Apples in the Tree is a game where you find apple trees and throw their fruit into the water. You play as a girl with long spindly legs and pointy feet analogues, and you explore a world, each day finding a new path available, which will lead to a new apple tree. Each time you throw an apple into the sea, the world will change for the worse. Ultimately, you must decide whether to stay along this path, or to fix your mistake.
There's great music, neat characters, cool ideas. Your avatar has a boredom animation à la Sonic the Hedgehog. That was a cool level of detail to see, and its pretty cute. Whilst walking however, she will kind of squint around, phasing through frustration and befuddlement. It's like she's thinking of random stuff that pisses her off, all the time.
WARNING - MASSIVE SPOILERS
My favorite part of Apples in the Tree was the dreaming mini-game. When you go to your house and lie on your bed long enough, you will fall asleep. This takes you to a screen forked in several directions. Each one takes you to a different game.
Children of the Grave: You basically just walk through a graveyard. There are some credits, some messages that play testers got to submit, I think. There's a holographic homage to Pink Floyd. There's a large pumpkin that looks like Jack Skellington that you can destroy for fun. Also, Ozzy Osbourne is hanging out here. If you rescue his wife he will give you his autograph.
Tornado of Souls: This is where you have a chance to save Sharon Osbourne. You're in a maze being chased by a tornado, and you have to navigate out safely to Hangar 13 before it catches you.
Goodnight, Demon Slayer: You kill a bunch of little imps by stepping on them. It's kind of like Whack-a-mole. This was the first time I ever heard this song, and I love it so much.
The Beast of Pirates' Bay: You start out just in some weird place. You have to navigate carefully, because if you drown, you will wake up. You can save the beast, and he will reward you by eating you, and then some weird arsty shit happens.
There are three possible endings to the game. The Grey Fox ending is paradoxically the hardest to obtain, since you cannot help or hurt anyone. If you've ever played an RPG your entire life, you have an uncontrollable impulse to do everything you possibly can, and the Grey Fox asks you to stay on task, keep your eyes on the prize. Don't do it the first time; it's a great way not to have any fun. The other two endings are When You're Evil and Mrs. Nice Girl. They should be fairly obvious, but know that simply doing good things and bad things in equal quantities does not balance your karma. I can't recall, but I think doing any good deeds gets you the good ending. I saved a cat and beat the little dude. This scored me the good ending. I also had the baby bird in my inventory, but I never gave it back to its parent, so I don't know how that was counted.
When the end comes, you will see your actions have brought torrential rain. In the final location, there is a batboy. He will fly you off to safety in the good ending and the neutral ending. And you will love the end theme. It's brilliant. In the good ending, you eat the apple. The backdrop spins around, and everyone else is in a boat. They shoot a cannon at you, and you get away with some seeds. In the neutral ending, the batboy flies off with you, and you never decide whether to eat the apple. Naturally, in the bad one you throw that apple in the water without hesitation and get shot in the back by an angry mob.
Flaws:
There are some collision detection errors, especially in the Tornado of Souls level, but definitely in more places. Jumping can be tough sometimes. Not the most precise of control. In the cave, it is very hard to tell at first that there are logs for you to jump onto, and so it is very likely you will drown to death wondering what to do.
Conclusion
I highly recommend this game. It's been one of my favorites since it came out, despite its flaws, or maybe even because of them. You can spend a lot of time trying to get the three endings, even knowing how to get them. Not to mention the mini-games and the medals.