Beasts of Balance

$50, iPad, Android

Teaches: fine motor coordination, logic

CTR Review

This is a multiplayer physical stacking game combined with cards, an app, and AR features. As you add tower elements, you see them appear in the app. The challenge is to stack creatures in towers that can fall over, mimicking other similar block stacking games. What's different is that the app watches your structure (each block acts like a QR code) so every time you add an animal to the tower (or it falls) your virtual world responds. Content includes 600 virtual creatures and 24 stackable physical creatures (called Artefacts), two game modes (co-op for up to five players and battles for 2-3). Requires a Beasts of Balance game set to play. Note that the core kit costs $50. Different expansion items bring the actual costs to over $100. Learn more at https://beastsofbalance.com/