This game is fun, but should more iOS games be ported to motion-controlled consoles?
When we go to E3 each year to play upcoming iOS titles, we are usually pretty focused on just that: iOS games. However, our visit to HalfBrick’s booth left us drooling for more than their upcoming iOS game, Machine Gun Jetpack. We got to play a pre-release build of Fruit Ninja Kinect for the Xbox 360, and it turned out to be one of our favorite games at the show. Last week Fruit Ninja Kinect was released on the Xbox Live Arcade for $10, and HalfBrick was kind enough to provide us with a copy despite our lack of Xbox coverage. We’ve been playing it since then, and while this is not a review of the game, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on what a direct port of an iOS game feels like when played with motion controls.
Yes, Fruit Ninja Kinect feels like a direct port of the iOS game in almost every way. “Sweet!” You may be thinking, “Fruit Ninja rocks on my iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch!” That’s true! I’ve put countless hours into Fruit Ninja, much of that time spent when I should have been writing a report, listening to a sermon, or performing other activities that don’t satisfy my ADD the way that only slicing fruit with my finger can. While Fruit Ninja Kinect is certainly fun, it also provides us with a pretty straightforward example of why we don’t see more iOS titles ported to motion-controlled platforms. I feel that FNK has some of the best motion-tracking tech of any current Kinect game, but the idea of using body movement in place of finger sliding comes with some caveats.
Note: I am using Fruit Ninja Kinect to give examples of issues I think other iOS developers should look out for when developing for a motion-controlled console platform, mainly because it’s the first game to make the jump from iOS. Fruit Ninja Kinect is a lot of fun, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for improvement! 
Slice Those Menus
The menu in Fruit Ninja on the iOS is perfect; you see several fruit on the screen, and you slice the fruit that pertains to the menu you want to advance to. The FNK menu, which is exactly the same as the iOS menu, is terrible. Why is this? HalfBrick probably spent a lot of time creating algorithms and 
setting parameters to determine what motion is considered a slicing swipe, and what is not. Unfortunately, the player hasn’t been trained on this, so moving your hand too quickly to slice one menu will often lead to slicing the wrong piece of fruit, thus plunging you into the wrong menu. I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally sliced the “replay” fruit when I was trying to to swipe the bomb to exit the session. The same issue applies to the “Dojo” section where you can browse unlockable content. Flicking the menu with your finger works great, but swinging your arms simply doesn’t get the job done, and it becomes very frustrating to browse the goodies you’ve unlocked.
To be fair, 90% of the menus in Kinect games are pretty damn annoying, so it’s not like other game developers are doing much better. Slicing fruit, or interacting with objects in other ways is a cool idea for a menu, but as expected, it’s not something that will work with every input method. For instance, making a menu that requires you to swipe your mouse in specific directions to navigate a PC game would prove tedious for someone using a mouse, but on an iPad it could become an immersive experience.
Hello Bomb!
Fruit Ninja, and many other games on iOS devices, require pinpoint accuracy to play properly. Lucky for us, Apple has designed a highly responsive multi-touch display to satisfy those needs. Microsoft’s Kinect, Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony’s Move are far from the bliss of touch-based accuracy. In Fruit Ninja, it’s very easy to accidentally swipe the wrong fruit/bomb while flailing your arms like a madman. On my iPhone I enjoy the challenge of weaving my swipes in-between bombs and fruit to keep the combo running, maximize my score. On the Kinect, if the fruit aren’t lined up almost perfectly, chances are you’re not going to get the combo you were aiming for. This can get really frustrating in game modes that contain bombs, which subtract from your score or outright end the game. It’s not impossible to get a high score (I think my highest was around 750 in Arcade mode), but it requires a lot more luck than skill. As mentioned with the menus, the same issue with the game not understanding the different between a slice and a normal movement are even more evident here. I was accidentally slicing fruit left and right, thus killing many chances to gain combos by slicing three or more at a time.
I believe that if you’re taking a game from one platform to another, tweaks are almost always needed to ensure the control scheme is fully optimized for the gameplay. This doesn’t necessarily mean that gameplay elements need to be dumbed down, but some innovation will be necessary to make sure the 
new experience is fair, and more importantly, fun. For games like Fruit Ninja, this will probably require minimal changes. Other games might require a lot more to be sacrificed or rethought for the port to work well.
Quick In, Quick Out
The most popular iOS games are those that keep us coming back time and time again for quick gaming sessions, whether it be to beat our friend’s high score, or advance to the next set of levels. Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Fruit Ninja are all perfect examples of this experience. Console games are generally not designed with this mind. They assume that if you are gaming on a console, you have a bit of time to spare. There are always exceptions to the rule, but generally when I boot up my Xbox I’m looking for more than 5-10 minutes of entertainment. Even with friends over, I don’t think we played Fruit Ninja Kinect for more than 20 minutes before getting tired/bored. This doesn’t mean the game is bad, but in just a few minutes you are able to play all the game modes, and even unlock around 75% of the Dojo items.
A lot of mobile games might not have to deal with this issue when/if they port over to major consoles. Games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope appeal to the “3-star” group of gamers that enjoy playing and replaying levels over and over to complete all the challenges. Both of these games also come with a large amount of levels that introduce new game elements and challenges as the player progresses. On the reverse end, Super Meat Boy is a good example of a current console/PC game would also work well as a mobile game in concept (ignoring that whole “no button” problem, of course). Had Meat Boy started on the App Store, there would be almost no issue bringing his meaty goodness to consoles. The problem with Fruit Ninja Kinect is that it’s not an easy game to just pick up and play on your Xbox. It takes a few minutes for the Kinect hardware to boot up, the game to load, and the Kinect to calibrate for your body and play area. After a few rounds of energetic, full-body slicing and dicing, I feel satisfied that I’ve played enough, and I move onto something else. Is Halfbrick trying to create a new “quickplay” genre of games to consoles? Perhaps, but is that what gamers want?
Fruit Ninja Kinect certainly has a lot going for it. The body tracking is very good, even if the game can’t tell the difference between moving and slicing very well. The visuals are fun, and there’s no feeling quite like slicing through fruit like you’re holding a giant invisible samurai sword. I think it is a cool step for iOS games, and one that I hope is taken by other developers of popular titles. I just hope that in the future a bit more research is be done to 
transform a beloved mobile title into a bonified console gaming experience. I would have loved to see new fruit, different enemy objects, varied playspaces, and new power-ups thrown into a console release that came with so much fanfare. It would have been awesome to have a leveling system with added abilities, or progressive levels that have you slicing through fruit monster bosses or competing against a clever AI opponent. Keeping things simple works really well for the mobile game world, but I’ve always felt that console/PC gamers are looking for more when it comes tent-pole releases, like the Summer of Arcade series on XBLA.
Again, everything in this article is not necessarily directed right at the folks at Halfbrick Studios, who put the fine Fruit Ninja series together. It’s just their luck that they were the first to launch their fine mobile title into the wonderful world of motion console gaming. What do you guys think? Is it possible for these quickplay mobile titles to make it in the “big leagues” of major console releases? Should we be happy with straight-up iOS ports, or should we expect more? Is Fruit Ninja Kinect still awesome despite a few shortcomings? Well, I can definitely answer that last question: yes.
Fruit Ninja Kinect (Xbox Live Arcade) – $10 (800 pts)
