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4bidden Fruit - The Methadone For Your Eden Addiction

Posted by Derrick Sanskrit

Pixeljunk Eden was the first game to make me happy I'd "invested" in a Playstation 3. Unfortunately, I wound up investing a lot back into it. First there was the HDMI cable so the game –specifically designed for HDTVs – wouldn't be blurry and vague. Then there was the lack of sleep as Eden hypnotically pulled me through its lush gardens full of vibrant lights and sounds. Finally, there was the lost sense of reality, as I started to imagine myself as a grimp and looked up at the towering buildings in Manhattan, estimating how far I could fling myself from the top of each one in fruitless efforts to collect pollen.

Dear reader, if you're like me, you need a gardening experience to wean you off of Eden safely and comfortably before you find yourself on a fire escape eyeing the opposite rooftop. Might I recommend 4bidden Fruit.

4bidden Fruit emulates all the fun of Eden from the comfort of your own web browser, only without all the pressures of traditional Grimp platforming. There is no thread to swing from, no synchronization meter to give you any sense of urgency and no fancy colors or music to force you into a world you know you have problems walking away from. With only the computer mouse to guide you, leap around the one-and-only garden in 4bidden Fruit collecting the twenty gold crescents. Or don't, no pressure.

Most impressively of all, 4bidden Fruit was designed as an entry in the Java4K competition, meaning the entire game is coded in Java (no Flash required) and clocks in at under 4 kilobytes, meaning you can play this game on even the lousiest of internet-enabled office computers when you're hurting for an Eden fix real bad. Together, we can all get through this...at least until PixelJunk Dungeons breaks loose.

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Whatcha (Wish You Were) Playing: How Does Your Garden Grow?

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Posted Jan 27 2009, 06:00 PM

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, addiction, eden, pixeljunk, pixeljunk eden, browser

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

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