Fruit perhaps isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think about the history and future of video games. Yet, fresh pieces of fruit have long played a key role in gaming, and this seems certain to continue to be the case long into the future.
The Long-Established Use of Fruit in Video Games
If we go back to the earliest days of arcade games, we find Pac-Man munching cherries and Donkey Kong getting extra lives for collecting bananas. This trend has continued in recent years with examples such as the edible Apples In The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and the mutated fruit in Fallout among the most interesting.
Fruit is typically used as a way of nourishing players, which makes a lot of sense. Anyone who is roving the planet conducting torturous quests or searching for enemies in real life probably would rely on scavenging for fruit to keep up their energy and health levels. This makes even more sense when we deal with animal characters who probably would eat this as part of their normal diet.
Pieces of food can also be used as weapons in some games, which adds a huge amount of fun and a variety of fights. Yet, while this food-themed games list has everything from the Frozen Speartuna getting swung around in Monster Hunter World to the Holy Mackerel in Team Fortress 2, there’s a distinct lack of vitamin C in those weapons.
Donkey Kong Jr introduced the concept of knocking down fruit to destroy obstacles and progress through the game. With mobile games now all the rage, we can see popular titles with simple gameplay like Fruit Blast and Fruit Ninja. If you prefer to slip on a VR headset and immerse yourself in a fruit-filled world, Shooty Fruity is an excellent choice, so we can see that the genre continues to evolve in different ways.
Overall, from these examples of the use of fruit in video games, we can deduce that fruits carry a positive connotation – such as excitement, fortune, nature, and carefree attitudes. They are easy to identify, regardless of cultural differences, as they embody a universal symbol, making them a well-beloved symbol to incentivize players.
Many Slots Are Filled with Fruits
One area where fruits have made a significant impact is in the world of slots, and there’s a very good reason for this that we find by looking back in time. Take a look at some popular games to play for real money, encompassing slots of fruit machines in some places, and you’ll encounter titles such as Fruit Splash, Miss Cherry Jackpot Party, and Fruit Million, where you can gamble with real cash. There are many other themes these days, but you’ll notice that a lot of top games have fruits as their key symbols, with winning combos made up of cherries, apples, lemons, and other types of fruit.
To uncover the reason for this, we need to go back to the incredibly early days of slot machines in the late 19th century. These machines often offered chewing gum as a prize, which is why they started to include fruit symbols to stand for the different flavors that could be won. Over time as actual money payouts became a thing, the fruity symbols stuck around as a nod to those old-school slots. Nowadays they don’t really mean anything, except serve as a reminder of how slots used to be.
Today, even on the most high-tech video slots, you’ll see some cherries and melons pop up. It just helps make new slots feel familiar and connects gamers to the classic vibe of playing the one-armed bandits of the past. That is to say, the fruits are there for tradition’s sake, more than anything else, evoking that retro sense of nostalgia and reflecting the vast history of the slot machine.
Even pokies that don’t have an overall fruity theme may sometimes use fruits among their symbols. You might see them simply added as extra paying symbols in the way that bells and bars are used. This helps to provide the slots industry with a strong link to the past that makes new games feel familiar right away.
Summary and the Way Forward
The gaming industry has progressed enormously from the early days by crafting immersive in-game environments, fascinating themes, and interactive gameplays, but it’s reassuring to see that fruits are still a key part of so many games. This seems unlikely to change any time soon, as players still love seeing pieces of fruit on their screens.
As for its off-screen use as a source of nutrition in competitive gaming, this is likely to carry on growing as esports gets even more popular and many people join the pro teams taking part in major tournaments across the globe.
