Fruit Island Review: Monkey Around and Stash Fruit Before the Gorilla Nabs It

Collect all the yummy fruit you can, but be sure to turn them in to keep them safe before the gorilla nabs them all from you!

Published by Analog Game Studios and designed by Reiner Knizia, Fruit Island is a 2-4 player family game with a 20-minute play time.

Gameplay

The board is placed in the center of the table. It shows a circle of spaces that has two paths leading to the center of the circle where the market space is. The gorilla meeple is placed on any random space in the circle, and each player puts their monkey player piece on the market space.

On a player’s turn, he draws a token from the bag. If it shows the gorilla, it activates the gorilla. If there is a number of coconuts with the gorilla, the gorilla will move that many spaces along the circle, in the direction he is facing. If it shows an arrow, the gorilla turns around — he may also move at this point, depending on the player count.

When the gorilla ends his movement on a space with a player, that player must discard all his face-up fruit tokens.

If the active player draws a gorilla token, he continues with his turn and draws another token. When a player draws a fruit token, he must place that fruit on an empty spot of any matching fruit tree. If there is no empty spot, the fruit is removed from the game. Then he moves his monkey 1-3 spaces in any single direction.

When a player ends his movement at the base of a tree that has no empty slots left, he takes all the fruit tokens from that tree and places them face-up in front of himself. It is now the next player’s turn. When a player ends his movement on the market space, all his face-up fruit are flipped face-down and are now safe from the gorilla.

The game ends when there are no more tokens in the bag. The player with the most fruit wins the game.

Review

Fruit Island is a lightweight, very family-friendly game, with some interesting push-your-luck elements and choices to keep it engaging across its 20-minute playtime. It plays fast, with speedy turns. You always have a choice to make, but that choice is limited by the size of the board, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Choices usually boil down to: ‘do I go back and cash in my fruit at this point?’ or ‘how close to the gorilla do I think it’s safe to get?’. Players are also trying to place fruit in such a way that they think their opponent won’t be able to grab it, while also trying to set it up for themselves on a future turn.

There are those fun moments of drawing just the fruit you need to make a tree harvestable, or having the gorilla turn and catch you when you’re ready to head back to the market. The board is small, so it's easy for the gorilla to catch up to you before you know it.

The game scales across player counts by having the gorilla move less at the higher counts. However, we still preferred the higher player counts because the fruit tends to get more spread out as players focus on different trees, trying to keep fruit away from opponents.

It’s going to be potentially too light for some players, but it’s a nice design that’s not trying to be overly ambitious. This is a great fit for a family or casual game group. It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it has a light, enjoyable theme. It’s a nice entry-level game that will keep everyone engaged.

Pros: Good family game, colorful, quick-paced

Cons: May be a little too simple for some players

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.