In the face of a capitalistic collapse of the world as we know it, we all need a good unwind game like Fruit Mountain . It’s that sweet relief as we lose out on things like bill payments and the like that we truly find ourselves, maybe for the first time in weeks.
Fruit Mountain is a 3D spin on the viral sensation Suika Game, letting you stack fruits to fuse into bigger fruits for a high score. There’s a respectable simplicity to it- there’s literally nothing else to the game outside of this, and boy does that make me happy.
Honesly, [Game] but 3D isn’t an uncommon thing in the PC market, but not many actually manage to apply it in a creative way. Fruit Mountain does this by having you rotate around the bowl, chucking the fruit in and being able to adjust the arc of your throws as well. It does a good job of making the gameplay feel more calculated- I keep swearing I can make it through my current predicament by channeling my inner basketballer Jordan, only instead I end up channeling baseballer Jordan from Space Jam.
It’s actually weirdly funny, because the game’s physics can cause some reactions to happen on a delay. The fact that at all times, there’s a side of the bowl you can’t see is downright horrifying- you can chain a huge combo only to have your expanding fruit knock a persimmon off the edge, ending your run. Maybe it’s a commentary on life itself? That even in the most joyous moments, you’re still not safe from a soul-crushing sadness.
Fruit Mountain: Simple But Effective
As a fun little budget game I can’t recommend Fruit Mountain enough. It’s incredibly easy to lose yourself in, with its simple premise and your own competitive nature driving you to look into overcoming the score from the time you let your sister try it out.
I’m honestly glad BeXide stuck to their guns on keeping the gameplay simple- it would have been really tempting to try to shake up the formula in some way, but the truth is that having the next run be one click away is the best for this type of game. It’s enough to lose hours of your time into, wrecking your entire review schedule because you decided to spend an extra hour pushing fruit around instead of other things you’re meant to be working on.
With just a simple trick its more than earned its own niche in the Suika-like genre, and that’s not even counting the priceless shocked face of an anime art student as she watches you fumble your bowl.
Score: 8/10
Game reviewed on PC. Review code provided by publisher
