Slicing fruit on a screen with a swipe of your finger is one thing, but using a controller to do it in a virtual environment is the natural progression for Halfbrick Studios most popular title. Halfbrick Studios has today announced they will be bringing launching Fruit Ninja VR to a variety of VR platforms this year.
Following in their tradition of launching on all consoles and mobile platforms, Halfbrick Studios will also be supporting all the major VR platforms. Starting with the HTC Vive this month, Halfbrick Studios further announced they will also be launching Fruit Ninja VR for the Oculus Rift, as well as Sony’s Playstation VR effort and of course Google’s Daydream platform in time for the ‘Holidays’ this year.
The natural progression from a 2D game to Virtual Reality is something seen by Halfbrick Studios, with Adam Wood, product manager of Fruit Ninja VR, saying:
After the latest VR technology was released, we felt that there was no better game suited to VR than Fruit Ninja. The simplicity of Fruit Ninja with the total immersion of VR creates an experience like no other. You are now The Fruit Ninja!
All three classic Fruit Ninja modes – Classic, Arcade and Zen – will be supported on Fruit Ninja VR, with controller support obviously needed to control those swords. As well as slicing through fruits you’ll be using the controllers to deflect bombs, as well as skewer and juggle fruit, all of which will count towards your high score which will be shared on a global leaderboard.
There’s going to be new features in Fruit Ninja VR, including options for customised blades and costumes, there will also be new characters and locations to slice away in and with. A new player vs player mode will also be coming along down the track, though whether it will include cross-platform compatibility hasn’t been announced.
Nicholas Cornelius, Chief Marketing Officer at Halfbrick said of the move to VR:
Fruit Ninja VR signals an evolution for Halfbrick as a game developer. We are creating deeper games for mobile such as Dan the Man whilst exploring new frontiers such as VR. We want to give our fans memorable entertainment experiences via our brands on the platforms of their choice.
As part of the announcement, Halfbrick Studios has launched a Fruit Ninja VR mini-site, offering fans the chance to sign up for pricing and launch information of Fruit Ninja VR on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The site also shows the first demonstration of the game on the HTC Vive:
Head over to the mini-site for more information on the Vive and Oculus launches, we’ll be looking forward to more information on their Daydream launch when it comes later this year.
