Picture this. It’s the future. The world has been thrown into chaos. Humans have been cast out by their overlords; the fruit. After having grown limbs and gained sentience, they decided enough was enough. No more fruit oppression. So, they fought back. Now, humanity must survive in this chaotic world; a realm that belongs to the fruit. The Juicy Realm.
Sounds pretty epic, huh? Yep, you read it right, this is a game about sentient fruit. But, it doesn’t just stop there. This award winning game is a rogue a-like shooter where you have to clear the levels of the rather delicious looking bad-guys. It’s a simple and yet superbly executed concept. So let’s jump into the realm of fruit based puns and see what this game has on offer.
Storyline
So, I pretty much summarised the story for this game already. In perhaps a more epic way than they game does it but you get the gist. The fruit have taken over and you as a human must fight the onslaught. You can pick one of three characters at the start each having their own unique items that will help you taken down these snackable minions. I’m not sure what the end game is because I haven’t managed to survive long enough to reach that far yet. But, I imagine it will involve taking down the ultimate fruit overlord in an epic boss battle of the century. It’s a fun little storyline but the most fun comes from the gameplay itself.
Gameplay
Okay, so as I already mentioned, you start the game by picking a character. Honestly, I don’t think it really matters which one you pick, it just means you have different weapons to start you out. But, you can pick up a variety of weapons throughout the game including melee and ranged. Some of them are even named after some classic pop culture references. Like “Dad’s Lightsaber” for example looks just like Darth Vader’s lightsaber. Then there are the less subtle ones. Like the Steam gun I picked up which shoots money everywhere.
Anyway, Juicy Realm is a rogue alike. Which means if you die, that’s it. You have to start over from the beginning. It’s tough but actually a lot of fun. You can play on easy mode though if you just want to test the waters and see how far you can get. So, you get your weapons and fight your way through each level. Of course, the further through you get, the harder it becomes. But, hopefully, as you go along you learn a little more so that you can get further through each time. I think the whole point of this game is to just survive as long as possible. Which I love. It’s a challenge. Plus, you can play co-op mode and see how far you can get with your friends!
Graphics & Sound
I absolutely love the art style of this game. It has a rather adorable aesthetic to it despite the fact the fruit is trying to kill you. For a small indie game, I always appreciate the effort they put into this aspect of the game. And Juicy Realm is no exception. You can see they put a lot of love into the art for this game. The sound track is equally as lovable as well. It goes perfectly with the aesthetics. Plus, it put a whole cheery spin on the fact that you are murdering adorable fruit minions! And who doesn’t like that? I definitely give the graphics a double thumbs up.
Controls
I have to admit I found the controls a bit sluggish at first. But, perhaps this was because I was playing on mouse and keyboard. It wasn’t so bad once I got into it and understood how all the controls worked. I suspect that this game was designed to be played with a controller. Nevertheless, it wasn’t so bad once I got into the game a bit more. It didn’t take too long to figure out the controls. Plus, there is a handy and simple tutorial when you start the game up for the first time. So, overall, not too bad.
Difficulty
As I already mentioned, this game is tough. And, I mean tough. Depending on the difficulty you decide to set it on depends on just how hard it really is. Even playing on easy gets harder eventually. The difficulty setting just determines how hard it is to kill the enemies. Health is the important thing in this game. So make sure to keep and eye on that. You can find treats that replenish small amounts of health and large health packs in chests. But, these are rare so you need to be careful. Because if you die that’s it. Game over man, game over! This does get harder to do later on in the levels. But, all it takes is some tactical thinking. Which I never do so of course, I died a lot. So, my advice: be smart with your health and keep an eye on it. And dodge the bullets. That also helps a lot.
Replayability
There is a lot of replayability for Juicy Realm. It is definitely one of those games that you can play again and again. I feel like the challenge of it will keep you coming back for more. It certainly did for me. Even when I would rage quit because of dying too much, I still came back to it at a later time because I really couldn’t get enough. It isn’t an overly complex game and I think that is part of the beauty of it. It doesn’t need to be complicated for you to want to keep playing again and again.
I've always had a passion for games and, since I found my passion for writing, I wanted to write about them. I'll play just about anything if I can get my hands on it. I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Star Wars and my motto is "Never apologise for being a nerd."
