Fruit Ninja Kinect Review (Xbox 360)

Fruit Ninja, the widely popular android and IOS fruit slashing simulator, has sold millions of copies on both platforms. They hope to capitalize on this success with the release of Fruit Ninja Kinect for the Xbox Live Arcade. Should you pony up $10 to become a fruit slicing master or is Fruit Ninja full of empty calories? The goal of Fruit Ninja is fairly straight forward: fruits are tossed upward from the bottom of the screen and you must slice them in half using your arms. To keep gameplay fresh the game will also toss bombs and other obstacles in to the mix. The game awards you one point for every fruit you've sliced. Unlike other arcade titles based around points, such as DDR, there is no combo meter, instead combos are awarded for the number of fruit slashed with a single stroke.

Fruit Ninja controls surprisingly well using the Kinect Sensor. The sensor watches your body movements and they are replicated in the form of a shadow being cast on the background. As you move the shadow mimics your every action. I had to really pay attention to find any lag in regards to the shadow, Halfbrick did an excellent job in this respect. I wish the same could be said when it comes to the games menu. Unlike other Kinect titles the game does not provide you with a cursor for menu selection. Instead you are supposed to watch your shadow's hand placement and slice in a downward movement when you're hovering over the desired option. This can prove cumbersome with the menu objects being placed in the foreground over the shadow.



Visually Fruit Ninja provides some of the most vibrant graphics we've seen on the Xbox Live Arcade in recent memory. The fruits themselves are fairly detailed 2D sprites, which look significantly better than those featured in any other version of the game. As they fly through the air you can't help but notice the fruits do tend to repeat. If you get bored of the backgrounds you can eventually unlock new ones by earning high scores and replaying the games various modes.



You might be wondering what features the Xbox 360 version of Fruit Ninja offers that warrants a 10x increase over the iphone version, Aside from the full body motion control. You are able to play the game in the traditional arcade mode, where missing three fruits or hitting a bomb ends the round, a zen mode where there is no penalty for missed fruits and no bombs. Finally there is the multiplayer mode that allows two people to duke it out, fruit salad style. The multiplayer can be an interesting diversion but even in a larger living room two people playing a kinect title can lead to some personal space disputes. If you intend to play the game with friends it is probably best to take turns playing Classic or Zen mode trying to best each other's scores.

In the end Fruit Ninja kinect is an excellent treat for Kinect early adopters who haven't had much to play since the peripherals launch last November. If you're looking for an insane amount of depth or replayability you're not going to find it in Fruit Ninja Kinect. What you will find is an excellent party game with some neat visual flair. If you need a reason to dust off your kinect and feel like having a few buddies over for a night Kinect fun, then Fruit Ninja Kinect is for you.

Platform:
Xbox 360
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Publisher:
HIP Games
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Developer:
10tacle
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Genre:
Action
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Release Date:
To Be Announced
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Game Features:
Offline Players: NA

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