Fruit Ninja Free

Summary

We've talked so much about it that we'll spare you yet another intro to the phenomenon known as Fruit Ninja. The developers of this ultra popular game have come out with several flankers, including Fruit Ninja Free. Has the free version been able to latch onto its big juicy brother's success? Find out in today's review.

To answer the question we asked in the summary: not quite. Fruit Ninja Free has not been updated in over a year and it is clearly a free version, which means our expectations should be a bit lower than if we were reviewing the full version (which we have done). But it's still a very addictive game, thanks to its simple but hilarious gameplay.

The name of the game is still fruit carnage. Depending on which game mode you've chosen, you may also have to deal with flying bombs. There are three game modes to choose from: classic, arcade and zen. Classic lets players chop fruit ad infinitum, or rather until their three lives are spent. In arcade you have only 60 seconds to gather as many points as possible (hint: utilise the special fruit); Fruit Ninja verterans will be pleased to discover this relatively new game mode. The zen mode is my least favourite: the objective is really just to transform fruit into fruit mousse or parfait.

The game's major downside is clearly that there's no long-term motivation to keep playing. It's a great time-killer, but not something that will keep you glued to the display for hours on end. Secondly, there are no fruit store or online multiplayer options.

On a brighter note, there is an option to share results via OpenFeint as well as earn rewards.

Bottom line:

Fruit Ninja Free is a good game that's fun to play whenever you've got a few minutes to kill. That said, if you like the game play we wholeheartedly recommend purchasing the full version.

Please note: we hear the devs are hard at work on an update, but we don't yet have any information on when this will be available from our App Center.
 

Fruit Ninja Free is nice to look at and there's a tablet tailored version of the app, too. The resolution is not quite as high as the full version's; the free version is more pixely.

Fruit Ninja Free performed very well indeed on the HTC X.

Fruit Ninja Free is free as its name might suggest, and available from the AndroidPIT App Center. We also highly recommend the full version of this excellent game.