Sometimes, simplicity is key. In a year of stacked game releases including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and more, smaller titles have also held their own ground.
Suika Game, known as Watermelon Game in English, was one of the surprises that took the gaming scene by storm, offering deceptively straightforward gameplay reminiscent of Tetris and 2048. Following a global release on the Nintendo Switch last October, publisher Aladdin X has announced that the physics-based puzzle title is now available on the Japanese iOS App Store for 240 yen (US$1.70).
There’s no word on a global launch just yet, but the rest of the world will likely be able to drop and match fruits on their devices sometime in the near future. Originally developed for Aladdin X’s digital projectors, the game exploded in popularity after being streamed by VTubers in particular, topping the Japanese Nintendo Switch download chart for 2023.
Here’s how Suika Game works. Players will have to build a high score by dropping fruits into a container without having them cross the line at the top of the box, achieved by matching two of the same fruits. Doing so merges them into the next fruit in the cycle, which increases the player’s score and eventually leads to the titular suika / watermelon. The bigger the fruits, the larger the score bonus, with the cycle following the order of cherry, strawberry, blackberry, orange, persimmon, apple, pear, peach, pineapple, honeydew, and watermelon.
The game’s success has spawned a handful of unofficial knock-off releases, including a PlayStation Store listing called The Suika Game, slated to drop later this year. Meanwhile, the original Suika Game is available on the Nintendo Switch worldwide and on iOS devices in Japan.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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