I wasn’t sure what this game was until we unpacked it and I went through the tutorial in the app. It is a very clever game combining digital and traditional gaming. If you like stacking games you will definitely love Beasts of Balance.
How to play
It is really easy to learn how to play the game, as the tutorial in the app explains just what to do. When you unbox the game you need to put batteries in the Plinth, download the app and turn on your Bluetooth.
When you have turned on the Plinth the game knows you are there and starts the tutorial. It explains how to scan the items into the Plinth (using the special signs on the beasts and objects and then how to stack them.
The main aim of the game is to stack as many beasts and objects as you can, without it falling, whilst playing tactically within the games app. We played this game for 30 minutes and it took 10% of my iPhone battery. Make sure you are fully charged before you play for lots of fun!
I loved watching the children think about how to play the objects and also what objects to balance next. Whether that is an animal, or one of the other objects included in the game.
The different objects
In the box you get 6 beasts: shark, toucan, eagle, bear, warthog and octopus. Each have a different body shape, so have a different effect on the stacking tower.
You also get: 2 miracle artefacts, 3 migrate artefacts, 3 cross artefacts and 10 element artefacts. You can get different packs which have expansion objects to add to your game.
What do the objects do?
Animal artefacts – When you add an animal to the Plinth the world in your app sees the animal and the animal gets points. These points add to your total score, which you can see in the red semi circle at the bottom of the screen. Below you can see the warthog on the land and the shark in the sea. The shark has got more points, with 6 and warthog has 3.
Miracle artefacts – these are very hard to place in the stacking tower but get you more points. These are like power ups, very valuable pieces.
Migrate artefacts – these are fun, they basically change an animal into a completely different animal in another part of the world. For example the shark may turn into something completely different and migrate to the earth, or the air.
Cross artefacts – this crosses animals in the tower. We combined a warthog and octopus at the start and it called it a octohog – there are some hilarious animal names that come up. We loved that part of the game.
Element artefacts – these give the animals in the elements points. So earth (green) gives the earth animals points. So you have to play these pieces very tactfully. For example, don’t place the sea element down if there are no sea creatures in the stacking tower.
Beasts do become endangered if they lose their points. Effecting your overall game score too. There is a lot to think about with this game.
Just remember if your objects fall off the plinth, you have 7 seconds to rebuild it otherwise it is:
There are many ways to play the game: you can play to beat your high scores. Which is what I did with the children. Or you can play to discover what animals you can make. You can play to simply build the best tower or you can use the app to play to make sure you have the most balanced world between air, earth and sea.
Apparently you can get your scores into the 1000’s – so guess what game we will be playing over Christmas!
How can I buy the game?
You can buy the game online at Amazon, it is currently priced £49.00 and will be here before Christmas. The app for your device is free to download. You can buy different expansions for the game, one of them being battle cards. The battle cards allow you to add a little different functionality to the game, they scan in the Plinth the same as the objects and create a little chaos. You can basically add a little pain to your opponents.
Some game tips…
Try stacking the bigger animals at the base of the tower. They may make it more stable.
Make sure you correct the tower as you go, we did this and rearranged beasts along the way. Just be careful that the app doesn’t think the items have fallen as you will be given 7 seconds to get them back on the tower.
Play as a team. We found that when the children argued about things it became harder to build a tower.