School may be out, but your kids can still practice their math skills with a new downloadable app featuring one of the most popular mobile games ever: Fruit Ninja!  Apparently, Fruit Ninja has characters now, which I wasn’t aware of.  But at the beginning of the game, ninja kid Katsuro and his pet pig pal Truffles are exploring some ruins looking for treasure.  When they stumble on a golden piece of fruit, Truffles accidentally triggers a trap and gets locked in a cage!  The only way to free Truffles is to piece together six magical tablets.  Now the Fruit Ninja crew needs your help slicing fruit on the touch screen and solving math problems so they can free Truffles!  Fruit Ninja: Academy: Math Masters is available for download on iOS, Google Play, and Amazon, but reviewed on iPad here.

In the game, you tap on a map to pick one of six challenges.  In each one, you’ll have to solve ten math problems to earn a piece of a tablet, and there are ten pieces in all for each one.  Here’s a list of the things you’ll do in each category:

Addition & Subtraction

These are two separate games, but they play very similarly.  Bananas grow on trees and you must swipe at them so they land on a stone monkey paw.  You have to place the correct number of bananas on the stone paw so it adds up to the correct number in the equation at the top of the screen.  In later levels, it gets harder as you must swipe away at a monkey trying to disrupt your play, or you may have to swipe at unripe or bug-ridden bananas a few times.  The addition and subtraction games are the weakest entries on here because it can be hard to swipe at the bananas so they land on the paw (especially when it moves around in some levels).  You can swipe up on the paw to remove bananas if you have too many, but be careful not to swipe to the left or the monkey will eat the bananas and you might get the problem wrong.  I found that I got answers wrong because of the controls, not because I didn’t know the answers.

Numbers & Sequences

These are also two different games, but they play just alike.  In them, you must swipe at watermelons to roll them down a bridge into a stone dragon’s mouth.  Kind of like bowling.  The watermelons have numbers on them, so you must roll the correct ones they ask for at the top of the screen.  In Numbers, you’ll have to roll watermelons that have numbers that are greater than or less than what is on the top of the screen.  In Sequences, you’ll have to roll numbers in order from largest to smallest or vice versa, or roll the right number in a sequence at the top of the screen.  In later levels you must roll watermelons around pillars or swipe at a monkey blocking the way.

Shapes

In this one, four pomegranates are on pedestals, and you must swipe at the correct one that has the same shape or fraction on the top screen.  In later levels you might have to trace the shape as well.  Watch out for that monkey again, he’ll sometimes spin around the pedestals so you must rotate them back so you can see the pictures.  Only problem with this game is the shape recognition stuff would be considered too easy compared to the rest of the game, which is set at a higher skill level.

Multiples

And finally, in this one you swipe at crates one of the ninja kids is carrying to place them on a plate at the bottom of the screen.  When the numbers on the crates count up to the correct answer of the multiplication problem at the top of the screen, tap on the ‘play’ button and the elephant statues will stomp and the crates will break to reveal fruit inside.  Swipe on the fruit to turn it into juice for the elephants to drink.  In later levels, you may have to swipe at bombs the monkey throws so it doesn’t break your crates, or tap on the screen to chase away mice that are scaring the elephant statues.  They aren’t as clear on the instructions for this game, but it’s pretty easy to figure out anyway.

And those are all the games.  For each answer you get right, you’ll earn a starfruit.  Get all ten correct and your piece of tablet that you earn will be gold!  Use starfruit to unlock various goodies.  You can unlock and buy different blade swipe animations by tapping on the sword rack.  You can also unlock and buy virtual stickers and backgrounds you can place to make your own scenes and even take pictures of them (it kind of reminds me of the old Colorforms toys, if any of you remember those).  Kids and parents can tap on the chalkboard to view their results and progress in each game with charts.  On the results screen, you can also take a ‘test’ that plays like the original Fruit Ninja game.  Swipe at as many fruit as you can to slice them, and then swipe at the fruit with the correct number answer to an equation as fast as you can to earn more points.

And that’s all there is to the game!  There is no way to adjust the difficulty, but I’d say it falls around the second grade math skill level.  Maybe some first-graders would be fine, too.  Even though the game has some problems, I think it’s a good first try in the educational game department from Halfbrick (makers of Fruit Ninja).  If they keep improving, they might end up being as good as other kid game makers like Humongous was.

Kid Factor:

If your kids love Fruit Ninja, they’ll definitely like this game, too, even though it has a few control problems in some of the games that might frustrate them.  Even though the game has spoken voice for a lot of the instructions, reading skill and number recognition is still required for the equations.  And there are no pop-up ads or in-game purchases, so it’s definitely a child-safe app.  It’s a bit of a stretch, but the game may also encourage healthy eating since it’s all about fruit (it made me hungry for fruit after playing anyway).

Tags: Game Reviews