An excellent game that can still stand with the best – when it actually works.

One thing that Meta Quest virtual reality (VR) headsets has over its competition is backwards compatibility.

The option to play not only the latest games, but also “classic” titles which have been around since the earliest days of the VR market, is enticing to gamers. Of course, it’s not just the VR market where gamers yearn to play older titles, as the ability to use the latest consoles for classic games has been around for generations.

When the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) was announced, many people were upset that the extensive libraries they had from the first generation’s headset would not work on the upgraded hardware. This meant people would have to build their libraries from scratch, and any older games would need to be ported to newer headsets by the developers – if they chose to undertake this often extensive process.

One of the games missing from the PSVR2 – and will seemingly never be ported from the first generation – is the nDreams game Shooty Fruity. 

This game is a job simulator and shooter hybrid that sees players take on the role of an employee at a grocery store that gets overrun by anthropomorphic – and very angry – fruit. Complete your daily tasks of checking out customers, filling food orders and completing daily challenges, all while wielding an arsenal of weapons to take on the fruit.

The game was released for the original PSVR in 2017, on Steam in early 2018, and on the Quest headsets in 2020. While the game is old – and the last time the game had a major platform release was about five years ago – this simple multitasking shooter still provides a challenging adventure for those who want a VR game that doesn’t try to do too much.

Yes, the game tasks you with doing a job while fending off apples, oranges, watermelons, bananas and other types of living fruit. However, the simplicity of both tasks at once – combined with level specific challenges – makes for a more complete game that keeps you entertained.

Just like the premise of the game, the controls are relatively simple here. There’s no movement besides teleporting between stations; and there is no ability to move at all – besides leaning – in levels.

This made sense when the game first launched onto a technologically lacking PSVR in 2017, and despite the advancements in newer generation VR, still makes sense today. Sometimes you don’t need to be able to run around and jump or swing around; sometimes it just works to stand and fight. Considering the announcer lady says things like “mandatory firearms training” it makes sense that it’s well-known the fruit comes alive – but an odd thing for people to want to shop there without any deal upside.

Either way it, in theory, makes sense to the story that you are rooted in place. Now, back from this tangent to the controls.

Grab things like groceries to scan, weapons off the rack, and your work card for the day by using the controller’s side buttons. Shoot with the trigger on the controller’s back. When you’re in the employee breakroom, use the ‘a’ or ‘x’ buttons to where you wanna go – more on this after – and pressing the button when the place is lit up.

Speaking of the breakroom: it’s basically your starting area. Here you can select you mission, practice on the shooting range, buy weapons, and make minor changes in the settings. This is where you have to teleport between the job board, weapons vending machine, and settings arcade cabinet. Oh, and the shooting range is behind the job board – access it by pulling the big level to the right.

There’s a lot to like in this game. While some items may not always look the best, nDreams did well in creating an experience that still holds up graphically. Of course, the Quest version was the most recently released, so graphics should be the most improved – in theory at least, let’s not forget this standalone headset is severely underpowered. The way you interact with the world is pretty consistent with you would accomplish the same task in real life, with the ability to scan items the way you would in store.

Some guns to feel underpowered – and the earliest automatic weapon you can get recoils to the point that you can barely get a straight shot off – but there are many good ones early and weapons you unlock later in the game are exceptional. To unlock more weapons, you need to earn challenge stars on each level. Every mission has three optional tasks to complete; these can range from taking down certain fruits, using specific weapons, and collecting a specific amount of juice – more on this. Some challenges are more difficult that others, so it’s important to bring your strongest arsenal into each mission. Also, don’t worry if you have to go back and complete some later, you don’t have to complete them all at once.

To unlock new weapons, you can head over to the vending machine and punch in the corresponding three digit code listed on available items. To complete your purchase you need juice. This is your currency for weapons, and is earned by killing the fruit. You get certain amounts depending on what you shoot, but shooting them at a distance nets you more – usually multiplying your amount earned by two or more.

The good weapons cost a bit, so make sure you aim to collect as much juice as possible.

The game is pretty good and definitely does still hold up today, however, there is a downside to playing on the latest headsets.

On the Quest 3 specifically – since there is no PSVR2 version and the steam version hasn’t changed in years – there is an issue that has been experienced by players where the game won’t save. This is a known issue where the developer even makes official posts on review comments, so it’s not as if this is something that’s unknown.

For context, many games were upgraded after the Quest 3 came out with updates mostly surrounding graphics. Here, however, it seems like the developer has not prioritized making their older games – for which they still charge full price – free from issues.

The workaround they suggest actually doesn’t always fix the problem, so some people may only ever be able to play the game without closing, lest they lose all their progress. This is a significant issue, and if you aren’t able to get the “official” workaround going, you really should avoid this game.

Aside from the forgetful elephant in the gaming room, Shooty Fruity is an excellent game that VR shooter enthusiasts should play. This is a fun experience that has – nearly – stood the test of time, and even in a sea full of free games and low-rent experiences, this manages to entertain. There is a lot which was done right eight years ago when this first released, and it’s a shame that an issue – wholly caused by the developers – could be the reason that people don’t get to experience this game.

Hopefully developer nDreams realizes that it’s been a long time since this issue became a thing and takes the time to actually fix it. Considering people are only going to continue to purchase newer headsets – and they’re still selling this game at full price – it’s only right that they take the time to fix this extremely noticeable issue.

Shooty Fruity, was reviewed after purchasing from the Quest store.