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Fruity Frenzy!: 1 Super Star out of 5



Fruity Frenzy! is a short demo made by Shoobinator, the developer of Legend of Alkior. He made this game for his friends to show them how to make a game. Fruity Frenzy! is an arcade game that is based off the countless spinoff minigames throughout the Kirby franchise, whether it is embedded in Kirby games, or even full games themselves. The game's concept is great (so is the game page narrative), but the game itself is bare.

Fruity Frenzy! is a fun simple game. You are Kirby and you must collect as many Maxim Tomatoes as possible while avoiding the doppelgangers. When you get hit by a doppelganger, the game references your score, and you return to the title screen. When you finish the 1 minute timer, the doppelgangers disappear, your score is noted, and you return to the title screen. There is nothing else to it. The basic formula is set, but more things need to be added in order to feel like a Kirby minigame. The game only has one map layout, the enemies only have a collision and game over handler, the score is only referenced in a line of text when you pass the 1 minute, or you get hit by a doppleganger, and the fruit has a random number generator to re-appear in a different location after retrieval. This game functions, but it is very bare. However there is plenty of opportunity for this game to grow.

The game page advertizes the competition towards a high score, so there should be a high score chart embedded in the game (with name entry.) Another advertizement of the game page is the desire of the game to be played multiple times. Many of the most popular arcade action games have the player continue playing the game by increasing the difficulty and encourage the player to rack up more points. This game should have stages with smarter enemies, slightly different layouts, bonus levels(via Warp Star Perhaps), special fruits and more. This game has the basic formula down, but now Shoobinator needs to spice this game up. There is a ton of stuff that could be added to make this game rich with Kirby flavoring like Kirby style interfaces, sound effects, and a score meter to the side of the screen. There should be a new-game screen with other options, a game over and a victory section, so the pre-game and post game areas feel like a full immersion into a Kirby game.

The only technical gripe I have with the game is how the doppelgangers hit you. Since the game emphasizes the avoidance of the dopplegangers, there should be a more graceful "collision" effect rather than the standard bumping of events; similar to how the Pacman ghosts are practically hugging Pacman. Many game overs were caused in a way that felt almost unfair. Grabbing the fruit is just fine.

The graphics are RTP with the exception of the ripped Kirbys and Maxim Tomato sprite. Since the game is a fruity frenzy, Kirby should be collecting more than just 1 fruit, being the iconic Maxim Tomato. The map graphics should emulate a Kirby environment. The title screen is just a blown up Kirby image which does not look clean. Instead, Shoobinator should make a playful title screen with Kirby running away from the evil doppelgangers. There are only 2 Kirby songs, and the rest of the songs and sound effects are RTP. Everything functions correctly, but its presentation needs to feel more like a Kirby game, and step away from its RTP roots, so it feels like Kirby's Fruity Frenzy.


Fruity Frenzy! is just a simple collection and collision game. Shoobinator made a game that does play like a game. It is mildly enjoyable with what is currently available and it has the potential to grow into a cute and cool Kirby game. Now he has to teach his friends how to flavor up this game.


Can you beat my highscore?

Posts

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But seriously, thanks for writing this whole review out! The one-star is completely warranted given the amount of time put into this and lack of features. You gave a lot of suggestions about making the game more Kirby-oriented, but that was not really my intention besides filling my friend's request. Also, I just needed a quick pic to use for the title :P

Besides, since there aren't really any extravagant graphics, it could totally be revamped in the opposite direction, something completely of its own.

I'm glad you enjoyed this enough to write a full review. Not sure if I will ever get around to making "Fruitier Frenzy!" though. :/
author=Shoobinator
Maxim*

A-whoops. You are right. Fixed my typos now.

I fell for one of the common errors of the Kirby games by calling them "Maximum Tomatoes." Turns out that these tomatoes were once confused by translators for "bags of magic food." That sounds tasty. Now I know more.

author=Shoobinator
Legend of Alkior* :)

Oh man. I am real jerkface. I have to fix that. :)....done.
Ha hah hah hah hah. A Fruitier Frenzy!? I feel hyped to play that game.
i was wondering why this even got accepted to the site, but it makes sense that it's from release something. altho, i would suggest that what i see here shouldn't even qualify! as there is what, 1 minute of gameplay? the rule was that there had to be at least 10 mins. and judging from what i read, this isn't even worth playing 10 times xD but whatever, cg's on the easy MS
My reason for playing this game more is to make sure no one beats my high score :D.
author=Biggamefreak
My reason for playing this game more is to make sure no one beats my high score :D.

I know I got at least 30 a couple of times.
this is poop. it's worse than poop. it's sucks poop. give me back my time playing this. i was tricked. there is no point in playing unless you want to get a high score and everything about the way this was coded brings out the very worst in the tile based movement and hit detection of events in 2k3.

i would give it a 0.5 and suggest that it only be played if you are about to get in a fight and you want to build up some rage. i dislikeyou. i flogging dislike you.

stop living.

edit: xD i was pissed and obviously didn't beat your score.
User was warned for this post
author=Link_2112
this is poop. it's worse than poop. it's sucks poop. give me back my time playing this. i was tricked. there is no point in playing unless you want to get a high score and everything about the way this was coded brings out the very worst in the tile based movement and hit detection of events in 2k3.

i would give it a 0.5 and suggest that it only be played if you are about to get in a fight and you want to build up some rage. i dislikeyou. i flogging dislike you.

stop living.

edit: xD i was pissed and obviously didn't beat your score.

From the summary page:

would not have taken as long as it did if I just realized to use terrain detection instead of hard coding some things

Sarcasm not 100% detected...
oops, my full edit didn't take for some reason. check that post again.

what sarcasm? i wasn't referring to that part of coding. more like the speed/frequency of mobs, the amount of mobs, and the fact that you have to rush around. the way 2k3 handles key input for movement makes it hard to be super accurate.

my whole post was pretty much anger/sarcasm ;) i downloaded after i accepted the challenge and played until i posted the rage. so 1.5 hours of dying over and over and over...most of the time because the event tagged me as i walked by, not into it. the best i did was get 26 with time still left when i died, so i was on pace to beat 27. as for 30 - pics or gtfo. you'd have to get very lucky and have tomates spawn close to you in quick succession. which means you have to play over and over. so not worth it u.u
Ha hah hah. Yeah. Watch the flogging language.

@Shoobinator. I agree with Link. Pics. B)

@Link_2112. The collision was the biggest technical issue I had (as noted.) I wonder if the game would play better if the doppelgangers were on top of the hero in order to "hit." I should test that tonight.
don't bother. i'm fairly certain it won't make a difference. i have been doing extensive work with event collision in my 2k3 Zelda game. what happens is that the hitbox of the event moves instantly to the next tile when it decides to move. the speed of the event only affects how long it takes the sprite to follow. being on the top(or bottom) layer probably won't make a difference to the hitbox, but anything is possible.

you would need a custom system that uses a different measure of detection. which is possible, although i haven't tested my theory. from what i remember if you track the coordinates of an event with variables, it doesn't follow the hitbox. it follows the sprite and it's located at the bottom/middle. and if you use a formula to extrapolate a box from that point, you will have a more accurate hitbox that follows the sprite. it's just a matter of doing the same thing for every event and creating a way to detect collision. it's probably similar to kazesui's tutorial on pixel movement in 2k3, which i haven't read yet.
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