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German students make life-sized VR Fruit Ninja, declare war on digital produce (video)
Do you enjoy the produce-slashing action that Fruit Ninja affords, but feel constrained by the meager display capabilities of handheld devices? Well, some German students from FH Wedel University of Applied Sciences have created a VR version of the game to make your dreams of having more massive melons fly at your face come true. Using a CAVE four-walled virtual environment to display the hurtling fruit and a modified Wiimote to do the slicing and dicing, players can exorcise their cantaloupe and kumquat demons in a life-sized fruit cleaving frenzy -- with none of the Gallagher-style mess. See it in action after the break, just be sure to don your Kikou first.
My top 3 apps: Tom Merritt
Tom Merritt knows his apps. As anchor of Tech News Today for the TWiT network, he sees his fair share of great tech. We caught up with Tom back in January at CES and asked his "top" 3 apps -- they happened to be the ones he uses the most. Apps discussed: Twitter TripIt Fruit Ninja
Fruit Ninja and Max Adventure for iOS updated with new content
Two of TUAW's favorite App Store apps (and probably yours as well) have been updated with new content. Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja has a few new swords to play with, including one that plays piano music as you swipe. There are new leaderboards to fight your friends (and everyone else) on for the Classic and Zen modes. Great free update for a terrific app -- no wonder it's sold 6 million copies (inspiring Halfbrick to build up an orchard in order to pay back karma for all that destroyed virtual fruit). Imangi's great Max Adventure dual-stick shooter has also been updated with a new survival level and a few performance improvements and bug fixes. More importantly, it's on sale right now for just 99 cents, so if you haven't grabbed this one yet, now's your chance. I just picked it up again recently, and despite the kid-friendly graphics and storyline, the action and progression are a lot of fun. We've got appointments with both Halfbrick and Imangi at GDC next week, so stay tuned to hear what's coming next from these two great iOS developers.
TUAW's Daily App: iSlash
iSlash is a nice puzzle-type title that reminds me of Fruit Ninja, but is probably the old arcade game Qix. You're presented with a shape on screen with a few samurai stars bouncing around inside it, and your task is to slash, with your finger, parts of the shape off, while keeping all of the stars inside a certain area. You've got to slash off up to a certain percentage of the shape to move through the levels, and while the first few are easy, the shapes get tougher later on. It's good fun. You don't have to trust us -- since the app was released, it's seen over 500,000 downloads from all over the world. Additionally, the developers are already updating it. They've added Game Center support for leaderboards and achievements already, and while there are over 70 levels now, they promise even more to come. The game's available for US$0.99, or there's a lite version to try out if you're not willing to shell out the buck.
TUAW's Daily App: Age of Zombies
Halfbrick Studios is quickly becoming one of the best-loved developers on the App Store. They made a nice hit with Fruit Ninja, and I'm still enjoying their Canabalt-style Monster Dash title. Now, they've brought their PSP mini title, Age of Zombies, to the App Store, and it's another good one. Originally created for Sony's handheld, and starring Barry Steakfries (the guy who's running around in Monster Dash, which this game has more or less been made into a sequel for), Age of Zombies is a dual stick shooter with the same old Halfbrick polish and a cool pixelated aesthetic. The action is fast but still friendly. You blast your way across five different worlds thanks to solid controls, a few witty lines from Steakfries and his dialogue, and a few weapons and power-ups to find on the way. Both Game Center and OpenFeint integration is included as well, along with a survival mode and a few other extras. The game is US$2.99 right now as a universal app. It's an excellent game -- maybe a little casual for most dual stick fans, but if you're a big fan of Fruit Ninja and/or Monster Dash, this one is right up your alley. I'm excited to see even more from Halfbrick Studios in the future -- it certainly seems like they're doing very well on the iPhone.
TUAW's Daily App: Monster Dash
Halfbrick Studios really made a splash with their iPhone debut, Fruit Ninja, and now they've followed it up with a little game called Monster Dash. It's a running game in the vein of Canabalt, but rather than dodging skyscraper jumps and bombs, you're fighting through pixelated monsters while sprinting along. The main addition to the game is a "shoot" button, so in addition to jumping obstacles and gaps as they come up, you can mow down enemies with various weapons, such as the (default) flameburster, uzis, and even a machine gun jetpack (that comes in handy when jumping). It's a lot of fun (as you'd probably expect if you've played either Canabalt or Fruit Ninja), and the game comes with Halfbrick's requisite polish, including excellent lush graphics and full OpenFeint compatibility. If there's a downside, it's too bad that Halfbrick decided to just stick with the usual arcade formula. It'd be cool if they tried for something a little less shallow and a little more engrossing. This is just a bunch of levels and a chance to rush for the high score; nothing else carries over from one game to the next. That's just nitpicking, though. Halfbrick has done another great job on this one and pushed the newborn genre forward with their own twist. It's well worth the 99 cents. And if you do buy it, try tapping on the title screen monsters just for fun.
