3.5/5 ★ – jdraco's review of Fruit Ninja.
Fruit Ninja is a game that put up insane numbers for me as a kid
Prime Wilt Chamberlain-type numbers…
I was absolutely obsessed with this game, as well as many other iOS games that I'm going to be reviewing in the very near future as well
But as far as just this game goes, I wanted to see how well it would hold up for me after not playing it for so many years
And damn it, I was not disappointed at all because this game is still fun even after all these years
The gameplay is just so simple
Fruit is thrown in the air, and all you’ve got to do is slice it before it falls back down
That’s it
Also, you’ve got to try to avoid bombs that are thrown in the air as well, but still, it’s a very simple premise that’s executed perfectly
And another thing that’s executed perfectly is the Arcade mode
Before I get into Arcade mode, though, I should probably establish the fact that this game has 5 main modes
Classic, Event, Multiplayer, Zen, and Arcade
Now Classic mode is just the standard default mode
In this mode you have three strikes, and all you do is just try to slice the fruit that flies up before it falls down and then try to avoid bombs because if you hit one, then it’s an automatic game over
And then there’s Event mode, which is just a mode where you play certain stages in order to build up “juice,” which, if you build up enough of it, you can win some in-game prizes
Then there’s multiplayer mode, which is self-explanatory
And then there’s Zen mode, which is a mode where there's nothing in it
No bombs, no power-ups, nothing
All you do is just try to slice as much fruit as possible and try to get as many big combos as possible to earn the highest amount of points
And then finally, there’s Arcade mode…
Holy shit
Arcade mode is just absolute pure fun and fucking chaos
Nothing but absolute, balls-to-the-walls chaos, with fruit flying everywhere and a million hit combos that you can rack up
This mode just has everything
And you’re able to rack up so many huge combos mainly because of the special banana power-ups that pop up spontaneously throughout each play session
Like, for starters, there are these frozen bananas that slow down all the fruit and freeze the time limit (which I forgot to mention earlier, but most modes have a time limit) so that you can easily rack up insane combos
There are also these frenzy bananas, which bombard the screen with a shit ton of fruit
And then the final banana is one that gives you about 15 seconds to rack up as many points as possible, and then it doubles those points to add onto your total
And what’s really crazy about these bananas is that if you’re lucky enough, you’re able to stack all of these at once and achieve the biggest, most outrageous combo in human history
Again, this mode is just so damn fun
And so is this game; I really did forget just how fun it is
Seriously, I really can’t overstate just how simple and addictive the gameplay is
Like I brought up earlier, all you do is just use your finger on the screen to slice fruit before it falls; that’s it
And that’s all it needs to be
This game was endlessly addictive to me as a kid; I played the shit out of it, and somehow, probably about 10 years later, it still holds up for me
That being said, though, I mean, it’s no fucking masterpiece
But for an easy-to-play iOS game, this is one of the better ones out there
So, with that all being said,
I’m going to give this game, a 3.5/5