= Fruity Pete =

Review by ABBUC

In the title screen with great stereo sound, we can set the difficulty level with SELECT: Easy, Normal, Hard. With START we get started.

We control Fruity Pete in a 4-screen garden. Pete loves nothing more than fruit and wants to collect as many as possible. He always moves automatically with the joystick to directly in front of the next flower and does not stop beforehand, similar to Jim Slide. In addition, similar to Arkanoid, there are a lot of extras that Pete gets when he crosses:

• Big T: Pete teleports somewhere else.
• Pie: The level is rebuilt, bringing back more fruit
• Poison bottle: Pete steers upside down for a while (see bar below), left becomes right, up becomes down and vice versa
• Fish(?): Pete moves slowly for a while (see bar below)
• Shield with FP: Pete can move completely free for a short time (see bar)
• Door with X: End level prematurely (Exit)
• Treasure chest: Extra life

Pete can destroy annoying flowers with a spray can (weed killer) by moving Pete in the direction of the flower while holding down the fire button. At the beginning, 3 cans are available and 1 can is added per level. In addition, Pete only has a limited number of steps/fields that he can move (50 at the start of the game), but he gets 2 extra steps for each fruit he collects. If Pete has no more steps, he loses 1 life. Once as much fruit has been collected as is written in the middle at the bottom (50 in the first level), the game continues with the next level. There is no time limit.

With RETURN, Pete can lose a life to restart the level if it doesn't go on. The game can be cancelled with ESC, and the music can be switched off with SELECT and on again with OPTION.

Information about the game is displayed at the bottom:

• Heart: Number of lives (3 at the beginning)
• Spray cans: Number of cans (3 at the beginning)
• Apple: Number of fruits to collect (50 in the 1st level)
• Shoe: Number of steps Pete can still walk (100 at the beginning)
• Triangle: Level number (interestingly, it starts at 0)
• Plus: Number of fruits Pete collects in one movement (superfluous)

Graphics & Sound: There's nothing to complain about here. The graphics are nice and colourful, there are 9 different fruits like apples, strawberries, cherries etc. There are also many nice effects, e.g. Pete waves when he stands still for a longer time, when spraying the flower slowly fades in, and even losing a life is animated.

In the title screen and the levels there are a total of 4 nice melodies in stereo, one of which is "Old MacDonald had a farm". The music gets annoying after playing for a while, but can be switched off via SELECT.

Conclusion: Fruity Pete is surprisingly easy to play. Even on the HARD difficulty level, the spray cans make it easy to reach level 25, for example, without losing a life. The step limit is no problem either, because it gets bigger and bigger with each level thanks to the +2 steps per fruit, and after a few levels the maximum number is 999. The game is easy to play, and is therefore something for people who want to play a sliding game like Jim Slide without having to think too much. Actually, Fruity Pete is much too easy and probably an endless game, there is also no score. More could have been made of it. But thanks to the good graphics and sound, it's worth playing every now and then. That's why we still rate it with a close good.

68 %