I was simultaneously very surprised and excited when I saw this. Way back in the day, I played the original Ballance by Atari with my grandmother, of all people. It's a very nostalgic game for me, and coincidentally, I reinstalled it sometime around last year to play it some more again, so my memory's been refreshed. This... doesn't feel like a proper sequel. It's almost (or rather, probably) a chinese knock-off, with a sci-fi reskin and very obvious signs of being an incredibly lazy mobile port. Everything is mouse-controlled, and there's plenty of "swiping" to be done. Moving is done by "swiping" your mouse around the screen, simulating a joystick, like most mobile games do, and there's no option to use the keyboard or a gamepad. The UI is also a pain to operate due to this. Most of the puzzles and mechanics are straight up ripped off of OG Ballance, up to having the exact same designs for obstacles and objects you interact with, just "sci-fi themed". And yet, despite all this.... It feels alright to play. Well, controlling it feels like garbage, but until one gets to the later levels, which will assummedly be as devilishly difficult as the original's, it's not the biggest issue. It suffers from having a completely unnecessary and awfully written & translated story, and a visual theme that is leagues less interesting. It's also missing the atmosphere (literally and figuratively) of the original; the sound effects are generic and annoying, as opposed to the unique and interesting ones the OG had, and the feeling of a magical, oneiric setting floating high above the ground is traded down for a "space station" plot-friendly explanation to the floating plastic & metallic platforms you play in over a cheap JPEG of the earth at night. But, yknow, it's entertaining. It's more Ballance, even if it's inferior in almost all aspects. So if you're one of the 3 people who played the original, my gran included, or if you're really into playing phyhsics-based puzzle-platformers about balls and you've got some sort of touch screen (remember when tablet PCs were a thing? hahaha), give it a try! Otherwise, do yourself a favour and play the original! It's a bit old, and runs on low resolutions for today's standards, but it holds up quite well and it's certainly one of the most unique games of its genre.
Way back in the day, I played the original Ballance by Atari with my grandmother, of all people. It's a very nostalgic game for me, and coincidentally, I reinstalled it sometime around last year to play it some more again, so my memory's been refreshed.
This... doesn't feel like a proper sequel. It's almost (or rather, probably) a chinese knock-off, with a sci-fi reskin and very obvious signs of being an incredibly lazy mobile port. Everything is mouse-controlled, and there's plenty of "swiping" to be done. Moving is done by "swiping" your mouse around the screen, simulating a joystick, like most mobile games do, and there's no option to use the keyboard or a gamepad. The UI is also a pain to operate due to this. Most of the puzzles and mechanics are straight up ripped off of OG Ballance, up to having the exact same designs for obstacles and objects you interact with, just "sci-fi themed".
And yet, despite all this.... It feels alright to play. Well, controlling it feels like garbage, but until one gets to the later levels, which will assummedly be as devilishly difficult as the original's, it's not the biggest issue. It suffers from having a completely unnecessary and awfully written & translated story, and a visual theme that is leagues less interesting. It's also missing the atmosphere (literally and figuratively) of the original; the sound effects are generic and annoying, as opposed to the unique and interesting ones the OG had, and the feeling of a magical, oneiric setting floating high above the ground is traded down for a "space station" plot-friendly explanation to the floating plastic & metallic platforms you play in over a cheap JPEG of the earth at night. But, yknow, it's entertaining. It's more Ballance, even if it's inferior in almost all aspects.
So if you're one of the 3 people who played the original, my gran included, or if you're really into playing phyhsics-based puzzle-platformers about balls and you've got some sort of touch screen (remember when tablet PCs were a thing? hahaha), give it a try! Otherwise, do yourself a favour and play the original! It's a bit old, and runs on low resolutions for today's standards, but it holds up quite well and it's certainly one of the most unique games of its genre.