Daily iPad App: Monster Fruit

Monster Fruit is a game that, on the surface, looks to be incredibly easy. There's fruit in the tree. You need to keep the fruit away from the overexcited monster trying to turn it into a nummy snack, and to do this, you tickle the monster to distract it. If the monster gets the fruit before the timer is up, you fail the level. Once the monster calms down at the end of the allotted time, you can reward him with the fruit. Parents with toddlers know this scenario all too well.

At first, I thought I'd mastered the game. I figured out to keep tickling the monster in the first couple of levels until the timer was up. Then on the third level, both monsters work together to steal that piece of fruit, and the game suddenly veered from deceptively easy to incredibly hard as I tried to tickle both monsters and keep the fruit away from them. I've yet to get past the third level, though I got close at one point. I passed the iPad to my husband to see how well he'd do. The inventive cursing that came as a result really isn't suitable for TUAW, but he did pass the level and got a better score than I did. He said the game is probably best played on a table, where you can use both hands to control the fruit and the monsters.

There are a couple things I feel the game lacks. I think it could use a difficulty setting so I could keep it to just one monster that can be played over and over again, suitable for a small child. It could also use a separate one-page help screen that explains how you can get up to a 3-star score in a level.

But overall, I really like it. The challenge combined with cute graphics and a cheeky sense of humor and catchy music makes this game a keeper.

Monster Fruit is US$1.99 in the App Store.