Fruitiny Review

Take classic memory cards gameplay, add vibrant, colorful pixel art and intuitive controls, and then you have Fruitiny, a fun new game for iPhone that you can snag for free in its first twenty-four hours after release (that's right now!). Fruitiny comes from the mind of Briano Casotto, a former Ubisoft developer and the sole person behind Totano Corp. Fruitiny is his first game as a one-man band and it's a pretty damn good start.

I find it hard to believe there are many people out there who haven't played a memory card game, but if you haven't, the basic gameplay consists of a certain number of cards placed face down—more cards equals more difficulty—and then you flip cards over for a few seconds before they return face down, where you then attempt to match cards using, wait for it, your memory. That's the basic hook of Fruitiny; however, Fruitiny makes great use of the touch screen by allowing players to swipe across all the cards to flip them over, leaving a second or two to remember card locations, then tap on cards to match two of the same fruit; you can tap on cards to flip them over too, but swiping is much more efficient. As you progress further, more fruits are added, as well as little green monsters that cause penalties if tapped (matching two different fruits causes a penalty too).

It's simple, but a lot of fun. The real problem is a lack of variety. When you first start the game, the only mode available is a normal arcade mode. If the normal arcade mode is beaten, a harder difficulty is unlocked, and if you beat hard mode, an endless mode is unlocked for both difficulties, but it's all just the same gameplay with a tad more challenge. I don't know if Fruitiny will have lasting power, but I've been having fun with the game over the past few weeks and there's no reason to pass when the game is currently free (remember, only for the first twenty-four hours). And if you are an avid Game Center user, Fruitiny has leaderboard support and achievements, so download the game now and do your best to knock me out of first place. After the free launch promotion, Fruitiny will be $0.99, which is still a fine price for a great, if a little shallow, game.

Fruitiny (iPhone / Free for first 24 hours, $0.99 afterwards)