FingerGaming

Rating:

• Price: $0.99 (Get full version or free lite demo)
• Version: 1.0.1
• Official Site: ttursas

Perfect Balance: Harmony is genius in its simplicity. The almost non-existent learning curve makes it a game that almost anyone — as long as they know about a little thing called gravity — can play.

The point of the game is to balance whatever objects are presented at the top of each stage onto shapes at the bottom of the stage. The balanced objects have to remain in place for a few seconds before the stage is considered complete.

The visuals in Perfect Balance Harmony, like its gameplay, are simple but effective. There are details on shapes that help you keep track of where you want pieces to touch other pieces, in case you need to restart the level. The white spark effect that accompanies pieces sliding and rolling is subtle, but helpful in building suspense. There were several stages where I silently prayed that the sparks would die down and the pieces would just stay put for a second or two, so I could move on to the next stage.

One thing that struck me strangely in Perfect Balance is that there’s not really any trick to specific stages. They can all be completed in different ways. A few of them were pure luck with how the pieces fell.

During the first stages, I got fixated with trying to make the pieces balance a specific way, but after I let go of that notion, the game became less stressful. You could call it a state of zen. Once I got “in the zone” for balancing things, I ended up unlocking several stages in one playthrough just because I kept wanting to try out the next new stage.

Perfect Balance: Harmony is an ideal example of an iPhone puzzle game. It integrates the touchscreen intuitively, doesn’t require quick movements, can be played without sound, and can be played in quick bursts. Most importantly, the premise is simple, and figuring out each stage is rewarding.

Tags: balance, Puzzle