We recently reported on the fact that German developer Shin'en was teasing a new game for the Nintendo Switch. We can now reveal that the game in question is an update of Art of Balance, the physics puzzler which started life on WiiWare before being ported to Wii U and 3DS.
Rated at 88% on Metacritic, the original Art of Balance was one of the stand-out additions to Nintendo's digital storefront on Wii. This new version features 200 levels, online play and local split-screen multiplayer.
Here's some PR:
Puzzle games must be addictive. That's why we designed 200 levels to not only challenge your skills but also your imagination. With its tight controls, Art of Balance is easy to pick up and hard to put away.
The goal sounds simple at first: Build a balanced stack from all given shapes. But with every world comes a twist, making it increasingly difficult to find a solution. Some shapes break under load, while others can even reverse gravity and literally turn the stack upside down. But don't fret. With practice, some experimentation and a little bit of luck you'll quickly master even the most difficult challenges.
Packed with 5 unique game modes, online play and local split-screen, Art of Balance is the ultimate test for aspiring puzzle masters. Three additional players can join in at any time and help you solve the puzzles.
With a relaxing lounge soundtrack and 8 beautiful environments, Art of Balance is the ideal fit for casual gaming sessions alone or with friends. Play at home or on the go and challenge other players on their Nintendo Switch.
Let us know if you'll be buying this with a comment - and also let us know if you were expecting something else entirely.
[source art-of-balance.shinen.com]
Comments 75
Will Nintendo ever do anything with F-Zero? They put it on SNES Classic and Captain Falcon in still in Smash. They must care somewhat about the franchise.
"TimppisYesterday, 6:20pm
It's the Art of Balance port for Switch.
Anyone expecting some huge megaton... Come on... Why do you do this to yourselves?"
Called it perfectly.
@Timppis NL trolling with that F-Zero thing.
I already have it on both 3DS and Wii U so I'm not really interested in a third version.
Wow, anti-climax that.
Oh my. Well, we knew we don't get new F-Zero. Never.
I can’t help but laugh. F-zero? Zero-F
Aaaaand pass
Aww.. not that excited to be honest. I've already played this on both Wii and Wii U. I hope they're working on something else.
I'll be honest, I dont think this warranted a pre-announcement. In fact, I'd argue it's gonna harm this game's reception now.
@Timppis
I had my hunches too, I just didn't leave a comment at the time.
Glad someone said it.
Lol at these teases that are always blown WAY out of proportion by fans.
It's a good game but not one that I need to replay
@DTFaux I mean, that announcement was literally "we're going to show something for Switch tomorrow". And they did.
People expected way too much. Sure, I would've liked new Nano Assault or FAST, but Art of Balance is a great puzzle game nonetheless.
When you make an announcement telling fans that they will revealing the next game they have been working on for the past year and a half, you are deliberately creating good reason to get people excited - even if some of it was way overblown. But at the same time, this is a port. Surely it didn't take them this long to just port the game?
That sucks, was expecting something new. They haven’t done anything new for many years now.
@DTFaux Yeah, pretty much.
In any case, I'll be buying this since I've yet to get this.
It's no F-Zero but at least now you can be a balance HERO with the Switch re-release of this nine-year-old WiiWare classic and... and... sigh. I can't even pretend to not be disappointed by this.
That’s lame. Why spent 2 years rehashing an old game. Shin’en, you ain’t shining as a company as I see it.
This is a great game, though the controls have me wondering how it will stack up to the Wii and 3DS releases. Anyone know if there will there be any new content added to this version?
@Fragarach "stack up" I see what you did there.
yay I guess? I was kinda hoping they were going to do something totally different.
Oh........
These guys literally made their first tweet for an entire year to pre-announce a port of a port?!
But on reflection, I'm quite tempted to this one. I never played the original and I think it might be quite a nice family game.
LOL, Slow RMX Brickmaster.
I think the hype for this announcement is backfiring. Already played this on 3DS and had my fill.
They built up that hype for a day just to reveal this? Fools.
@Fragarach Possibly a new multiplayer mode. I have it on 3DS and there is no multiplayer in that, but there are 200 levels (like as stated in this article).
I'll pass, since I've yet to even beat it thanks to a handful of hard as hell puzzles.
Had it on Wii U, a very good and relaxing game indeed. Not worth double dipping, though
Great game. Bought on sale twice for the Wii u and 3ds
Neat another ported classic.
The people that got excited about a new F Zero must be pretty disappointed right now...
