Beasts of Balance makes crazy creatures
Over the last decade, there’s been a large convergence of digital and physical board games.
We’ve seen hundreds of physical board games get a digital implementation. Some of our favorite board games have been available on digital devices for many years. And we’ve also seen digital games go the other direction and take on physical form (Angry Birds: Pig Island Smashdown).
And there are a number of games that incorporate both physical and digital – where you need both to even play the game (Mansions of Madness 2nd edition).
Well, hybrid physical and digital games continue to evolve even further.
Today we’re taking a look at the latest evolution of such games by diving into dexterity games!
In Beasts of Balance, by Sensible Object, players stack physical animals and items to create all sorts crazy creatures.
It’s a cooperative dexterity game where players make the best world they can by adding animals, evolving them, and nurturing them before the tower falls down.
How to play Beasts of Balance
Beasts of Balance is super simple to play.
So simple that there isn’t really much for us to explain.
The first thing players do is download the free game app to their iOS or Android device and plug some batteries into the plinth (platform where everything gets stacked).
Players then dive right into the superb tutorial in the app.
It takes players through all the steps they need to know about playing the game.
The basics are this: The player holds the item they want to place next to the symbol on the plinth so it can be recorded in the app via bluetooth. Then stack the animal wherever they can on the growing stack on the plinth.
Then watch the screen to see what concoction they’ve created.
Depending on the order players stack the pieces, different creatures will evolve and different things will happen.
Cross-breeding animals results in some crazy creatures.
But players can’t go forever because there’s still a big dexterity element to the game. Eventually the pieces are going to fall.
When the pieces fall, a timer begins for the player to try to re-place all the pieces on the plinth before their world ends.
Once it ends, players are rewarded with a score as to how well they’ve evolved their world. Of course, this also presents a new challenge for the players to reach even higher scores.
One of the cool things is that players are challenged to explore. By taking a look at the Bestiary compendium, players can see the variety of creatures they’ve created so far as well as empty spaces where more will appear.
For those who love to complete things, this is a great challenge because it means there are still combinations yet to be discovered.
Can the whole family enjoy Beasts of Balance?
Beasts of Balance is targeted directly at families with young kids.
It has so many things kids love: animals, stacking, exploration, cooperation, creation, and digital devices.
Kids will intuitively take to Beasts of Balance as soon as they open the box. They’ll naturally notice how stackable the animals are and will be fascinated by the life they take on in the app. They’ll place a new piece and watch the animations in the app to see what they’ve created and what happens next.
As creatures are created, they’ll also overpower some of the other animals created in the app – driving some to extinction. But that’s all part of the creature evolving process and getting higher scores as well.
Kids won’t care when the tower falls because they’ll happily build again in new and different ways every time.
How does Beasts of Balance score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Since our youngest is now in high school, our family doesn’t fall into the target category for Beasts of Balance. So this typical ending question for our reviews doesn’t apply very well.
That being said, Caleb has still played over and over trying to get a super high score and complete as many spots in the Bestiary compendium as possible.
However, if you’ve got young kids in your family, we predict they’ll have a hard time putting Beasts of Balance down.
