Tag Archives: fruit ninja

Summer of Voltron

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Between sessions of the various video games I’ve bought and rented this summer and trying desperately to avoid any discussion of Ninja Theory’s upcoming entry in the Devil May Cry series for fear of being sucked into the shitstorm of fanboy rage over it (however justified it may or may not be), I’ve been loading up on Xbox Live Arcade titles this summer. Now that I’ve managed to “catch ‘em all”, my TV-addled mind has somehow found a way to compare them to Voltron…metaphorically speaking, of course.

Bastion and From Dust would form the feet and legs, obviously, since those two were the first ones out of the gate. You do a lot of running around in Bastion; not so much in From Dust, though, since you’re functionally a god.

Arms and torso would be Fruit Ninja Kinect and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, respectively. Fruit Ninja is, well…it’s pretty damn obvious (you’re flailing your arms about a whole lot in order to maintain a high score). ITSP gets the “torso” treatment because you’re literally exploring the body of the eponymous planet.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War gets the honor of calling out “…and I’ll form the head!” if only because, in contrast to Bastion being the first Summer of Arcade game out, it was the last one to be released. Crimson Alliance doesn’t count, because that hits in two weeks, and is free to everyone who bought all of the above. Hmm…I guess that would make it the Blazing Sword that defeats the Robeast at the end of every episode. Let’s hope that that game is as good as the others…

Fruit-based ninjutsu, or something like it

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Fruit Ninja Kinect, Xbox Live Arcade Summer of Arcade 2011 Game #4, was released yesterday. “Did you buy it?” Of course I did.

I’ll admit that I’ve played the original Fruit Ninja on my friend’s iPhone one time, since I lack an iPhone to call my own. It was my desire to get that free copy of Crimson Alliance a few weeks down the line, and for a Kinect game that I could actually play in my room without having to move around a whole lot (if only this stupid bed weren’t in the way) that ultimately led to my purchase of this game. Already, I think it’ll be the oddball in this year’s collection since:

  1. All of the other Summer of Arcade games cost 1200 MS Points (or about US$14.99), while this only only costs 800 (US$9.99), and
  2. It’s the first and only Kinect game on XBLA.

That’s not to say it’s a bad game. I’m kinda enjoying it. However, since you actually have to use your hands (yes, you’ll need to use both of them if you want to get all of the fruit, unless you’ve got arms longer than Shaquille O’Neal) instead of just your index finger, it can get a bit tiring, so it’s probably best not to play for more than 30-45 minutes at a time if you don’t want to get injured. I think I threw out my right arm going for a score of 400 in Arcade Mode, so I won’t try to improve on that until tomorrow.