Well that's disappointing is all i can say
@Curlybobs I think almost everyone is universally disappointed (including me). They better be trolling us. I mean, not a wise move to start like that, but their next project better be close to finished.
@DTFaux Absolutely agree with you. An announcement for an announcement for Art of bloody Balance?! Do me a favour!
Had absolutely no expectation that it would be F-Zero (like Nintendo would let someone else announce that outside of a Nintendo Direct), but this is still pretty underwhelming given how many Nintendo devices this is already available on.
Oh...
@KoopaTheGamer You're not wrong, and I dont doubt Art of Balance is legit. I'm mainly talking from a PR perspective.
As sure as the sun rises, people (namely fans) will speculate almost anything if you give them room to do so.
What?! The reason you pre-announce is usually to give heads up to your existing fan base, not potential fans... So why tease your fan base like that - which likely has already played what you’re offering? It’s just an odd move by the normally brilliant Shin’en
Wow, what a letdown. I played the demo of this on 3DS, and enjoyed it mostly. But it just didn't seem like I'd be into an entire game of this.
For those who were getting hyped about a new F-Zero (thanks for spreading unfounded rumors again, NL) need I remind you that Nintendo has reportedly greenlit a StarFox racing game. StarFox. Racing.
They would literally greenlight anything but a new F-Zero at this point.
Loved this game on Wiiware. The prospect of having additional people help you solve it is ok. But I’ll pass since I already beat it.
Shinen should have known better than to get fans hopes up like like that.A remaster of an old Wiiware game should have been revealed without any pre-announcement. Regardless, it doesn't take away from the fact they are working on something "quite different to anything they've done before" and that they've been working on it since before FAST RMX released.So whatever that game is it has to be pretty far along in development.
@Zeta F-ZERO is one of my faves, Ninty has doomed it to the bin I thinks
Underwhelming to say the least.
Love puzzles and like this developer. This game has been done to death at this point.
@NintyNate Mine too, I love the series, especially GX.
@NinChocolate Perhaps they're using the old tactic of getting the fan base excited with a simple tweet,watch the hype build as it's reported round the web then underwhelm them with the reveal of a port of an old game, then quickly follow it up with something huge.
Nintendo done something kind of similar in the last Direct by making it look like Animal Crossing was about to be revealed only to reveal Isabelle was coming to Smash. Nintendo knew fine well that at that moment we would all be shaking our heads. Then when Animal Crossing is revealed for real, the impact is greater.
That's probably not what's happened here but you never know
Great game but my hope is that they add more features and game modes. Kind of like Boom Blox.
Bit a disappointing announcement. Didn't require or warrant any kind of mystery or build up to reveal it.
I guess it will be the 4th time I passed in this game. Here I was thinking they were making a new nano_____ game.
The way NL wrote the last article was a bit troll(y). It sounded like something bigger.
@Zeta I love GX, I got F-ZERO tattoos and lots of merch but I think it's just gone forevers
Wow, this is a thing? I played this on an iPod Touch back in 2010 or so. I thought those old iPhone games went away ages ago.
Erm ...ok! That’s fine tbh as I do like the game but wonder why it was so hyped?
boo, hiss, boo
I'm OK with the port, but not the day in advance notice for the announcement, screw that noise. 😛
If we need a motion balance game port I wouldn't mind seeing a bundle of Boom Blox 1 & 2, those were better than they should have been.
And Elebits. I swear Elebits is one of the best first person motion controlled vacuum sucking games I've ever played but it just disappeared. Deserved better. Let's put those HD Rumble joy con to use, with 4 player madness.
I'm going back to playing Dragalia Lost.
Never tried this one... I will give it a shot when it releases
Not going to lie. I love this game. Disappointed it's a re-release, but chuffed with the game they are re-releasing (if that makes any sense lol)
....and now im limp.
Loved it on the Wii U but... Wii -> 3DS -> Wii U -> Switch... How many times can you rehash the same stuff before it starts feeling old?
Granted the Switch is a much healthier platform so if more people get to enjoy it, that's great. Not gonna double dip myself though.
It's a great game, but I already have got it 3 times over. Wii, 3DS and Wii U so can't see myself buying it again..... To anyone who hasn't played it before however I recommend picking it up.
Ah yes... The other other Shin'en classic I forgot about lol. I really enjoyed that game and it was a puzzler "my" speed as I already love Jenga to pieces (See what I did there? I... ok, I'll leave now...)
