Fruitbus

Written by Kelly Gray on 9/18/2025 for SWI  

Pull up a seat, place your napkin nicely on your lap, and prepare yourself for the entree that is...a Fruitbus review.

From the moment I saw the trailer for Fruitbus, I said that's a game for me. And I think, if I recall correctly, it was either John or Randy that said, "That's a Kelly game!" And they were right. It is a Kelly game. Well...almost, but we'll get to that.

Fruitbus is a wholesome, delicious experience for a classic cozy gamer such as myself. The game starts as a memory: you're a child with your grandmother who runs a food truck. It's lovely. You have your teddy, and you follow grandma into the concept of the game. This memory serves as the tutorial for gameplay, which allows for a soft introduction to the mechanics and overarching storyline. I honestly could have lived in this version of the game forever, sous-chef to grandma who runs the show, but alas, everyone grows up.

After the tutorial flashback, you awaken as your adult self. You learn of your grandmother's passing through the letter she left you, which also requests that you throw her a farewell feast. She hints that not everyone will be delighted to attend at first, and you're going to have to do some encouraging and trust-building. But that's not all. She has bestowed upon you her beloved Fruitbus, along with a few helpful hints. And this, my friends, is where the adventure begins.

The game isn't simply about working in a food truck, as I had originally thought. This is more open-world, where you walk through the town, finding and collecting food, taking it back to the bus, and preparing it. You also have the opportunity to interact with the adorable townspeople—well, towns-animals—and determine who your future patrons are going to be. You even learn their favorite meals to allow you to grab the key ingredients to prepare the perfect meal for them, thus building that trust and rapport. 

There are three islands to explore as you continue to grow your skills and improve your truck, and learn new recipes that evolve you from fruit salad to actually cooking food on the stovetop and oven.

Things I Love About Fruitbus

This game has a surprising amount of storytelling for a game that could be extremely simple and straightforward. The creators do a really good job of slowly releasing more information as the game progresses through the dialogue with the surrounding animals. You start to unravel who grandmother really was outside of the viewpoint of child-you, and it paints a picture from multiple angles which is extremely realistic. Every character you interact with has their own specific viewpoint and story. 

Not only do you get to experience grandma through the character interactions, but you also still get snippets of grandma herself. From recipes to memory cutscenes to the urn in the bus that you get to talk to (yes, this is for real), there's quite a story to be told.

Without giving away too much, one thing that I really liked about this game is that the grandmother is not written to be perfect. Just like everyone else, she has her shortcomings, and we get to learn about those shortcomings throughout. Again, this could have settled into just being a cozy game, which aren't always ripe with storytelling, but we were not shorted one bit. Its storyline is rather robust, which was extremely engaging and allows for more connected gameplay.

This is silly, but I loved driving the Fruitbus! I didn't realize when I picked up this game that I would be doing any more than just prepping and selling food. I was wrong. And full transparency: I'm not good at driving the Fruitbus. In fact, grandma's urn may have done a better job at maneuvering. But my goodness, I giggled a lot while driving to the islands! I would love for future iterations of this game to involve even more driven exploration, expanding the world even more.

The graphics are simple, but they don't need to be anything more than they are. The cartoony nature of the anthropomorphic characters was a pretty decent execution with the overall design aesthetics. The islands are bright and colorful and fun to explore, and the animal characters you meet along the way are whimsical, and a bit silly, with a life of their own. Some are silly, some are angry, some just come for their food. You never know what you're going to get, or which furry patron you'll see next. I appreciate the variation and lack of repetition in the colorful cast of characters.

Chopping the fruit is rather satisfying. It doesn't take skill—you're not placing the knife and cutting certain angles or anything, which is nice. Instead, you simply hold down the button and watch the chopping happen. I don't know how to say this because I'm not an ASMR girl, but I just really liked the sound of the fruits being cut. It feels right in my soul, and I need to say it and acknowledge that I love it. It's just very satisfying, trust me!

You're running on your own time. You open the truck when you're ready, and close when you're done. There's no timer clicking down, stressing you out and ruining the vibes. You can just do your thing and you'll get there. I love that. I'm a cozy gamer for a reason, and this is why. I have enough hard deadlines, schedules, and demands in my own life, I don't need to escape it by entering a different world and feeling the same stress but this time through cartoon animals! Nah, they have their own quirks, and I do want to win them over, but aside from that, it's pretty chill.

The storefronts are cute. This is where you get the upgrades to your food truck, or knapsack, or whatever. I love the ability to upgrade the spaces that make sense for me, and utilizing my earnings from sales to make these upgrades made it so I constantly had a mini goal to achieve. I guess if I were to say that this game had a strategic component, it would be purchasing your upgrades.

What I Don't Love About Fruitbus

Ok, so the answer here is not much. But there's one massive element that prevented me from playing this non-stop, and it's that it is first-person. And I, Kelly Gray, get terrible motion sickness. It's a shame! Because so many great games are inaccessible for me because I get headaches and nausea from first-person games. Unfortunately, this game was one that I struggled with, and a reason it took me a hot minute to write this review—I could only play in small increments at a time! But this truly is a Kelly problem and not a Fruitbus problem, so unless you also get terrible motion sickness like me, you can absolutely disregard this. If you do get motion sick, heed my warning! 

The tutorial at the beginning is great, but sometimes throughout the game I got a bit stuck trying to figure out what to do next. I could have done with some hints, or a short list of next steps, at least through the first island. With it being open world, I didn't get lost, but it made it harder for me to figure out how to navigate which buildings I could or should go into, so I spent a lot of time walking up to locked doors. I also struggled to figure out how to get the bananas out of the higher-up trees (there's a fruit fetcher you can purchase). All that being said, once I got further into the game, it started clicking and became like a ritual. Although that can sound repetitive, the game is still engaging enough to keep the player entertained. 

There was a bit of lagging in some areas, but not long enough for me to get frustrated or put down the game. It was just noticeable when the lags were mid-game and not just during scene changes. This isn't necessarily surprising, nor did it affect or inhibit me from playing (no restarts needed). But it's worth noting in case even the slightest lag may hinder your opinions.

Final Thoughts and Opinions

I'm slightly caught off guard by how much I enjoyed playing Fruitbus. Not that I didn't give it enough credit as a cozy game, but because it feels like more than just a cozy game. The storytelling alone elevates it past what I typically consider to be a true cozy game. Meanwhile, the lo-fi music, sounds, 2D graphics, anthropomorphic characters, and general theming, objectives, and gameplay is that of a quintessential cozy game. So, you're kind of getting the best of both worlds, while playing a rather stress-free game (so long as you don't let the lineup of patrons get in your head. When they hear the Fruitbus' song, they come running).

Additionally, because the game is created to scale you up to being a great Fruitbus chef by growing your knowledge of recipes, the challenge level increases, so it doesn't feel like you're constantly making the same food for the same animals until the conclusion. I love strategic scaling, and this one did a great job of that. It also keeps the player engaged and wanting to learn more and please more furry patrons. This strong use of scaling also supports my thoughts that this is a more well-rounded cozy game—again leaning into the storyline more than I typically see.

Overall, this is a really fun and cute game! Like I said, I knew when I saw the trailer that this would be right up my alley, and it was (you hear that, John or Randy? You were right)! If I didn't get first-person motion sickness, this game would easily be on my regular rotation. So, if cozy gaming is your jam, consider picking up Fruitbus and start choppin'.