No doubt it’s better than whatever tie-in game gets shoveled onto store shelves for the consoles, so we can take comfort in that at least. This is the same Fruit Ninja that you all know and love with a new coat of paint and an excellent new game mode. Classic mode has been re-dubbed Desperado, and features the same three life limit and bomb avoidance fun. Except now, to regain a life, rather than score one hundred points you’ll have to slice the magic bean, which results in a point bonus if you’re full on lives.
The new mode is called Bandito, and is something of a gauntlet challenge. At each level, four challenges will be randomly selected. You simply have to get through the three levels to the final bonus stage without failing three challenges, thus losing your three lives. The challenges range from cracking open a tough coconut to picking fruit out of swarms of bombs. You are scored and rated based on how many fruits you sliced, the accuracy of your slices, and your initial reflex time. Bandito mode offers lots of variety, and it’s a whole new way to play your favorite fruit slicing game.
Other than Banditio mode, this is really just old school Fruit Ninja with a Puss in Boots wrapper. There are cool new blades and backgrounds to unlock, new music, and now Puss himself will occasionally chime in with comments about your performance. I can’t think of a single thing that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of Antonio Banderas’ dreamy voice and suave demeanor, and this game is no exception. It may be full of elements from the movie, but it isn’t drowning in them and it manages to retain its own identity. There are plenty of new OpenFeint and Game Center achievements to unlock and leaderboards to climb, and the game can be yours for a dollar. If you love Fruit Ninja, you’ll continue loving it here, and if you don’t love Fruit Ninja, there’s probably something wrong with you.
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