Review: Food Processing - Fruit Ninja On The Production Line?

What happens when Fruit Ninja goes to the production line? It becomes Food Processing, a new game published by Chillingo. On the surface, the game is akin to Fruit Ninja with plenty of food slicing action, but that is where the similarities end. Players begin the game with six types of food to process, and each food type requires a different gesture to process it properly. Tap to pop out the peas or crack walnuts, swipe to slice corn, pumpkins or eggplants, and tap then swipe to process pomegranates. With different objectives for each fruit, the action is fast and furious, so you’ll need to think first, and act second. The conveyor belt keeps coming with random assortments of food, so you never know what’s coming next. Every few seconds the speed picks up, making things that much tougher. As if processing loads of fresh food doesn't keep you busy enough, there are also rotten foods on the conveyor belt that you need to skip. Just processing each piece of food isn’t enough, though. You’re scored based on how well you processed the food with a rank of "Perfect", "Good", or "Bad". If you process too slowly or not in equal pieces, that will hurt your score, and the game is all about score. But perfect processing builds up combos for huge bonus points. You are only allowed three mistakes per game, which come in one of three forms: if you process rotten food, if you make three bad processes in a row, or if you miss a piece of food. The game keeps you constantly engaged because every piece of food requires a different gesture for processing. It’s a huge challenge to try to think through which gesture to use on which food. But if the normal mode isn’t challenging enough, there is also a "Hell’s Kitchen" mode where you’re given all kinds of power downs that restrict certain foods or speed up the conveyor or dull the screen. For online high scores and achievements, Food Processing features Game Center and Crystal. It also features unlockable conveyor belts for differentiated gameplay. The game’s replay factor is similar to Fruit Ninja, which is a good thing. There is also a lot of variation from game to game and between play modes. One downside to Food Processing is the control system, which isn’t quite perfect. For example, when slicing the corn with two fingers, you have to be very deliberate or the gesture doesn't register correctly. Also, when there is an overload of food on screen, there is noticeable lag, and it seems the game has a tough time of recognizing all your rapid gestures. The amount of detail packed into the artwork is outstanding. Each conveyor belt theme is exquisitely done, and the animations are great. Every food you process bursts with juice, and seeds fly out. The soundtrack is also action packed and fits the overload of food coming down the production line. Food Processing ($0.99, iPhone/ iPad/ Lite) is situated to fill your action arcade needs. The game brilliantly builds upon Fruit Ninja because you’re given multiple objectives, modes, and themes to keep you coming back for more food processing action. Food Processing is a should buy for only $0.99, and blends all the ingredients of fun.

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