Fruit boards, honestly described

• Are these games free?

  All four are free to download on the Australian stores. All four sell optional extras inside the game, and the store listing shows the price range before you install.

• Do you get paid to feature them?

  No. No studio has paid for a mention, and none of the links on this site carry an affiliate tag. The only thing sold here is a packet of thumb sleeves.

• Can I play them without an internet connection?

  Partly. All of them will open offline once installed, but events, leaderboards and life timers need a connection, and a few stages refuse to load until they can check in. Treat them as online games that tolerate a tunnel.

• Do they run on an old phone?

  Generally yes — this genre is deliberately undemanding. What suffers on old hardware is the cascade animation, which starts to stutter before anything else does.

• Which one is best for children?

  Three of the four carry a 4+ rating on the App Store. Ratings are set by the platforms, not by us, and none of that removes the need to turn on purchase confirmation before handing over a phone.

• How much storage do they take?

  More than the download size suggests. These games stream level packs after installation, so budget several hundred megabytes rather than the number on the listing.

• Why do I keep losing at the same level?

  Because the difficulty curve in this genre is deliberately uneven — a run of easy stages, then one that takes several attempts. It is the point at which the shop appears, and it is worth knowing that before you spend anything.

• Is there a way to support the site?

  Buying a pack of sleeves, or telling somebody the site exists. There is no donation button and no membership.

• 

  Fruit Cube Blast

  Tap-to-clear rather than swap-to-match: you press a cluster of the same fruit and it disappears, the column falls, and occasionally the whole thing chains. There is nothing to read before you start and nothing to sit through afterwards, which makes it the one to open when you have ninety seconds.

  The trade-off is that it never becomes deep. Two hundred stages in, it is still the same pleasant tapping it was on stage four.

  Open in Google Play· Open in App Store
• 

  Fruits Mania: Elly's travel

  A classic swap board with a travel map wrapped around it. The fruit pieces are drawn large and distinct, which matters more than it sounds — you can read this board in bright Perth sunlight without shading the screen with your hand.

  Stages are short and the map keeps moving, so it gives you a sense of progress without demanding a long sitting.

  Open in Google Play· Open in App Store
• 

  Fruit Quest

  Order-collecting: each stage names the fruit it wants and how many, so you stop hunting the biggest available match and start hunting the useful one. It changes how the board reads, and it is the first of these four where a wrong move costs you something real.

  Stages run longer. This is an evening game rather than a queue game.

  Open in Google Play· Open in App Store
• 

  Juice Jam

  The busiest and the most generous. Fruit, juice splashes, characters, a level map that goes on forever, and a steady drip of boosters and events. If you want a puzzle that behaves like a hobby rather than a distraction, this is the one on the list.

  It is also the one most likely to make you look up and discover that half an hour has gone.

  Open in Google Play· Open in App Store

Terms, taxes and fees are shown at the next step on the store page.

Fruit boards versus candy boards · How free puzzle games actually earn · Hot hands and touchscreens in a Perth summer

• Fruit Cube Blast tap clusters · under a minute a stage · free · 4+ Open it when you have ninety seconds and nothing to think about.
• Fruits Mania swap two · short stages · free · 4+ The one that stays readable in direct Perth sunlight.
• Fruit Quest collect orders · medium stages · free · 4+ The first of the four where a wrong move costs you something.
• Juice Jam swap plus events · long stages · free · 4+ Behaves like a hobby rather than a distraction.

Hardware

One ordinary Android phone and one older iPhone, both used for everyday things, both on home broadband and mobile data at different times.

Time

A fortnight per game, in the way anyone plays a phone puzzle — a few minutes at a time, several times a day, never in a marathon to farm levels quickly.

Money spent

None. No boosters, no life refills, no bundles, no promotional codes and no contact with the studios before publishing.

What was written down

Where progress stalled, what the game offered at that moment, whether the board stayed readable, and whether the whole thing worked with one thumb.

Published by

Chloe Richardson, private individual

Address

108 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000, Australia

Email

[email protected]

Phone

+61 8 9322 1000