E3 2011: Fruit Ninja Kinect
At E3 this year, I was surprised when I received an email from Halfbrick Studios, the developers of Fruit Ninja. However, what I saw was not a mobile game; it was Fruit Ninja Kinect.
At first thought, I was wondering why, but after getting to play the game, I realized that it is a perfect match for something like the Kinect. Fruit Ninja Kinect has the same single player offerings as the iOS version, but there are many distinct differences: the inclusion of multiplayer, customizable blades and backgrounds, and different shadow types.
The single player experience took a little getting used to, but after getting situated the game played fairly easily. After a few rounds of the single player modes I noticed that load times were nearly non-existent, and I was pretty beat—I may just be out of shape.
The multiplayer mode consists of Co Op and Competitive modes. For the competitive mode, the screen was portioned so that each player (myself and the guy from Halfbrick) would have half the screen (Him, red; me, blue). Then the fruit began to fly, his fruit with a red outline, mine with blue. For each piece of our colored fruit that we sliced, we would earn a point; however, if we cut the wrong fruit, we would lose a point. From time to time, fruit with a white outline would fly across the screen, for each of these cut 5 points were awarded.
Although the multiplayer experience was fun, I found myself concerned that I was going to hit the guy I was playing with. I think that this may cause a slight problem, especially with young children, but that problem can be easily solved if one person stands roughly a foot closer to the Kinect.
Fruit Ninja Kinect doesn’t have a set release date or price, but it will be releasing as a part of the Summer of Arcade promotion. Look forward to going crazy on some fruit very soon.
