iSlash Review

You may already be familiar with the concept behind iSlash. Like the old arcade game Qix, you have to slice a surface into smaller and smaller pieces without intersecting any bouncing objects inside of it. A few unique twists, plus a cool ninja aesthetic, make iSlash a recommended buy.

iSlash’s first major innovation is the touchscreen controls. With a simple, intuitive swipe, you can hack away at the nicely-rendered wooden backdrop until just a sliver remains. Like in Fruit Ninja, this tactile interaction leads to a great feeling of immersion-- you’ll feel like your fingertip is a sharpened samurai sword.

Another notable gameplay twist is that you have to keep the bouncing objects, in this case ninja stars, all in the same part of the wooden area. That means you can’t slice through the wood with a star on either side, so a great deal of the game involves waiting for just the right moment to slash. Patience, thoughtful cuts, and quick reflexes are all required to make it through the game’s 70 levels. More levels have been promised by the developer.

Lastly, iSlash introduces some helpful power-ups, which can have interesting effects like slowing down time or removing one of the hazardous ninja stars. However, in order to receive a power-up, you have to make a large slice, and it’s not always clear whether or not your cut will result in a bonus. Since some of the levels can be extremely tricky, you might have to retry them several times and hope for a few lucky bonus drops to make it through.

iSlash is not a great game if you expect to hack your way through these puzzles in one try. The randomness of the bouncing ninja stars and power-ups will require you to stop and replay levels several times, but it’s usually pretty satisfying when you do manage to eke out a win. iSlash has a simple concept, but this treatment of it is nicely done, and we can definitely recommend it as a fun, intuitive puzzle game.