Cookie Cutter is a new cartoon Metroidvania that ticks all the expected boxes and does so with a hefty dose of brutality and mature humor. It’s hand-drawn class at the service of an imminently playable platformer, one that follows the rules of the genre and gets more versatile as you unlock additional abilities. The addictive loop and fun main character turn this into a game that you should not miss if you are into love-driven androids out for a vengeance.

Cherry on Top

Described as Tarantino meets Japanese manga, Cookie Cutter does shine through some features out of these inspirations. The exaggerated violence is the aspect that stands out right from the intro cutscene,a bold and risque way of presenting the beginning of it all, as Cherry, the android, watches her partner and creator Shinji being-taken away, before being clubbed to near death – if that’s the correct word for a machine. It’s an impacting moment and a terrific premise to justify a tale of revenge powered by love.

Sweetness aside, Cookie Cutter doesn’t hold back on the gore and the torn limbs, although the hand-drawn visuals are a good excuse to make all the bloody mess feel… let’s say, acceptable. With finishers that are nothing short of impressive and mesmerizing,Cherry rips bugs apart, pulls organs out in the open, and a lot more in the same department. No matter how many times you watch these animations, they go by so fast and are so perfectly realized that they never get tiresome.

Cherry isn’t alone in her quest, and it’s not the mechanic Raz that serves as the main support, despite being useful to sell upgrades. Her sidekick is a very peculiar one, a complement to her android nature but mostly serving as chatty fellow – Regina is the name, and this… let’s call it the system core responsible for the overall functionality is placed right where you may be thinking it is. A dim light shines every time it talks, and if this isn’t a massive clin d’oeil to Japanese manga, I don’t know what it is.

With terrific animations and more blood than any other cartoon Metroidvania, Cookie Cutter is off to a promising start and it doesn’t disappoint. While the collision boxes are a bit on the forgiving side, this doesn’t turn gameplay and especially combat into an unfair and unpleasant experience. It takes some getting used to, but when you start unlocking upgrades and diversifying your range of moves and attacks, navigating the megastructure becomes more natural, fast, and enjoyable, also forcing you to backtrack to some areas that you couldn’t previously interact with, to open new areas.

Exploring the maps with the help of double jump, air dash, and void hand is very entertaining, and the last one is very handy in combat as well, pun intended. You can use it to push enemies back, and while this doesn’t necessarily damages enemies, their bumping on walls or on other enemies affects their health, which is a clever touch;even better is pushing them into sawblades and watch as they get torn into pieces. The void hand is also useful to push orbs into sockets and unlock doors and elevators, a little game of accuracy that makes fora nice change from all the fighting.

However, the game is deeply flawed on its parry mechanic, which didn’t work properly no matter the number of attempts. From timing to holding down, the enemies never flinched and I was always hit,eventually giving up on this altogether and using a combination of dodge roll and air dash to avoid damage. It’s a shame, as it feels like an integral part of combat and just doesn’t work properly, or at least as one would naturally expect.

Sweet Cherry Pie

With some truly outstanding hand-drawn graphics and animations, a solid combat system that only lacks in the parry department, and cool upgrades that are both stylish and useful, Cookie Cutter is anything but what the name is usually linked to – this is an exciting, vast,beautifully gory Metroidvania that deserves praise, recognition, and certainly more than being an overlooked game as it currently seems to be. Give it your time and Cherry will pay back in kindness, brutal violence, and over a dozen hours of fun exploration and combat.

Pros:

• Hand-drawn graphics and animations are stunning
• Brutal finishers and overall extremely gory action
• Good set of upgrades for combat and navigation
• Very decent length

Cons:

• Parry system is flawed and useless
• Can get somewhat repetitive
  
  

Rating: 8/10