Frutti Freak for Newbies

Despite the ‘frutti’ name, Frutti Freak for Newbies is a great, albeit easy, 2D platformer.
As the name suggests, FFN is a dumbed down version of Frutti Freak with smaller levels. You take control of Frutti Freak, a caveman style character, who spends every day looking for fruit.

The gameplay is simple; you collect all of the fruit to open the gate to the next level, and repeat. Although that isn’t to say it is easy. You will be attacked by a variety of strange enemies, including fried chicken that jumps off the barbeque and chases you until it runs out of steam, and roast pork that comes to life and charges at you. Taking a page from Mario, you can jump on, or throw fruit at enemies to stop them.

There are flowers inside the platforms you can jump up and hit just like the coin blocks in Mario. These hide time bonuses as well as the fruit you can throw. Time bonuses are especially useful as every level has a time limit and when it runs out you lose a life. Fortunately, a save point appears every couple of levels - a luxury older games didn’t have - so you don’t have to start over once you run out of lives.

Visually FFN is sub-par even for a 2D game, looking like an early Master System game with more colours. However, seeing a roast chicken jump off a barbeque to chase you or roast pork come to life and attack you is amusing enough to distract from the dated visuals.

As 2D platformers don’t feature huge 3D worlds to dazzle you, it’s up to a loveable cast of characters and addictive gameplay to hold your attention. For a game developed by three guys, Frutti Freak for Newbies is one of the best 2D games I’ve played on any platform and easily dishes out as much fun as I’ve had on any 3D game, and then some.

A demo can be downloaded from Frutti Freak website and the full version costs US$14.95