Suika Game, the fruity Japanese puzzle game that's become wildly popular since its release on the Nintendo Switch in December 2021, is seemingly ready to drop onto PS5.
According to a report from Siliconera, a product page for Suika Game mysteriously appeared on the PlayStation Store, suggesting the PS5 version of the game is coming soon. However, the page gave the game an alternative name: "The Suika Game."
Suika Game is called The Suika Game on the PlayStation Store because GoGame Console Publisher is developing the PS5 version, while Aladdin X made the original Switch title. The game's art design on the PlayStation Store page is different from that of its eShop page — Suika Game is free on Nintendo Switch Online until tomorrow, by the way — in that the fruits appear happy, whereas they're expressing a different range of emotions on the Switch store. That gives the impression that GoGame's version of Suika Game is a knockoff of the original.
The origins of Suika Game
Suika Game originates from the Chinese browser game Merge Big Watermelon, and it works like Tetris in that you drop fruit into a confined space and watch them merge with fruits of the same type and grow into other fruits until you get a watermelon, called "suika" in Japanese, hence the title. Two cherries merge into a strawberry; two strawberries merge into a grape; two grapes merge into a dekopan; and so on.
The goal is to get the highest score possible, as each fruit elicits a higher score than others, without letting the fruits overflow from the container. If the fruits pass the line at the top of the box, all the fruits you merged will disappear, adding on to your points and leaving you with your final score.
For the first two years of its release, Suika Game was sold exclusively on the Japanese Nintendo Switch eShop after Aladdin X, the projector company in Japan, ported the game to the Switch due to its popularity among people who played it as a fun bonus game it installed into the projectors' software. On October 20, 2023, the game received a global release, gaining popularity among Vtubers and streamers like Ludwig, who streamed the game on Twitch from his Japanese Switch profile three weeks before it was released in the U.S.
Suika Game became so popular that it surpassed over 4 million downloads. As of this writing, the game is still ranked number one on Japan's Switch trending page.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
