The Supermarket. The place where we buy groceries. The place where some of us dream of working and working to become that employee of the month. The one place where we must scan the groceries while defending ourselves against the evil fruit. Wait…what? Yes, it’s true. The awesome team of nDreams has combined a supermarket, sarcasm, evil fruit, weapons, and somehow makes your inner soul want to achieve all that it can so you can be the number one employee. And I can say that when you mix all of this with VR, it truly shows what imagination, fun, and immersion can bring, and Shooty Fruity for the PlayStation VR is a good thing.
When I first heard about Shooty Fruity a few things ran through my head. Would we finally get the 4th true sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes everyone has been craving for? Would there be any comedy? Would we truly find out what happened to the Fruit of the Loom guys since they have been angry that they have not been in any recent commercials and only be judged for the fruit that they were made out to be and not the fruit that they wanted to become? I think that the very simple answer to all of this is yes.
In Shooty Fruity you are hired as the newest team member of Super Megamart. Known for its low prices, “helpful” staff members, and mutated fruit. Yes, mutated fruit is trying to attack you and it’s your job to scan the groceries, defend your counter, and destroy so said fruit, but please do not destroy your own counter. If you do, it could be game over and please try not to destroy the display stands or the monotone mighty speaker starts talking to you and might start to feel bad due to the innocence of the non-mutated items.
Before you begin you are in the secret back employee area that for a moment I felt like Will Smith testing out for The MIB for the first time and it felt pretty awesome. At the table in front of you, there is a fax machine that gives you different information and I really enjoy this as it adds something that makes me want to come back just to see what it says. You will also see a vending machine. This machine allows you to buy the weapons that you will need to help defend against the mutated evil fruit.
To your right is the locker. This is where you can try out the new weapons, place them in order and start your levels. Working here at Super Megamart takes someone special. Someone that can scan the items, someone who can put them down the correct conveyor belts (important) so the bagging can be done to the best of its ability. Sometimes you will be working the food counter and this simple, but yet chaotic position requires you to place the cubes of color on the correct trays of color. You may also have to work in the back and collect the correct items that need to be selected so that they can be boxed up. I really do enjoy the mixture of tasks and really improves your hand-eye coordination.
The more you do correctly, the more of the weapons you can unlock to help in your mutant evil fruit defense.
The more you play, the more you unlock. As you are scanning and doing your job, you get the warning that the fruit is a-coming. They can come from the aisles, they can come from the back room, fly at you, bounce and they can even come down Mission Impossible-style from the ceiling to attack. By completing the levels, you earn more which then can be used in the vending machine to buy more weapons. The weapons don’t really need explaining as you can test them out and see what works for you. But I will say that there is nothing like having a shotgun and scanning the items only to see a coin that you can insert to allow you to power up and unleash. Add some grenades to the mix and you can have a Super Megamart good time.
When you start adding the different fruit to the mix with their different abilities, it does add some fun and makes each level seem new and fresh. When you add the different levels of difficulty, it does add to the game. Challenges are fun and somehow hooks you to want to do better. It can be from just thrown down food as you scan them to throwing the correct food into the correct lane of the conveyer belt to focusing on a specific weapon. I feel by having this in the game gives you even more of a way to master each weapon, making you want to come back to keep playing more to see if you can score higher on those earlier levels.
But if you really want to test yourself and prove to be the Ultimat Super Megamart Employee of the month, then I suggest you attempt the Marathon Challenges. This is a welcome where you must and is a Super Megmart requirement that you last a complete hour at each task. By completing these challenges, this puts you right in line for management material. So for allowing these extra things you can do, just adds to the fun that is already established and for that, I thank you nDreams.
The only thing that I wish Shooty Fruity had and it’s just screaming to be implemented, is the ability to use the Aim Controller. Yes, we wouldn’t have that dual weapon mode and you wouldn’t be able to scan with both hands, but it would be awesome to grab the Aim Controller and go A-Team on these evil mutated fruits and scan between the attacks, at least as a separate level. But who knows, maybe this will come or it could be wishful thinking. Either way, I had a blast playing.
Shooty Fruity is out now for the PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Store, Steam, and Viveport. A review code was provided.
To learn more about nDreams, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have some mutated fruit to take care of.
Mr. PSVR, December 23, 2017, theplaystationbrahs.com
