Grand Theft Froot (XBLIG): "Alien Espionage With A Frooty Twist"

I can honestly say I have yet to see an XBLIG title as involved as 'Grand Theft Froot' was. It took me every second of the five hours the developers had informed me it would take. Through many hardships, and victories I was able to conquer this game. At the end of it all I felt as if I had accomplished a great feat. I worked seriously hard to get this game completed 100%, so I could bring my readers all the details (minus the spoilers of course).


Grand Theft Froot is an tale of alien espionage brought to us by 'Frooty Game Studios'. They are the developers behind this rpg platformer. I was introduced to the story of the game with a very creative intro. It tells a brief, but detailed background about an evil corporation who has been tampering with things in a biological manner. The intro is brought to life by an Australian voice actress's talent. The whole thing seemed so epic, and it really added an edge to the story behind the game. After watching the intro I was a bit psyched about the game.


Grand Theft Fruit (or GTF as I'm going to refer to it) plunges you into the game as a female alien that was stricken by memory loss. To regain your memory, and your purpose you will need to make it through various locations in search for the 'Froot' your mysterious contact has asked you for. The story makes itself clearer as you progress through the levels, and listen to the many transmissions. You will find that the plot is actually as involved as a modern day movie with a twist (Mission Impossible & Resident Evil come to mind). I won't giveaway any details, but you will definitely need to take the time and read all the messages if you get this game. I actually had a fun time following the story as I went along. I must warn you though, if you see a message come up find a safe place to read it. The messages will interfere with the gameplay, and can cause some major problems for you if you don't.

GTF is a game with a retro look to it. The game features 8-16 bit graphics with a hand drawn type of background. The music is unique, and varies in intensity as you get closer to the end. I would say it's sort of like techno, or rave music at times. The platforming part of the game is displayed in a side-scrolling 2D manner similar to games like Metroid. GTF features a training level, a shop, and four main levels. Each level including the training level includes 9 separate stages. The four main levels have a tenth stage that contain a unique boss. As you make your way through each level's stages you will collect coins for purchasing items/upgrades at the shop, and a certain number of hidden 'Froot'. In order to complete a level you 'must' collect all the required Froot, and make it to a monkey's face at a certain location. Aside from that there are also 10 hidden secret files that tell the background story of the game in greater detail. These secret files are well hidden, and may take some time to locate. I actually had to go back a play through a level again to obtain one of the files. I think trying to locate all of the secret files actually made me try harder despite the intense difficulty I experienced later on in the game.

The rpg side of GTF features a leveling system for Health, Damage, Agility, and Speed. As you kill enemies throughout the game, and open gates you will gain points that can be applied to these attributes. Each time you level up you will gain two points. In total there are 50 points that can be filled. I found that Speed, and Agility are very important attributes that are necessary for completing levels/stages with less hassle. I would actually fill the top two attributes, and then the bottom two as I leveled up. It seemed to work well for me.

I did end up finding some issues as I played through the game. I'm going to try my hardest not to sound harsh. My biggest issue involved the transmissions/messages that were displayed on the screen. The words were actually kind of hard to see, because they were small. I also think the blue background had something to do with the problem as well. The second part of that issue was that the messages would pop up at inappropriate times. This caused trouble for me on several occasions. The final issue I had was with the health/power, upgrade, and item onscreen displays. They would obstruct the visibility of certain areas in the game. Aside from these problems I thought the game was good. It offered some intense challenges, an amazing story, and fun gameplay. If your a gamer who loves a good challenge I believe you'd enjoy it.