If you’re a fan of slot games, you may already know the origin of the fruit slots – way back when what you could win was flavored gum, corresponding to the fruits on the screen. Cherry gum, anyone? We’re quite some way from that – indeed, so far removed that a fair number of today’s players wouldn’t even know why we have so many fruits decorating today’s slot machines.
But what the history doesn’t really explain, or at least not fully, is why those slots are still there. Why, in a world of fantastical space settings and high-end mythological slots, do we keep getting… fruit? It’s not as though we get excited about fruit in many other spheres of life!
The Abundance Of Fruit Slots
First, let’s establish the case: there are many, many highly varied and fun fruit slots. Some have “fruit” right in the title, like 10 Fruity Fire, 20 Hot Super Fruits, Big Fruit Show, Coin of Fruits, and Blazin Fruit Fortune. Others are a little more subtle, with options like Ten Times Vegas, Five Times Vegas, 777 Deluxe, Luxe 555, Reels and Wheels, and more – all of which feature fruit as their main subject matter.
And then there are options like Cosmic Fruits 1, 2, and 3 (yes, that was a successful run), Fruits and Bombs, Fire Fruits Fusion, and even HallowFruits for those who would like a Halloweeny twist on things. That doesn’t cover even nearly the whole catalog, but serves as a decent taste of how widespread and popular fruits are. That brings us to our next major point. Why.
Reason 1: Familiarity
Who’s going to argue with the idea that we’re highly familiar with fruit slots? Even folks who have never entered an arcade are likely to grasp the association quickly, and we all know that we like things that feel familiar. That makes fruit slots feel like a really easy starting point, and beginners are likely to opt for them because they feel more comfortable with them. That’s not to say, though, that slots aficionados will avoid them: many also enjoy the comforting sensation of returning to a theme that they know and love, one that has lasted across the decades.
Reason 2: Flexibility
Fruits can be used to fit a whole range of options and game themes, as we saw from the list of titles above. They’re adaptable enough to be used in a Halloween-themed slot, a space slot, and explosive styled slots. They fit into Vegas style games and cars, numbered settings, and even gameshow-style approaches.
That makes them ideal for developers: they’ve got basic game fodder, with plenty of variants for their symbols (lemons, cherries, plums, apples, bananas, kiwis, and so much more), and the flexibility to create different settings. That creates opportunities for creativity, which is how we have ended up with evil (but adorable) fruits attacking the cosmos.
Reason 3: Simplicity
Fruits are also very simple, which is always great for attracting newcomers to the world. Everyone feels they can understand these symbols, perhaps because they have been a part of the slot identity for such a long time. It feels like they belong in the general slots landscape, and developers obligingly keep drawing on their imagery year after year. Even when the fruits are more detailed and given features like eyes or combined with other images, such as bombs, they’re still highly explicable and very usable for that reason.
Reason 4: Aesthetics
Are fruit slots gorgeous? Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so we can’t answer that exactly, but there’s no question that fruits offer a lot of potential: they are juicy colors (and highly distinctive for that reason, making them valuable as symbols), and they’re easy to make cute in a whole range of ways. Add some eyes (hello, Cosmic Fruits) or sparkly edges, and you’ve got immediately attractive, appealing characters.
It’s the same reason that gems have been so popular in matching games. Something about the strong, vibrant colors and the pleasing shapes makes them exceptionally well-suited for appearing on the reels.
Plus, with lots of varied shapes, it’s easy to ensure symbols are readable; cherries can’t be mixed up with bananas, nor lemons with oranges. That ensures the slots are satisfying to play because players can easily follow the gameplay and understand what’s happening. That also makes it easier for the developers to add a range of features, knowing they’re building on a solid foundation. If you want to introduce folks to a new concept, such as progressive jackpots, it helps to make the base game as straightforward as possible!
That’s not a bad reason to keep using them: slots today are getting more and more complex, which is great for player engagement, but needs to be tempered with baseline understanding. Mixing a complex new mechanic with complex symbol design and complex theming can leave players feeling overwhelmed; using something simple, like fruits, creates an atmosphere of familiarity that may help folks feel more at ease, and therefore more capable of taking in information.
