It isn't every day that you find a game that is a truly fresh take on a classic game style. There are dozens of games out there that are simply a couple tweaks away from infringing on Tetris and Bejeweled trademarks. Upset the Fruit Basket takes inspiration from these staple game types, but builds something fun and unique that you can enjoy for its own merits.
Read along with us after the break to see how Upset the Fruit Basket is able to stand out.
Upset the Fruit Basket is basically an upside-down game of Tetris, mixed with Bejeweled and set to a fruit theme. There are six different types of fruit (that have faces, no less) lining up into a grid, slowly moving up from the bottom of the screen. The basic object, like most games of the type, is to connect three similar fruits in a row to make them disappear. You select one of the fruits as your "character" when you play, giving you bonus points when you line up three fruits that are the same as your character (so it's basically random). If any of the lines of fruit hits the top of the screen, it's game over.
The reason why I say the game is deceptively tricky is that you can only slide the fruit from side to side, not up and down. You swipe left or right to make a fruit swap places with the one next to it, but they will not move up or down. In order to connect a row of three, you'll have to think several steps ahead where you'll swipe as the fruit pushes upward. It may not sound complex, but the game takes a lot of thinking to progress past the early stages.
There are two main single player game types -- unlimited and timed -- as well as a multiplayer mode so you can play with a friend. The multiplayer mode lets you play "head to head" (or up/down) so to speak, with each player getting half of the screen, as if you were sitting across the table from someone and the device was flat on the table between you. This obviously works better with a larger device like a tablet, but you can make it work on a phone in a pinch. The settings also let you choose different orientations for multiplayer that are more landscape-friendly, like both games being side by side on one side of the device (left/left), or playing side by side facing each other (right/left).
Aside from the game types, you can select whether to turn sounds on or off in the settings, and that's it. There's no sound track at this time, but we think it would add quite a bit to this generally fun and light-hearted game.
The mechanics and gameplay in Upset the Fruit Basket are great, and everything performs just as you'd expect for a simple game. This is a great title from an independent developer that refreshingly comes up with something new and unique. The game is available now in the Play Store for free with ads, and there is an ad-free version for just $0.99.
