Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
The land of Fruit Island, as the name implies, is ripe with delicious fruit: bananas, pomegranates, and mangoes. On this island lives a tribe of monkeys. Over the years, they have built a thriving fruit industry, gathering fruit from the surrounding jungle and delivering it to the trading post for maximum profit. However, all is not well. Living on the island as well is a giant gorilla and, wouldn’t you know it, he also has a penchant for fruit. But, this gorilla prefers to let others do the hard work, using his size to bully, and steal from, the hard-working monkeys.
In Fruit Island, the players take on the role of the monkeys, working to gather fruit and deliver it to the trading post before they’re caught out by the gorilla and have their fruit stolen from them. Fruit Island is a press-your-luck, mess-with-your-opponents game. Equal parts prayer and risk assessment, it’ll have you asking yourself just how long you think you can hold out before making a beeline for safety.
Which monkey will be the most successful? Only time will tell.
How It’s Played
At the start of a game of Fruit Island, each player chooses a monkey and places it onto the trading post in the middle of the game board. The gorilla is placed on the outer track in a random location, facing clockwise (there is a blank side of the gorilla meeple and a painted side showing its face). The reason for this will become important later. Lastly, the fruit and gorilla tokens are placed into the cloth bag, the bag is given a good shake, the start player is given the bag, and you’re ready to begin.
A player’s turn is very simple: draw a token from the bag. If the token displays a fruit, then the player will place the token onto an empty spot of an appropriate tree (there are multiple trees for each fruit type). Then, they will move their monkey up to 3 spaces in a direction of their choosing. If the player ends their movement at the base of a tree and that tree is full of fruit, then the player collects all the tokens from the tree and places them face up in front of themselves. Then, their turn ends, and it is the next player’s turn.
If a gorilla token is drawn, though, things become far more dire. There are three types of gorilla tokens. Two feature a number of coconuts running along their border. If one of these is drawn, the gorilla moves a number of spaces equal to the number of coconuts shown in the direction it’s currently facing. If the gorilla token shows a circular arrow, the gorilla performs an about-face and moves 4/2/0 spaces in the new direction if there are 2/3/4 players, respectively. If the gorilla ends its movement on a space with one or more players, then those players must discard all their face-up fruit to the game box. Then, a new token is drawn. This process continues until the current player draws a non-gorilla token.
The only ways to prevent your fruit from getting stolen are to avoid the gorilla entirely (a risky proposition since the gorilla’s movement is driven by random chance) or to end your turn on the trading post in the center of the game board. If you’re able to do this, then you can bank your collected fruit tokens by flipping them to their facedown side. The gorilla cannot steal facedown fruit.
Thoughts
Reiner Knizia is well known for creating games that present the players with multitudes of interesting decisions which float just beneath the game’s seemingly simple surface; complexity emerging from gameplay rather than an inflated ruleset. Fruit Island is no different in this regard. While the decision space is far more limited than some of the good doctor’s other creations, it is intriguing, nonetheless. Some of the questions you’ll be asking yourself on your turn are:
Which direction should I move, and why? It behooves a smart monkey to maneuver itself to take advantage of fruit trees that might fill up during their opponents’ turns. However, if a clever monkey is able to read the writing on the wall, it might be better to end their movement on a tree that’s almost filled up to prevent their opponents from collecting that fruit once the tree inevitably does fill up. These trees, however, are spaced far enough apart that if you’ve parked yourself on one as a blocking maneuver, you may not be able to reach another one to collect its rich rewards.
Do I keep pushing my luck, or do I bank my fruits as soon as I get them? Fruit Island is a game about collecting tons of fruit, and a trip to the trading post with three or four fruits in hand isn’t as lucrative as a trip with six or seven in hand. Each trip to the trading post costs the player time—time that could be used to fill up their fruit coffers instead. However, hoarding a lot of fruit is an excellent way to lose a hoard of fruit should fate lead the gorilla to you. So, maybe it’s better to play it safe?
When you do decide to press your luck, there’s no denying the tension that comes from watching your opponents draw tokens from the bag, especially when they’re gorilla tokens. A wave of relief that will wash over you when the gorilla passes through your space without stopping on it. And, there’s a palpable sense of dread knowing the gorilla could about-face at any moment and come straight for you.
Having read that, you might be thinking that this game seems incredibly simplistic, and you’re not wrong. This is a kid’s game, through and through. And, unless you’re playing this game with children, you’re probably not going to like it very much. However, despite the game’s kid-friendly vibe, I have enjoyed my time with it. It’s a charming little game, and my son seems to enjoy it. He takes a lot of delight in watching the gorilla gobble up my fruit, tempered by the delight he definitely doesn’t feel when the gorilla turns its sights on him. And, as a parent, it’s been immensely pleasurable watching the way his gameplay has evolved over our sessions with this game. During his first few games, he was just moving his monkey around without any plan in mind, collecting fruits if he happened to be in the neighborhood, with little effort put towards banking them. When the gorilla caught up to him, his losses were great. Now his decisions are more targeted. He’s positioning himself well to capitalize on opportunities, and he visits the trading post far more often, having learned those hard lessons one can only learn from loss.
When I sat down to play Fruit Island for the first time, I was prepared to not like it very much. If I’m being honest, I’m growing tired of playing kids’ games most of the time, and I look forward to a time when my son has grown up enough to move on to heavier fare. Fruit Island is refreshing in this regard. It’s simple, but not simplistic (if that makes any sense). It’s a game I don’t mind playing over and over again.
Like a banana hanging from a tree, Fruit Island has grown on me.
