BEHIND THE SCENES
Fruit, glorious fruit!
Fruit Ninja 2
Slice up a juicy watermelon!
Do you remember the first game you played on an iPhone? There’s a good chance it was the frenetic, flying-fruit slicer, Fruit Ninja.
The wildly popular Australian–made game launched on the App Store back in 2010 and soon became a huge hit worldwide.
In 2020, developer Halfbrick celebrated the game’s 10th anniversary with the release of Fruit Ninja 2.
Proving the adage that a great idea can come from absolutely anywhere, the inspiration for the original game came from an informercial for kitchen knives, which showed the blades effortlessly gliding through fruit.
The idea got buy-in, a prototype was created and from there it took just one month and four people to turn a simple mock-up into one of the most popular mobile games of all time.
When asked why he thinks Fruit Ninja was so successful, Shainiel Deo, founding member and CEO of Halfbrick, says, “It was just a fun, novel experience that made you feel powerful. Just slicing fruit with your finger – it was different from what anyone had seen before.”
After many iterations and updates to Fruit Ninja over the years, the studio finally set to work on Fruit Ninja 2 in 2017. Why did it take so long?
“Inevitably, just the sheer pressure from following up Fruit Ninja was always too much. Like, what are we going to do? How are we going to provide something meaningful?” says Deo.
The answer to that question turned out to be about balancing the old with the new. Fruit Ninja 2 will keep fans of the original single-player mode satisfied, whilst also providing an enhanced multiplayer experience, enabling users to play with and against gamers all over the world (including their own friends). Plus, the delicious, visceral elements of the original game – like the sound of the blades slicing and the juice bursting out – remain.
Players can personalise gameplay by upgrading characters with different skins and blades, and can even unlock specific taunts to dish out to multiplayer opponents. What’s more, the in-game universe of Fruitasia will be brought to life through hidden stories and new locations that will be revealed through upcoming seasons of the game.
Whether you’re a fan of the original or new to the frantic fun of slicing and dicing explosive fruit, Fruit Ninja 2 is jam-packed with all the original ninja magic and more.