Fruit Ninja Turns 5, Receives Large Game Update

This update brings six new mini-games to the experience, as well as a single-player tournament mode. The tournament mode challenges players to face off against six AI characters in special head-to-head matches.

In these matches, players are asked to slice white and blue fruit, but avoid bombs and red fruit, with red fruit belonging to the opponent. It’s possible for both red and blue fruit to be on screen at the same time, but players can miss two fruit before it’s game over. If players swipe the opponent’s fruit, they lose points. When players have successfully defeated all six challengers, they’ll receive the Golden Ember Blade, which doubles players’ scores.

Meanwhile, the six mini-games challenge players to earn points by completing specific tasks in each game. For instance, the Cherry Bomb mini-game asks players to destroy cherries which appear alongside groups of bombs. The closer each cherry is to a bomb when it’s sliced, the more points players may earn. Another game, Swarm, asks players to slice fruit while avoiding the bombs hovering on the screen. As players tap and hold their finger on the screen, they can direct the bombs away from the fruit, but must also avoid actually touching the bombs or letting fruit fall off of the screen.

As part of this update, players will also receive free Starfruit and Gold Apples to spend in the game. Players spend Starfruit to access mini-games where they can win Gold Apples, while Gold Apples are spent to play in the tournament.

In a statement, Halfbrick CEO, Shainiel Deo, commented:

The latest update of Fruit Ninja is really a new chapter for the game and for Halfbrick. We are grateful for the success it’s brought, but we’re also excited by the evolution of the game … and it all starts here.

Fruit Ninja is available to download for $0.99 on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, the Windows Phone Store and Amazon Appstore.