Game Review: Pineapple Pen (Mobile – Free to Play)

In an unashamed attempt to cash in on the strange popularity of that awful Pen Pineapple Apple Pen song released last year, free to play mobile gaming giants, Ketchapp have released Pineapple Pen.

If you’re not familiar with Ketchapp, chances are you’ve probably played one of their games without even knowing it. They currently have over 100 games listed on the Apple App Store & every single one is a free to play game. They seem to churn out short, briefly addictive free to play games that are stuffed with over-priced in-game purchases.

Pineapple Pen is no different.

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The bright & colourful visuals are appealing from the moment the game begins. What isn’t so appealing is the obnoxious music. You’ll be muting this game within a minute.

Gameplay is simple: tap the screen to throw a pen into a pineapple or an apple. Try to get a high score & if you miss the game is over. That’s Pineapple Pen. It offers 5 minutes of brief fun but does have a surprising amount of replay value. That is provided collecting different pens is your thing.

Coins are the currency here & 200 of them will unlock a new pen. You can gain coins from shooting special apples or pineapples & once very couple of hours, a giant pineapple. The latter is an in-game bonus that is tied into a timer. You can also earn a few more by watching the occasional video or by completing quests.

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The game isn’t generous with its coins naturally & after 30 attempts with 2 bonus giant pineapples I had only earned enough coins to unlock 2 new pens.

There are 110 pens to unlock all costing 200 coins. To put that in perspective, 2000 coins will set you back 99p, a modest amount, right?

Not really, 2000 coins allows you to buy 10 pens. Just 10 pens that offer nothing but a visual alternative. To buy every pen in the game using real money would cost you over £10 & that doesn’t include the removal of ads that adds another £1.99 onto the total.

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You’d have to be an absolute moron to even consider spending any real money in this game. Once you have all the pens there isn’t anything left to do! There are only 4 modes (more are promised in the future) & they offer only minor variations in gameplay.

However, as infuriating as the in-app purchases are they’re not in your face (although I did once have a pop-up offering me a deal on the no-ads purchase for the next 10 minutes only). The ads are a different matter though, they are so frequent & when you’re getting one as soon as you reach the main menu you know Ketchapp may have gotten their priorities wrong.

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Pineapple Pen is so far from the worst in this bloated, sickening free to play mobile market. It’s visually striking & has some addictive qualities. It suffers mostly because of the over-saturation of the market, something Ketchapp has had a hand in.

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Pineapple Pen
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