Kevin C. Wong

Fruit Ninja Classic+ (2021) [/]

Apple Arcade's Fruit Ninja Classic+ is an enhanced version of the old iOS game, which I've never played so won't compare.

The basic gameplay is that whole fruits fly up, gravity stops them in the air then they fall down off screen. You make swipes on the screen to simulate a blade slicing each fruit. If you split three or more fruits in one swipe you get extra points.

Occasionally there is a black bomb that flies up. If you slice that it explodes and game over. If three fruits fall down off the screen it's also game over. Naturally as a game goes on you get more and more fruits and bombs and it's quite hectic.

There are also power-up fruits that don't necessarily arc and fall with gravity. Sometimes they come from on top or the sides and streak across the screen. Power-ups include freeze (which actually just slows down everything), frenzy which sends a whole lot of fruit flying in (though in frenzy missing fruits doesn't count against your three strikes), and double where everything is double points.

You collect two types of currency. You unlock different blades and dojo backgrounds. You can upgrade blades and each blade has two minor and a major power.

Graphics are cartoony. Background music and sounds are appropriate.

This is really more of a younger person's game. At the time Fruit Ninja did a great demonstration for touch screen swipes. It's still a good arcade game though I played it for about an hour before I got bored.