Fruit Ninja
I find myself downloading and playing lots of games on my iPhone. I spend more time playing games on an iPhone than a computer, games console or even the old fashion take it out of a box and discover the dice are missing type of game. However with all this time spent playing, only the good games will hold me for any length of time and keep me coming back for more. Fruit Ninja by Halfbrick Studios almost had me.
We will start with the big one, gameplay. It’s a simple concept that anybody can understand, fruit gets thrown up into the air and you have to swipe it in half. They make it tricky by adding in a few bombs which kill you straight away, otherwise you are allowed to miss three pieces of fruit. That’s it – if you wanted more, you won’t find here. This makes for a quick game to play when you don’t have too much time. You might find yourself playing a couple of games but will tire after a few goes.
Replay value is also limited. Your primary objective is to beat your high score. There is a global leader board system using the OpenFeint platform, but nothing else. OK, there might be a few unlock-able achievements but don’t expect to be overwhelmed.
Quality-wise this game does have a bit of polish. The sounds are awesome – almost the best reason to buy the game. Both the effects and subtle background noise are enticing. Visually the game is good too. The fruit, splashes and swipes all look fine and not much improving can be done here.
The cost of the game is where you want it. At $1.29 you can justify the spend. It’s not worth much more because of the simplicity of the app and lack of replay value, but the developers definitely deserve something for putting together a fun polished application.
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