Suika (Watermelon) Games

I stumbled upon an odd category of games while looking for new stuff in the Google Play store ... fruit drop games.  More specifically,  games where you drop merge fruits leading up to the ultimate watermelon,  and if they reach the top of the box the game is over.

Apparently these are all clones of Suika Game, where suika is the Japan's word for watermelon.   
See the Wikipedia page.

Now, you would think they're all the same exact boring thing,  but it turns out there is a lot of variety in the game play and physics.  The dropped items might be bouncy or squishy to varying degrees.  You might have to drag the drop line and then let go, or one touch anywhere well drop the next item.   The top of the box might trigger the end immediately or let you overflow a little, or have a few seconds of countdown before ending.   And some of the games came up with ways to extend past the original number of objects,  add levels and skins and power-ups.  Most of the games won't let you drop a new item until the last one has landed, where others let you drop the next one right away, even catching and meeting in mid-air if top close together.

A lot of these apps fail right away, either not being compatible with my tablet, never loading completely, or with to many ads.  One ad popped up in the middle of my first game ... no, that won't do.

I tried a bunch, and here are some examples.  The original Suika Game by  Aladdin X is still available, but it is strictly by the rules (after all, it set those rules), with some bounce, but gets a bit dull quickly.


Drop Fruit -Fruit Merge by XFireSoft has good bounce and some squish, but the fruit are constantly making weird faces to distract you.  It's cute at first.  Too bad you have to drag the drop line to drop them.

Frukto Merge Puzzle by Pandorio gives coins you can  use to unlock new levels with new graphics and slight variations.  The Halloween level has the floor slope down to the right.  High bounce, a bit squishy, rapid fire drops can collide in midair.  A good combination.


My favorite so far is "QS Monkey Land - Fruit Merge" by QKingGames.  Odd name, but it offers more than the others.   Here, you use the in-game coins and stars to unlock new skins for the objects, from different styles of fruit graphics to sports balls, christmas ornaments, etc.  The fruit series goes beyond the usual count.  This has my favorite bounce and feel.

Most of these have an ad free option for $2.99 which i find reasonable for someone you might get a few hours of fun from.  There's not a lot of skill involved, but you can try to place the items in optimal locations and hope they don't roll away.  Along the way there are definitely moves that are surprising or perfect or hilarious.

There are also web-based versions that run directly in your browser, like this one, but I don't really care for browser games, for security reasons and limited ability to save data.

Who knew that fruit dropping was such a phenomenon?  There must be a hundred of these apps.

Along the way I found this variation: Drop Planet.  It's basic but a relaxing change of pace.


And of course we still have the Cats are Cute app that I wrote about last year -- is also a drop match game with some bounce.