Working in retail is undoubtedly one of the most frustrating jobs out there. The latest title from developer nDreams seeks to harness those feelings of frustration and direct them towards hordes of rampaging, murderous fruit who are invading a supermarket in Shooty Fruity.
Shooty Fruity follows on from slapstick virtual reality (VR) titles such as Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, using the same kind of broad humour and ludicrous setting to engage players.
You start in a staff room of a supermarket presented with various tasks to complete, the first of which involves scanning shopping and putting it into the packing chutes. The complications come in that your work is interrupted by an invasion of killer fruit. A continuous conveyor belt hangs above, containing weaponry that can be used to shoot down the fruit, which explode in a colourful and suitably satisfying manner. Additional weaponry can be unlocked by spending points in a vending machine back in the staffroom, where you can also pick up new tasks that are unlocked as you progress through the game, such as serving dinners in a canteen.
Everything is controlled using the PlayStation Move controllers, which can be used to pick up and move objects as well as aim and shoot the guns. A red aim dot is available by default, but can be turned off in options. As usual with PlayStation Move, there is some jitter in the tracking, but nothing too severe.
The visual style is a bright, cartoonish one, simulating the bright enticing displays of American-style supermarkets. Sadly, this does the title little favours as the flat textures don’t really pop in VR. The tutorial is provided by a ‘supervisor’ voice, which has a droning, sarcastic quality that can rapidly become incredibly irritating, especially as certain phrases are frequently repeated.
At its heart, Shooty Fruity is a wave shooter, though the additional tasks provide something of a twist, it is impossible to get away from the fact that the gameplay is repetitive, though it is engaging and fun, there is little depth to be found, and very little to bring players back to the title after the 24 available levels are complete. Unlike similar comedic titles such as Job Simulator, Shooty Fruity has no story to speak of, so its comedic slapstick stylings have little chance to shine.
Despite entertaining and satisfying basic gameplay, Shooty Fruity ultimately fails to rise above its roots as a wave shooter, with simplistic visual style, lack of story or multiplayer. It also aims to copy the supermarket setting a little too well, resulting in the annoying voice and muzak-style background music, which doesn’t help endear it to the audience. Shooty Fruity is a fun way to kill a couple of hours, but offers little else.
Awesome
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Verdict