I’ve played about 150 hours Suika game, and instead of getting better at the game, I think I’m getting worse. Like my colleague Julia Lee, Suika game has had an absolute stranglehold on me. From Japanese developer Aladdin Suika game was originally only available on the Japanese eShop, but was released in the United States in October. I started playing it in December and since then it’s basically the only game I’ve played on Nintendo Switch.
Suika game is one of those games that looks deceptively simple: you throw different sized fruits into a box, with fruits combining when two of the same kind touch. The goal is to combine fruits and organize them in such a way (Tetrisstyle, almost) that you don’t flood the box they come in. Cherries are combined to form strawberries, strawberries into grapes, grapes into oranges, oranges into persimmons, persimmons into apples, and so on, until you reach the title “suika” (Japanese for watermelon). When two watermelons come together, they disappear, meaning the game can theoretically go on forever if the box becomes empty. The only problem is that Suika game is ridiculously difficult, thanks to the physics system that makes fruit bounce everywhere. (Plus, it’s just hard to arrange the fruit correctly!)
Once I realized how difficult Suika game was, I set myself two goals: reach a score of 3,000 and get that watermelon feeling. I have slowly descended into madness as I strive to achieve that feat. When you load Suika game and look at the global rankings, you will see that there are people who have scored above 14,000 – an absolutely impossible score for the average player. My journey to reaching 3,000 points was a huge achievement for me, let alone two watermelons touching each other.
My current theory is that there is a skill plateau for Suika game. The location of that plateau is different for every player, but wherever it is, you can’t get any further than that. I hit my skills plateau and no amount of training since has helped me overcome it.
That said, I also found it difficult to get tips on how to get better at it Suika game, other than just ‘getting good’. Most of the top tips for tips are things I’ve been doing since the beginning: take it easy; let things bounce and settle; do not place large fruits over small fruits; plan ahead; align the fruits by size. After exhausting all the tips I found on various websites, I started looking Suika game livestreams on Twitch, in an attempt to understand the thought process behind top players’ moves. Not only did this house the Suika game music permanently in my brain, it was also demoralizing. I could never measure!
All joking aside, I think watching other people play helped a bit to see how others organize their fruit, as around the 110 hour mark I had reached a whopping 3,000 points. And at age 150, I finally broke 3,000 – a few hundred points above 3,000 too! Unfortunately, I still haven’t touched two watermelons, and I’m not sure if I ever will. Back to my skills plateau theory: it may no longer be possible for me to improve further.
Maybe I should just stop Suika game without experiencing the relief of two watermelons touching each other. But I can’t bring myself to stop yet either. (There is a rumor Suika game may come to mobile, and if that happens, it’s over for me; it’s already out for players in Japan.)