Tag: Fruit »

Got bored of pitting plants against zombies? How about testing out the physical abilities of fruit and vegetable instead? That's exactly what Fruits vs Veggies offers for all interested in what has been referred to as the 'ultimate food fight'.

A card based system offering nearly 50 different cards provides the main focus of strategy in the battle between the Fruit Clan and the Veggies Family. Real time action keeps things fast paced and exciting as players get to summon the likes of the Coconut Bowler and use Jalapeno Grenades to defend themselves. Play is simple via a drag and drop system and there's a few in-app purchases available to make things easier.

There's a 40 level campaign mode for single players while a 2 player versus mode is also available for social gamers.

As a free app for iPad users, FvV: Fruits vs Veggies is set to be an ideal new game to give a shot for strategy fans.

We've been saying for ages that it's about time someone made a game in which a truck launched melons into giant floating baskets, and finally Batuhan Akalin has answered our calls with his one-man creation, Melon Truck.

The idea is to aim the truck's launcher by rotating it until it's in the desired angle and then wait until the pin on the power slider is at the desired level to press fire and watch that melon fly. If that melon lands in a basket then the points denoted are awarded, unless it's a smarmy negative style-cramper of a basket in which case they're taken away. Use the five available melons to score the required amount of points to progress to the next level, then rinse and repeat. As they have been known to say, it's that simple.

That simplistic design makes it an easy enough game to while the minutes to, even if success often feels like it's more to do with luck then judgement as the levels become more complicated and feel more like Pachinko than, say, Angry Birds. Sadly it's over all too quickly, and the second world, a clone of the first world but with baskets that move up and down, feels like a false addition of more content. It's just a bit too fleeting for me, and in the short time it is around it's not very ambitious.

Even if Batuhan's debut iOS game isn't the most ambitious, it does a serviceable job as a fun, simple, and for the most part challenging physics-based puzzle game. And he's introduced me to the idea of a melon truck, and that in and of itself is invaluable.

Fruit Memory HD is, in my opinion, one of the nicest Memory-type games available on the app store, and is one that my daughters and I have a ton of fun with on a regular basis.

The thing that first caught my eye with Fruit Memory was its very clean and attractive art style that really stands out on the app store in comparison to other apps of its type. That, plus, it was all of a dollar. And because of the price, I didn't have huge expectations as all I wanted was a simple, attractive memory game. But once I loaded it up and started playing it with my daughters, I realized very quickly that every now and then a dollar provides a lot more than a dollar's worth of fun and entertainment.

When you start up Fruit Memory you're presented with an selection page that contains quite a few options, but is incredibly easy to navigate. The game can start with as few as 12 cards or as many as 40, scaling the cards in size to accommodate.

The next option allows for the selection of players. You can play on your own and keep a local leader board of how long it took to complete as well as how many moves it takes. There are separate entries for 12, 28 and 40 cards, and there are unique fruits to be found even at the 40 card level.

Once you start everything up, you get to pick your character, avatar, however you want to describe it. There are 16 options and, wouldn't you know it my twins always argue about which character they want to pick. The character designs don't seem like they make much of an impact, but they really do. The faces are made up of various internet emoticons (>.<, o.O, ^_^, T_T) and so on. Very, very cute.

The options make it really easy for even younger children who are not able to read to start up the game. The buttons are large, and very clearly marked, making it very easy for even a 2 year old to set up a game.

After you're done and you jump into the game, the layout is, simply, perfect. Each person has a tab at the bottom of the screen showing their avatar and their score. If you get a match in a turn, you can go again, otherwise it moves to the next player. It's designed nicely for a tabletop mode, and when you have 4 players it becomes 2 on 2, just great for families. One thing that I absolutely love is that each time you guess right, your avatar jumps up and down in happiness. Again, it's a simple touch, but it adds to the attractiveness of the app.

The card backs are, as the title suggests, fruits. The shapes are easy to recognize and differentiate and are very colorful. There will be no issues if your child is color-blind, either, as there is no repetition based on fruit color.

I've had my hands on quite a few other memory apps, some that are much more expensive or much fancier, just out of curiosity to see if they improve upon Fruit Memory and, at this point, I've yet to find one that I would pick in its place. The clean, simple and very visually pleasing aesthetic of the app combined with the attractive sound effects and adorable "characters" is something that is a huge hit with my whole family and, without a doubt, will be for yours too. Heck, it's a buck! You can't go wrong!