It’s time to delve into the world of fruits with this title. Thanks to Nintendo Switch Online providing the full game for free temporarily I got to have some fun with this one. That said, I can’t picture ever buying it because the game is just too limited. There are certainly some titles where the gameplay is so addicting that you can keep playing it over and over anyway but this is definitely not one of them. It just feels like more of a watered down version of Tetris.

Basically the idea is that you have to match fruits together to create larger fruits. Like two Strawberries may create a grape and then two grapes create an orange. You keep going until you get the biggest fruit possible. What this means is you need to plan things carefully to have the fruits next to each other because if your jar gets filled up then you will lose the match. There is RNG in terms of what fruit will be selected next but that goes hand in hand with the genre. All in all it’s pretty simple to pick up and play. You can work out your strategy as you go and try to improve your record each time. You are also able to really go at your own pace which is always nice.

That said, it still runs into the issue I mentioned earlier which is that there just isn’t a whole lot to do. It’s still just the one level so the background never changes and there are only a few different fruits, maybe 10 at max? So you very quickly realize that you’re performing the same actions again and again which destroys the mystique of it all. For a title like Pac Man you really enjoy getting your high score up and I’d say in part that’s due to how fast paced the whole thing is. You’re constantly using your reaction times and everything to stay one step ahead. This game is a lot slower and so you have more time to think about what you’re doing but it’s also less hectic. When you lose, well you feel like you did a good job but you aren’t rushing to go back.

This game need something to really stoke your competitive fire. Something that makes you want to give it one more shot to prove to the world that you have the skills. More cosmetic unlockables or something would be good. Like unlocking more things based on your high score, cumulative high score, and general level ups. This would be fairly easy to implement but would add a whole new dimension to the game. Yes, this would have absolutely helped a whole lot and I think we would be looking at a completely different game in the long run.

As it stands, there just isn’t enough here to keep your attention. The music’s okay and the game visually looks really solid but it feels like a free game you spend a few minutes on and then that’s it. If it grabs you then potentially you’re all set but in this day and age there are too many powerful competitors all trying for your attention. There just isn’t any time for this title and so it ends up falling by the wayside.

Overall, I had a good time with this game for a few minutes but it’s quite telling that I only played 3 full rounds. There isn’t enough variety to keep you engaged and due to the slower speed of the game, you know that you’ve lost well before you actually do. So at that point you are going through the motions just to end the round so that your score can be saved but that isn’t the most exciting thing to do. You feel bad about it if anything because you’d like to just get knocked out and move on. I would even say as a rule of thumb if your game over is imminent, the game should put you out of your mercy quickly so that you can move on. Maybe in a way that’s what really holds this title back but of course it is hard to say for sure. It needs more content and that’s still the bottom line here.

Overall 5/10