Ouch! is an interesting app from Hondune Games that puts the player in the sadistic position of torturing a ragdoll just for fun. As more pain is afflicted upon the appendages of the innocent, limp-limbed character, your score will increase exponentially. Let the beatings begin!
The greatest aspect of this app is likely the full level editor and the ease with which you can share customized characters and levels. It allows the players to build a community around Ouch!, as strange as it may seem for an app whose sole purpose is to beat something to a pulp. Ouch! does come with almost 50 pre-built levels in which to abuse the little Ouchman, but you can certainly add to that quickly, whether through your own creativity or the community’s collective creative juices. The “export to image” feature allows you to quickly e-mail your creations to friends for easy import into their own collection of content.
Ouch ! is physics-based, giving realistic reactions to the bump, bonks, and bruises that you are sure to inflict. The accelerometer can also be used to influence the direction that Ouchman falls to a slight degree, and each level allows a certain number of nudges, whereby you sort of flick the screen by the character to keep him moving or influence his trajectory. There are also plenty of interactive props available, such as trap doors that release objects to fall on Ouchman, paddles to re-launch his body, a car to mangle him, and all sorts of others. Touching the red dot by the object activates it and allows Ouchman’s painful journey to continue with a new torture method. His injured body parts light up red when struck by an object, indicating his pain and alerting you to big future point totals. When you finally do complete the level, each body part reveals a score, while Ouchman receives an aggregate level score.
Characters can be customized by adding faces of real people, providing a safe outlet through with you can exhaust your aggressive fantasies. You can use up to three different facial expressions so you can watch your friends go from happy-go-lucky to hit-in-the-crotch instantaneously. The available level editor is the exact same editor used to create all of the included levels, so the quality of your levels could be on par with what the developers have created. Replay is also available to relive you favorite moments in slow-motion, sped up, or any speed in between.
The graphics and sound are cartoony, yet fun and appropriate for this game. Controls are easy to use, though we had some difficulty with the nudges from time to time. They didn’t seem as responsive as we would have liked. Ouch! is full of depth and options, which add to the overall enjoyment and replayability of the app. Not sure if we’d necessarily characterize this one as a game, but it is certainly entertaining. Though the app store contains other physics-based ragdoll-tossing games, Ouch! certainly stands on its own as king of the beat-‘em-up, knock-‘em-down, and do-it-agains. Whereas our recently reviewed and beloved Ragdoll Blaster is a goal-oriented, target-shooting game, Ouch! is an unabashed free-for-all stress reliever. Hondune Games has priced Ouch! at $2.99, a nice value for the wealth of content and enjoyment you are sure to receive from this 4-Dimple slugfest.
Ouch! gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating:
