Review: Fruit Mountain Adds Depth to the Suika Game Craze

Ever since Suika Game became a phenomenon, we’ve seen tons of similar watermelon matching games. (Or ones involving matching Vtubers or Azur Striker Gunvolt elements.) With Fruit Mountain, we have a Suika Game type of title that still involves matching fruits until you reach a coveted watermelon, but the 3D element and execution makes it feel much different.

As with Suika Game, there is no story to Fruit Mountain, but we are presented with more of a motivation for why we are chucking produce like a blueberry, strawberry, peach, or apple at a plate to make a watermelon. In the background is a painter working on a still life. We are preparing the “model” by putting the fruit together. So it feels a little more unique and like we have a greater sense of purpose.

Two modes are available. One is an untimed, relaxed mode, while the other is a timed one in which you need to stack as many fruits as you can as the clock counts down. The gameplay mechanics remain the same throughout, though the pressure is on in the latter mode. When you toss fruit onto the plate, you can move left or right around it and select up or down to determine the height and position of the throw. The physics of it all mean everything tends to stay where you chucked it, though it does seem like it does congregate toward the center. Which is great, as that divot gives you a bit of leeway and security in knowing things may roll a bit into the center.

The fruits chosen and execution actually allows for a little bit of strategy in Fruit Mountain, perhaps even more so than Suika Game. You have blueberries, strawberries, what look like durians, peaches, apples, oranges, pears, dragon fruits, pineapples, melons, melons, and watermelons. The pears, dragonfruits, and pineapples especially help with positioning as you attempt to create a stack, so it really does become possible to pile up on the plate. 

What’s also nice is the combo element. If you can create a chain of fruits matching together one after another, you get a score bonus. So even early on as I started Fruit Mountain, I felt like I accomplished something even if I didn’t reach the melon or watermelon and still got to see higher scores. 

There are some elements that would benefit Fruit Mountain that aren’t here, but would be helpful. More or improved leaderboards would be handy. I’m not the biggest fan of the music, but most of the time I did end up just muting it and playing while I had some mindless TV show on or other music playing. I also found that Fruit Mountain can sometimes feel a bit too easy, once you get the hang of it, compared to Suika Game and other watermelon or fruit matching titles. However, it being a title in the space that is cozier and more relaxed could make it perfect for people.

I know we’re bound to see plenty more Suika Game clones, but as long as we get genuinely creative takes on the watermelon matching formula like Fruit Mountain, I’m okay with it. It absolutely feels like one of the more relaxed and cozy options in this new subset of the puzzle genre. The presentation looks good. Plus the implementation of tossing fruits in a 3D environment with no “walls” around a box really adds a new element of strategy to it. 

Fruit Mountain is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.