By Luna Eriksson 03.02.2017
When the entire family gets kidnapped, a brave father has to embark on an adventure to get them back in this fruity climbing game. Will the climb be enjoyable, or is it all downhill? Read on for Cubed3's verdict on Infinite State Games' Frutorious.
This is one of those games that stands out from the very moment you start it. The art style is extremely capturing, and the theme is weird in exactly the right way to rise curiosity rather than unease. While the visuals pull in players, though, they stay for the gameplay.
It is really interesting to see how the courses have been designed in this climber title. Infinite State Games has come up with a lot of different obstacles and tools to help the player reach the goal of the stage and collect all the collectibles along the road, which really adds different nuances to each and every stage and keeps Fruitorious fresh. The problem, however, is that the difficulty increase becomes extremely inconsistent.
This is due to the fact that the developer seems to have mistaken difficulty for "how many objects are there on the screen." This is often the case in many genres, such as shoot 'em ups and platformers, but it isn't necessarily the case in a climber, which is more about precision than anything else. Some later stages manage to be as difficult as expected, but others are really easy once it is understood to ignore the parts of the stage that do not matter, which is learned extremely quickly, as this is a flaw that can be seen very early in the game.
Despite this, the main game mode is fun and entertaining from start to finish, and to actually gain all the stars is going to be a challenging task for most gamers, but the real treat in Frutorious rests in its endless mode.
This is entirely designed in an old-school style that tingles the nostalgia senses of gamers born before the release of the N64. After a couple of plays, it becomes really clear that the climber genre is sincerely made for the endless climb style. Even though this mode is great, it is not without a couple of issues of its own, though.
The greatest problem is the cannon, which is a great feature in the story mode. The reason it becomes such a hassle in classic mode is because there is often no way to judge in which direction to shoot yourself, creating leap of faith after leap of faith. This is especially annoying, as in classic, one faulty shot can easily kill the player and rob them of a really high score. This frustration does, thankfully, never exceed the pure addictive nature of this game mode, though, making it a wonderful experience for fans of climber games.
While frustrating, Frutorious really captures many of the core aspects of what makes a great climber title, and with the two distinct art styles the main mode and classic mode offer, it sure is an experience that will stand out in a positive way no matter if you are new to gaming or a veteran in the genre.
Frutorious has some quirky flaws here and there, but, ultimately, it is a fun and addictive game that is really difficult to put away once picked up, and the art style is sure to pull the curious eyes of gamers towards it. While it does nothing spectacular, it is still a wonderful classical climber title, and sometimes that is all a game needs to be to be a marvellous experience.
7/10
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