Slice the fruit, but watch for bombs!
Everyone knows that all ninja hate fruit. At least that’s what Halfbrick Studios claims with the release of Fruit Ninja, their second game for the iPhone. (Wikipedia is oddly silent on the subject.)
Regardless, whether you’re a ninja yourself or not, you’ll probably get a kick out of slashing at various fruits as they fly across the screen. Watermelons, kiwis, strawberries, pineapples … all of them succumb to the hard steel of your katana, splattering their juices on the wall behind them with a nice wet squelch. (Except the bananas, of course, which aren’t juicy.) You’ll want to avoid the bombs, though—one misplaced slash and the game’s over.
Fruit Ninja is a very silly but oddly satisfying. Play is extremely simple: swipe your finger on the screen to slash as the fruit is tossed up onto the screen. Miss three and the game ends (the misses do reset at 100 points). Occasionally you’ll get a “critical” hit which is worth ten points, but these are apparently random and have nothing to do with your swordsmanship. At the end of each game you’re reward with a fun fruit fact—did you know you can polish shoes with the inside of a banana peel? The Sensei told me so it must be true.
The game reminds me a little of the sword-slicing game in Wii Sports Resort, which presents you with various objects that need to be sliced in certain patterns. But Fruit Ninja doesn’t care how you slice it—just how much fruit you can chop before you make a mistake. My kids love this one, too—even the three-year-old understands how it works. Achievements and high scores are tracked through OpenFeint so you can share with your friends what an awesome ninja you are.
It’s certainly not as complex as Halfbrick’s Blast Off, but just because it’s simple doesn’t mean you won’t stay up too late playing it. Trust me on that one.
A bonus for the ultracompetitive: Halfbrick has announced a contest, the Great Fruit Massacre 2010. At 11:59pm PST on April 30, 2010, the person at the top of the Best Score Leaderboard (most fruit slashed in one game) will have an Achievement named after them in a future update. Slash away!
Buy Fruit Ninja for $.99 in the App Store. Oh, and here’s a bonus: the very ridiculous trailer:
Wired: As lead designer Luke Mucat says, “Who hasn’t wanted to attack a melon with a sword just to see it explode?” Also, Halfbrick has promised lots of updates to expand on the core game soon.
Tired: A one-trick pony, like many iPhone apps. (Still, it’s a pretty neat trick!)
Note: Halfbrick Studios provided a free download for review purposes.
