Fruit Ninja is possibly one of the most additive games I have ever played on any platform. The idea is to slash upcoming fruit from the bottom of the screen with your finger before they disappear.
Now this all sounds very simple but gets gradually more difficult as the game goes on like nearly every game on the planet. Once you slash about thirty pieces of fruit bombs start appearing within the pile of fruit that is chucked into the air, hit the bomb and its game over. So you have to be careful and dodge all bombs and believe me this takes it out of you around the 250 mark of sliced fruit.
If you miss three prices of fruit it's also game over, although occasionally when you hit a certain number of fruit, the game will give you an extra chance to miss a piece of fruit, coming in very handy.
Fruit Ninja has two modes. One where you dodge bombs and slash as much fruit as you can, to beat your previous and friends high scores. And another mode called Zen Mode where you slash as much fruit as you can within one minute and thirty seconds. Zen Mode gives you no lives so it is okay to miss as much fruit as you want and there are no bombs. I actually prefer Zen Mode but that might be because it is relatively new to the game within the recent update 1.2.1. But it does bring a huge breath of fresh air for players who have had the game for sometime.
The game uses OpenFeint for leader boards of scores, so you can challenge not just yourself when slicing fruit but the whole world.
The controls are excellent and are super precise, with the game recognising every detail about your swipe, allowing you to get combos easily. You can use up two fingers as swords and it recognises both just as well as it does one.
The main theme tune gets a bit repetitive but the fruit noises never get old. When you slash into a fruit the developer has exaggerated the sound along with the juices that splatter out of the fruit onto the screen. See what I mean in the gameplay video below.
The graphics are fantastic. From the main menu where you interact with it by slashing each option you would like to engage and when in game where the full 3D fruit come up onto the screen with high textures and lighting effects. The animations of abused fruit looks top notch too.
Overall Fruit Ninja is a definite purchase for anyone looking for a cheap way to have fun and entertain themselves when waiting around. But if you don’t want to have an addiction, stay well clear.
