Fruit Ninja is a fruit slicing game that first came to the iPhone and iPod back in 2010. It was a small hit of a game, slicing its way through almost every iPhone users hands. This game was so good on the first generation Apple products that many knock off remakes were created, and none of them had much success. Halfbrick has managed to keep their fantastic game relevant for nearly ten years after the release, and this is in large part due to the platforms they keep using while they optimize the game.
In mobile versions of the game you would simply lie your finger as a blade across the screen. This was a simp way to play the game and that was that. You had the classic, zen, and arcade modes. Nothing to go crazy about, but a fun mobile game to pass your time by. Putting this game inside of virtual reality was a fantastic idea, and the best platform for the game just yet. Being immersed inside of a fruit slicing world is much more fun than you would imagine, and wielding swords in each hand to slice the fruit is something that you won’t forget anytime soon. With that being said, this game was far from perfect. Let’s dive into it.
In Fruit Ninja VR you have four game modes to choose from. Arcade, zen, classic, and the survival are the game modes to choose from. Although each of these game modes are fun for their own reason, the game never captivated me enough to want to stay in the virtual area for more than a few long minutes. If you are looking for a long story line that is rich with content while using some fancy swords, check out Sairento before you play this game. This game is exactly what you would expect from Halfbrick Studios. They did exactly what they were asked to do.
The arcade mode last 60 full seconds, and is nothing special. The bombs that appear in this mode are not level ending, but will stack up to diminish your final point count if you keep hitting them. This game mode will keep more fruits flying up our of the ground more than any other mode, so this is going to be your best bet to work on keep your hands fast so you can improve on Beat Saber. This is a fantastic game to practice your hand speed for games like Beat Saber and Racket NX.
The classic mode is exactly the same as the mobile versions of this game. You slice the fruit until you either miss three fruits or you slice a pomegranate-looking bomb. This mode is simply and strait forward. Nothing new here. The zen mode is exactly what you would expect, as it is a more chill angle of slicing fruits.
The survival mode is new to virtual reality, and it was Halfbrick’s attempt to spice this game up and give it something new. This mode has a drone-like fruit-throwing machine roaming around the virtual space. The drone will then randomly shoot three different fruits at you as you have to slice them before they hit where you are virtually standing. This is by far the best game mode on this game and gives a challenge each time you play.
Overall this isn’t going to be a game I am going to go back to. The fruits come out with a larger field of view than you have in your headset which leads to missing some even when you are ready. You have to look down too much rather than just strait forward which can really take a toll on your neck. The game physics feel fine but it isn’t anything special, and in this day in VR you need to really impress if people are going to come back to your game. For a price point of $14.99 this is not something I would recommend.
