Suika Game

Suika Game is a puzzle game focusing on stacking objects in a confined space, reminiscent of Tetris. The player, represented as a cloud called Poppy, is tasked with dropping a wide range of fruits in a box, aiming for the highest score without having a single fruit cross the line at the top of the box and overflowing out, or else the game would end. In order to keep the fruits from overflowing out of the box, the player must match two types of fruits in order for them to merge into the next biggest fruit in the cycle, increasing the player's score. The bigger the fruits that merge the larger the point bonus is, with the largest merger the player can achieve resulting in the titular watermelon.

If two watermelons merge, they poof from the box. Suika Game has no time limit to rush the player with; unlike in games such as Tetris, the fruits are affected by physics causing them to hit off each other and roll away from where they were initially dropped. Sometimes the pressure released by two fruits merging is enough to send a fruit out of the box and end the game.

Suika Game was initially developed as a built-in application for the popIn Aladdin, a 3-in-1 ceiling digital projector developed by a branch of Aladdin X called popIn, in April 2021. It was said to be well received amongst customers of the projector. Aladdin X decided that due to the game's popularity on the projector, as well as wanting to spread awareness of their projectors further, they would rework the framework of Suika Game to bring it to the Nintendo eShop on December 9, 2021. Aladdin X have stated there are minor differences between the Nintendo Switch and popIn Aladdin versions of the game, mainly pointing to the weight of the fruits and how points are calculated. During an interview with Nippon TV Aladdin X mentioned the idea of bringing the game to smartphones, however decided against it at the time due wanting the game to have "a better chance of standing out" amongst other apps on the market.

The initial concept for this game originates from a Chinese web browser game developed by marketing company Meadow Science (Chinese: 米兜科技) called "Merge Big Watermelon" (Chinese: 合成大西瓜). The game released in January 2021 and became a large success, with Merge Big Watermelon receiving more than 1.4 billion related search hits on Sina Weibo.

Suika Game was often compared by critics to other popular puzzle games, such as Tetris and Puyo Puyo. News publications such as IGN Japan and Automaton Media made the comparison to the indie puzzle game Threes!. In Nintendo Life's review of the game, they described the game as "2048 with physics". Julia Lee of Polygon made a similar comment that it was "like a mix of Tetris and 2048 but with adorable fruit".

However even with the comparisons, Lee still praised the game claiming that the game has her flipping her emotions more so than other similar puzzle games she has played, although not full sure why. She speculates the game's illustrations, physics and motivations as possible reasons.