A 0-Star Cut The Rope Run
For a few months now I've been really into trying out self-imposed challenges on video games, but for some reason I've been particularly interested in self-imposed challenges in mobile games, perhaps since I haven't really seen them that often.
One of the challenges I've tried recently is with the classic game Cut The Rope, where you have to bring a piece of candy to Om Nom, an adorable alien-like creature. The game features stars you can collect in each level which you get by touching them with the candy.
The challenge that I've tried is finding how many stages I can beat without collecting a single star, which might sound easy, but it really isn't. Some stars are places in ways that guarantees you get them, or sometimes places where it's super hard to avoid them, especially if you take desired paths.
After tinkering around with the game, though, I found that there is one box (collection of levels) in the game that you can actually beat without collecting a single star: The Pillow Box.
This is the sixteenth and penultimate box in the game, with its main feature being a lantern that you have to use to wake up Om Nom, as well as the stars, otherwise you can't get them. With this specific item if you use it just right, you can actually beat every level while avoiding every single star, and that's exactly what I did!
An interesting fact is that the first level was by far the hardest. It makes sense if you think about it, the first level is supposed to be the easiest with the simplest stars, and thus by them being easy to obtain they're extremely hard to avoid. It took me over four minutes in that recording session to get it, and that's just in that recording, not counting the previous times I tried it.
I don't know for sure, but that level might as well be frame-perfect, since in most attempts the candy either falls away, or barely knicks the bottom right star, and sometimes does both. No other level even got close to how hard that was.
For reference, this was the frame where I got the candy in the recording, note how it's barely even touching Om Nom.
Regardless, the challenge was extremely fun! I still haven't tried all of the stages yet, not to mention the spin-off games, so I will continue to do so.
I am also interested in trying some more of these challenges in other games. I've also tried finishing Where's My Water (the first mobile game I ever played) with as few ducks as possible (basically that game's stars), which I might also share some day!
