Bobbin’s Quest

Bobbin’s Quest is a platformer in which you control Bobbin the apple on his quest to fend off the oranges and bananas attacking his fruity brethren. The plot is introduced with a little animated comic, which is a nice touch, even if the art quality isn’t top notch.

You can control Bobbin by moving around, jumping, attacking with his sword and shooting seeds. Whenever you kill another fruit foe, you can eat them to get experience points. There are sometimes other apples along the way, who join your army when you get close to them. At certain points, you go into a battle mini-mode where the apple army attacks the orange army while you throw explosive seeds at the other army.

The battle mini game and the flying scene in the second level are nice distractions, much like a driving section in an FPS; but the core gameplay is what’s important. Unfortunately, Bobbin’s Quest isn’t terribly interesting. The level design is linear and boring, with progression made simply walking right for most of the time, tapping the X button to slice and dice the opposition. More interesting enemies and levels would definitely help. Making the battle minigame more complex would be good as well. If you’re facing an army of fruit, I wouldn’t go into battle with a sword, I’d wheel in a blender and make a tasty smoothie out of the opposing army. Some more options here would be fun.

Aside from gameplay, the graphics are a nice but slightly rough cartoon drawing style with unobtrusive sound effects to accompany the on-screen action. Actually having a story is also a pleasant addition.

Overall, Bobbin’s Quest isn’t as sweet as a Golden Delicious, nor as sour as a Cooking Apple, so I’ll give the game a Granny Smith instead.

Bobbin’s Quest is available for 400 Points, and was developed by Ziba Games.