Cool but not the must buy I want.
Its a pretty good game, but not sure Id bother to double dip for it at this point. Still, for new players who like puzzle/physics games, its good, if a bit frustrating sometimes.
It's probably more fun to play in short bursts, just fyi.
No thanks
No voice chat, no buy.
I have been hoping this would get a re-release since the Tomorrow people re-released World of Goo, so I am happy
This was one of my favourite Wii U games, so I'll definitely buy it again, especially if price is the same as before.
This is a really fun game
I really enjoyed having this on my 3DS as a nice chill option to play when I wanted to turn my brain off and wasn't in the mood for anything fast-paced. Might wait for a price drop on the double dip, but I'd love to have this in my Switch library.
I was [very cautiously, very guardedly] hoping to hear that Shin'en and Nintendo ("Shin'tendo", anyone?) had forged an alliance to bring us a great F-Zero game, leveraging the strengths of both companies and their pedigrees for excellent racers, and masterful handling of the relatively stingy Switch hardware.
I knew going into it not to get my hopes up TOO high. But it just felt so good, and felt so right, and felt so, I dunno, plausible, that I couldn't help but get a little excited!
So, well, compared to that, it's hard not to feel that this is a letdown. But just about anything would be a letdown compared to that. So, I'm gonna shake it off, and give this game a good hard look!
I never played it on the other systems, so it's fresh to me. But given the kind of feedback it's received on past outings, and the respect that Shin'en has won from me, odds are pretty high that I'll plunk down on it. From what I've seen in the pictures, the visual styling is nice, and given Shin'en's reputation for getting the most out of the Switch, I hope they'll pump it as far as they can in the eye candy and performance department.
That it'll look and play much better than Wii and 3DS is pretty much a given. But hopefully it'll be to the WiiU version what FastRMX was to Fast Racing Neo!
It may be strange hearing me talk about how much I care about graphics when we're talking about a puzzle game on the Switch, of all places. But as far behind the rest of the current crop as it is, it's still meaningfully ahead of the previous systems, and still capable of some great looking stuff.
I hope (with the confidence of past experience) that Shin'en will deliver there!
Cheers!
I don't even know why I would think Nintendo would let them and them alone announce an F-Zero game. That's direct material.
Art of Balance was kind of a nice way to relax, but I really don't feel the need for another one. I was kind of hoping for something that pushed the hardware (think Fast Racing and Nano Assault) because Shin'en can do some really impressive stuff when they set their minds to it. But my god, the F-Zero fans losing their s### every time Shin'en works on something that turns out not to be F-Zero is really getting old.
An update to my earlier comment: Okay, so now that I've had a chance to research the game more, and see it on all the systems it came out on - including PS4, I have abetter idea of what we're dealing with.
First, I've got to say that I absolutely ADORE this soundtrack! This is TOTALLY my kind of music! I'll buy this game just for the soundtrack!! Every track is like sonic heaven for me! I love how it both relaxes and pumps me up at the same time and in equal measure! It's like an "eargasm" soaked in CBD oil!
Second, watching YouTube videos on a smartphone screen, it's hard to appreciate nuance, and I'm sure that differences that are barely perceptible on my Pixel 2 XL will just leap right out at me on my 43" 4K TV. That said, I can see very little difference between the Switch and WiiU graphics. Then again, I can't see much difference between the WiiU and the PS4 version either. And I imagine the Switch version will meet the two in the middle. Indeed, with as basic as this game is, I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to the top than the bottom. But with as [at least superficially] similar as the WiiU and PS4 version are, I think the Switch version will visually slot in the pocket pleasantly.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to this game. Although with it being a glorified minigame with such availability already on systems both technically upmarket and down market, I do kimda feel like as much hype and buildup and secrecy as there was to the Switch release was maybe a bit excessive?
Lastly, though decidedly inferior, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how good the original Wii version looked! Hell, even the 3DS version exceeds expectations! A very good looking game wherever it is to be found!
Shin'en, i love you guys but...again?
How about an Iridion / Nanostray HD Compilation?
Why not give Jet Rocket a second chance in HD?
Something that hasn't been release...what, 4 times now?
they could n should release Nano-Assault!!!
This is a great puzzle game for those who haven't played it yet. I already own on 3ds and Wii U, so I'll have to pass on this version, though.
@DTFaux
I'm gonna boycott the living Schidt out of it, now. Why make a pre announcement? This is shovel ware.
Dirty, Shinen. Dirty.
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