The Art of Balance is a Physics based balance game developed by Shin’en Multimedia and released for the WiiWare shop, Nintendo 3ds, and Wii U Platforms on the Nintendo eShop. It is a game that Shin’en did a great job on and made something that is addicting as much as it is infuriating. The game is simple and easy to pick up but mastering it is a different story.
At first glance most of the puzzles you do are a piece of cake, you are given a base surrounded by water in a small bowl on a desk, or floor, you be the judge. You are given shapes that you must balance on the base and they cannot hit the water. Easy enough right? WRONG! Once you get into this game it becomes harder and more challenging as one would expect. But yet once you fail you can jump right back in with a retry. This game suffers from the “Just one more time” bug, which is a good thing and it can be a time sink. You use the stylus on the game pad to grab blocks and place them, you can also use the shoulder buttons to spin the block to place it exactly how you want it.
Once you get further into the game you get blocks that have special properties. Some blocks that are half solid block and half glass/ice. More interesting things like that to make this game one tough cookie to stack a tower. But yet no matter how hard it can be, you still find yourself saying “Just one more time”.
The Art of Balance does have multiplayer and an exciting amount of different ways to play. You can play Endless puzzle fun with the option of having anyone jump in to join you at any time. Or you can play 2-player versus play with online compatibility. There is also a mode called Tower Tumble, where 4 players can see who will topple the tower first, kind of like a Jenga type of mode. You can play these modes using your Wii U gamepad with touch controls, wii remotes, or the gamepad analog sticks. You can pretty much play anyway you would like, but I recommend using the gamepad with stylus.
If you are one of the lucky few of us elite crew who have a Wii U I highly recommend buying this game. It is cheap enough for anyone to buy and it is worth every penny, of course if this is your type of game! I enjoyed my time with the game and it is an easy game to pop in and play for just a short time if you have a few minutes to kill. It is a soothing relaxing game that you can enjoy for many years to come.
Overview
Developer: Shin’en Multimedia
Platforms: Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS
Price: $8.99 ESRB: E (Everyone)
*Review Copy was acquired from Shin’en Multimedia