
Are you need of a proper moment of relaxation? Are you looking to unwind after a long, hard day at work? Sounds like you need a game that's all about chilling to the max - enter Zen Bound 2, a sedate puzzling experience that's headed to the Switch eShop on 24th May.
Originally released on PC and smartphones back in 2010, the game is all about solving down-tempo puzzles that involve wrapping pieces of rope around a 3D shape. It's all about using the ropes to eventually paint each object, which can be surprisingly complex, but strangely relaxing once you get the hang of it. It's been retooled on Switch so you can use the gyro in the Joy-Con to control each object and wind said rope to solve the puzzle on-screen.

Check out the Switch-centric trailer above. The relaxing puzzling of Zen Bound 2 arrives on the Switch eShop on 24th May. Will you be tying yourself in a knot over this Finnish indie? Let us know in the comments below...
Comments 20
You know, watching that trailer that's actually not as stupid as I thought it was going to be. It's actually not a bad concept at all. Not a fan of how the actual game works though. It's like playing Spaltoon and pointing your weapon and making pew pew noises and then ink just appears on the ground. The color isn't even the same color as the string. It just makes no sense. Even if the color is coming out of the pin and not the string, which it may be, you can't tell.
I know it's just a mobile game, so you can't expect much, but I think it could be an enjoyable puzzler if the physics looked like what my brain wants to see.
@rjejr I think it's pretty obvious that the paint is coming from the orbs/paintballs/whatever, as they are the same colour as the paint. Only when the rope touches the orbs, they explode and colour the object.
looks somewhat interesting.
isn't this free? or was that Zen Pinball...
@Pahvi Oh, it seems different stages have different rules. Interesting...
@rjejr Your brain certainly works in mysterious ways...
What I see physics- and game-wise looks just fine and pretty logical to me. The string or rope doesn't need to have the same color as the paint at all: it's the rope either crossing/passing or crushing the paint balls which is making the paint flow over the objects.
@KoopaTheGamer "it's pretty obvious"
Well I think that's what is supposed to be happening, but I don't think it's obvious. Go back and watch the beginning again. I can't see any pins or anything on the bird, the color just seems to appear under the string. Same for the turtle a little later in. No pins, no beads, just string and color.
The pins do pop, that is obvious, and the beads on the string pop as well on the duck, but on the bird and turtle the color just seems to appear under the string.
Apologies, I probably could have been clearer about that in my initial post.
I've played the original Zen Bound, and mobile game or not this would probably be a worthwhile game to get on the Switch. The joycon is perfect for this.
@ThanosReXXX oops, missed you, or you ninja'd me, sorry. But as I just said to the other person, I don't see any beads or pins on the bird or turtle, just string.
The bird at 0:12 it's hard to see any color being added at all honestly, it's just there under the string, but for the turtle starting at 0:30 you can clearly see near the end at 0:33 the string touching the turtle and color being added, and it looks like the color is simply coming from the string touching it, nothing else.
Now maybe there is a reason this is happening, like the string is wet and the objects change color when they get wet, but that doesn't keep my eyes from seeing what looks like a dry brown twine changing a dry brown wood turtle into white paint appearing out of thin air.
So we're tying humming birds up in bondage now...
My brother seems to think this is a good game...
@rjejr Aw... you missed me...
But I'll be damned, you're right. I know why it still makes sense, though: it reminds me of this old game in which you'd have to close off sections and then they got colored automatically.
The original arcade game is called Qix, and I played a game similar to it on the Commodore Amiga, which was called Volfied. Both enjoyable games.
As for this game here: it seems to have various modes, and various ways of achieving your goal. There's the whole crossing the pins thing, the paint balls on the rope thing, and the third option such as with the turtle and the bird, in which it just appears to be about crossing/closing off sections, which results in them being colored in.
@ThanosReXXX "crossing/closing off sections"
Yeah I remember games like that too, always fun, but your names are different than my names. Mine usually involved trucks or outer space alien beetles moving along the lines or some such, having to gain 80% of the area or something.
But that said, neither the bird nor the turtle has areas filled in between the string, the color is simply below the lines. If the area filled in when string crossed to make an area that would work for my brain though, but like this it doesn't. If they just colored the string, that's all I ask.
@rjejr Volfied had spiders and robots. Guess you didn't have an Amiga, or you might have known that. In all honesty, I had to look up those names as well, since it has been so long ago since I've played any of those games, so I had to Google it.
Found a lot more, so perhaps the names of the games you played, are also among them.
And the sections are being closed off. It's where the rope crosses itself or where it creates borders from one rope line to the other. But in the bird section, at the beginning, it is true that paint is simply appearing under the rope, although honestly, both parts of the video are too short to be certain of it, far as I'm concerned.
And now I'm kind of annoyed for having to watch that video more than 3 times to be able to make sense of my own comments and yours...
As for a colored string: that honestly wouldn't make any sense to me either, unless it was literally dripping with or oozing paint...
@ThanosReXXX " watch that video more than 3 times "
Yes, we've now spent more time watching this vid than either of us ever will spend playing the game.
Which for me holds true for about 90% of Switch games these days.
Like the look of this. Looks like there are at least 3 different modes. For some reason reminds me of Wetrix on N64. Loved that game
I've already wasted money on 1-2 Switch, so I'm not going to spend any more money on a reverse version of one of the games in it. Admittedly, it was one of the few games that held my group's attention for more than one game.
I´m reviewing playing it right now and this is indeed a quite unique game. The feeling with the gyro in the Joy-Con and the HD Rumble makes the game a tad more difficult but also more rewarding, but most of all for the first time in this series you actually rotate the object in a natural way. You can also use the gamepad or touch. The biggest challange is to use as little rope as possible to colour the object 100%.
Played thus on Android kept me entertained for a few hours but I got bored of it after that
Played it on mobile. Liked it actually, but priced too high on Switch. There's no drought of games this month, so it's impossible to justify a $5 game on mobile, being sold for $15 on Nintendo Switch.
While it's a good relaxing game, it's essentially a one-trick pony. I'll probably get it once it goes on sale for a third of it's price, otherwise, I'll pass.
Considering how frustrating all those motion control puzzles in Zelda were for me I would probably find this game anything but zen.
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