so a port for Nintendo Switch isn’t that weird to see. Even so, the controls feel quite alright although there is a split-second delay between pressing the button and the knife attacking the poor donut. While this delay is frustrating at first as you carefully plan it, the more you play the game, the less you’ll plan the stabs. In the end, the controls will feel acceptable.
As there is no storyline, you are immediately thrown into the arcade side of things; stab the variety of food such as croissants, cupcakes, cheese, loaves of bread and even tiny apples as fast as you can. The goal is to cut the pieces as small as possible. Each correct cut will add time but missing a cut will take a big chunk of time away from you. This doesn’t sound too difficult, but the knife doesn’t reach the bottom of the screen, or in case of the game the floor, so pieces that have flown to the floor will taunt you until they disappear and a next piece of sugary goodness lands on the crate.
Aside from the three different backdrops, which you need to unlock, there are also a handful of knives to unlock with the coins you’d have gathered. These knife variations are a hilarious take on current pop culture. Keira Knifeley and Obi-Knife Kenobi are a great example but the Cuthulhu and Captain Cut are our favorites.
To unlock all knives, you will need a considerate amount of coins. If you’re lucky and you are extremely good at the game, you might gather these fast, but most people won’t be playing this for hours and hours unless they are playing with their friends. Yes, you can play Nice Splice with two players at once thanks to the Joy-Cons. Luckily the game comes with built-in achievements which can net you a good amount of coins. Each achievement comes in three levels, the highest level you’ve achieved, the more coins you are rewarded with.
Conclusion
Nice Slice is a quick arcade-like food-cutting game, similar to the popular fruit-slicing game Fruit Ninja everyone was obsessed with years ago, except that you now must cut food into the tiniest bits possible. It’s easy to learn but harder to master, with plenty of unlockables to make your quick games more enjoyable during those few minutes of downtime as you’re waiting for the bus. Just be warned that this game can make you hungry on the go by showing off all the sugary goodness! Because it’s a nice game to waste your time with, we can recommend grabbing it.
Nice Slice – Review,
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