Fruit Pong’s full name is Pong but Circular but Controller is Banana but Banana is Apple, capturing the spirit of its naturally-grown controllers with its silly title.
In this version of pong, you physically play against someone with various fruit as controllers. In between the two players, there is a circular arena that is half blue and half red. You are on one of the sides, either blue or red, and are able to move your paddle left or right, completely around the circle, by tapping the correct fruit.
You have two pieces of fruit that allow you to move left and two that allow you to move right – a banana and apple on each side of you. At the bottom of your area of the screen on either side, it shows the fruit that needs to be pushed to move the paddle in that direction.
This is starting to sound complex, isn’t it? You’ll need to pay attention to the ball in the middle of the screen, your corners to see what can be tapped to move, and your opponent, as you are meant to get the ball to drop behind their colored area. Even starting Fruit Pong is unique. You must wrap a small metal wire around one hand before inserting a coin into water. Once the coin is inserted, you are able to press on a mango to start the game.
Fruit Pong was one of the games featured at Bemyhuman, a gaming showcase in Madrid that had a lot of alternative controllers. I got the chance to play Fruit Pong there before the fruit got a bit mushy and was taken home for breakfast, and it will stay in my mind as the most complicated and creative version of Pong I have ever played. Especially with so much going on with the controls.
There doesn’t seem to be a website showcasing Fruit Pong, but you can follow the developer on Twitter.
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