Here’s a guarantee: If you liked any of the older Cut the Rope titles, you’ll enjoy this one. ZeptoLab has thrown in the winter set for free the others currently cost between $2 and $5. Through in-app purchases, you can dress Om Nom up in different hats, change the candies to another treat (like a frosted cookie), and even alter the pattern your finger makes when you swipe around the screen. And nothing’s more fun than seeing Om Nom bob around like a duck in the clear blue water, which helps add a variety of physics to the mix.

While the background art doesn’t exactly pop out at you, the layout of each puzzle is cleverly orchestrated and will test your ability to strategize and think of ingenious ways to nab every star, candy, and clover (a real juggling act). ZeptoLab, as usual, has designed colorful, smart stages. Not all of Om Nom’s helpers are this fun (the helicopter-like Roto is boring and plain), but you’re sure to love at least half of them - especially when they gather together in the same level.

Then there’s Blue from the Junkyard, a depressed, squished cube that multiplies as many times as you tap him, creating all sorts of towers and constructs to help you solve the puzzles at hand. One of my favorites is Lick, a puffy-cheeked orange critter that, with a tap from your finger, flicks its tongue out to form a bridge or barrier for candies and other objects. The best part of Cut the Rope 2 is undoubtedly the “Nommies,” or creatures that Om Nom befriends as he jumps from the Forest world to Sandy Dam and beyond. (Additional power-ups cost money and come in boxes that cost between $4 and $50.) In my playthrough, I managed to get a few, but these are for more expert players - or those who care to make liberal use of the mere handful of power-ups, such as the balloons that can lift Om Nom into the air. About 20 of those levels are optional and locked behind a special gate: You can only open them by obtaining the four-leaf clovers scattered here and there.

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