Equilibrio Available on WiiWare Today in North America

So, made in France but released in the US first?

I hope it'll turn out good and come to Europe soon, then again the backlog is already growing like mad anyway.

Well here's hoping it's a good one!

I wonder how this game compares to Cameltry (On the Ball) because this atleast visually looks almost the same.

Isn't this supposed to be in Nintendo Download? Anyhow, it looks like a pretty good game, but I'll wait for the review before I make up my mind on it.

yay finally a news article about the wii

Aweseome - I've been looking forward to this one for ages. Let's hope it lives up to its potential and gets a European release this Friday.

Looks pretty good and for 500 points you can't complain - unless it sucks. but we'll have to wait for the review for that.

I'm hoping we get Crystal Defenders this Friday though as I'm quite addicted to a similar game on the web at the mo.

Cameltry? This game was good...five minutes. If this game is released this friday in europe, I hope it won't be the only one.

I might get this along with SameGame. Anyone who downloads it, please share your thoughts.

Sorry to Post the News here:

From gamefront.de

WiiWare: Bubble Bobble Plus! und Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure PAL Termine

06.04.09 - Square Enix gibt bekannt, dass Bubble Bobble Plus! am 10.04.09 auf WiiWare in Europa erscheint; das Actionspiel Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure soll am 10.05.09 folgen.

@RGVEDA: Translated version:

WiiWare: Bubble Bobble Plus! And Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure on PAL dates

06.04.09 - Square Enix announced that Bubble Bobble Plus! On 10.04.09 on WiiWare in Europe, and the arcade game Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure on 10.05.09 should follow.

As long as it is better than the Incredible Maze.

Let's hope it lives up to its potential and gets a European release this Friday.
A Friday with two WiiWare games would be nice...

@ Mopsical

Oh sorry, i thought that would be easy enough The titles are in english and the Date is easy to read

Hey! But that means, you can speak/read german? Or was that a google translation?

Probably Google. I use it to translate talk from people in my village

At least we're getting Bubble Bobble Plus! which makes up for my last WiiWare purchase - Fun Fun Minigolf (shudders)

I'm so glad that the game I have been waiting for ages has finally come out.

@RGVEDA: Google, unfortunately. I wish I knew German...

Could be nice, but the presentation is really bland...

Looks at caption

Whatever happened to "family-friendly" Corbie

I wanted Swords and Soldiers!

500 points seems worth a punt; balance board support to get me off my backside as well.

@Dazza: I dont know, most people cant resist puns

Since this has been one of my most anticipated games, I'm going to risk it and get it right away. I completely forgot that this game uses the balance board, and I got it as a gift this weekend . Also, I only had 600 points left and thought for sure that it would cost more (I love life's little surprises.) I'm extremely excited to play it, and I'll give a first impression when I can.

Arggh when is Texas Hold'em Tournament goin' to be released? Come on Nintendo!!!

I bought Equilibrio & love it. It's challenging & fun but sometimes the remote will think your moving more in then it should but in my opinion i'd give it a 8 ^^ very good fun in my opinion.

If it works, it could be a laugh.

Agree with the above comment, as I have read that review too. This site is the best by miles for ware revws though (generally speaking)

I just read that IGN review and it does sound like a good use of the Balance Board. Overturn is another WiiWare game that works pretty well with it, so it'll be nice to have another reason to break it out than my regular Wii Fit yoga.

Hey Sean I help with control need zoom in/out.

@Crazed: Well? Any impressions? You've disappeared since you said you were going to buy it, so it must be good, right?

That IGN review was whack, he hardly even talked about the game.. Balance board this, no leaderboards that.. it's a 500 point game you can only expect so much. While normally I would bite the bullet and download, I'm feeling the pinch on my wallet from the DSi, so any impressions would be great!

Sorry about that Syr and to everyone else. I like to try and sleep on a game before I try to bash it since my gaff with Bonsai Barber. Anyway... I hope you like the review.

It might be an almost instant download to most because it is only 500 points, but would you buy for...say....1000 points? Well, this game isn't worth 1000 points, but its awfully close.

The gameplay is nice. With different levels, you are given one of multiple playable balls to complete the level with: Paper ball, a ball that doesn't break, but doesn't roll as fast, Rubber ball, a bouncy ball that sometimes gets to out of control, Iron ball, an indestructable ball (except in acid) that gets a ton of speed and is my personal favorite, and the wood ball, the average ball used in most levels, but my least favorite since it is very fragile. This game also features great level design, and a degree of difficulty that doesn't overly frustrate (at most points) give this game a nice feel.

The graphics are average. They don't really push the Wii's limits, but it doesn't really need to.

The control is probably the most disappointing in my personal opinion. If you play with the normal wiimote, it should be fine to play, but it is very difficult on the balance board. Granted, I just got introduced to the balanced board a few day ago, but as levels get harder, there are times where the precision of the wiimote is just vastly superior to the balance board. Also, the sensitivity in some levels are incredibly difficult to get by at times, and could leave you disoriented. If you like a challange, try it with the balance board, but I highly recommend the wiimote.

Speaking of challanges, the game's most redeeming factor is the challange mode. You are given 5 random levels that you have already beaten and are forced to beat them again with a twist. The twist could range from beating it in x amount of seconds (which increases with tokens you collect mid-level) to having a 2nd ball compete against you for the goal. It not only is fun, but it gives reason why I should play this for more than an hour on the day I downloaded it.

So for anyone on the fence about getting this game, I would recommend that you buy it. Granted, it's probably not going to break any ground, but I can say that it is an enjoyable game with enough challange to intrigue me to keep on playing, Even though it is extremely difficult on the balance board, and there are some sensitivity issues, the challange mode, fun gameplay, and almost no other glaring weekness to the game, I'd say that this game should've been listed at about 800 points, let alone the 500 points it is actually worth.

Bottom line, its a good game at a great price. 7/10

Thank you, Crazed, for the overview and opinions.

It sounds like for 500 points it is worth the gamble -- and probably better than any NES or MS games I don't already own anyway.

Hi guys
(this is Equilibrio Author)

Glad to see some nice comments on my game.

Crazed > Nice review. Thanks.
500 points is a good price to me. My goal is to keep the price of my games as low as possible, so everyone can try them and have fun.

Some levels are harder using the balance you are right, but you should be aware that a third of them have been redisigned (simplier) for the balance. You'll be able to see the alternate levels when your difficulty level is 3 or less (With balance) or 1 with remote (this was mainly made for childs). If your level is more than 3 (or 1 with remote), then you'll play on regular levels.

IGN review forgot to speak about the multiplayers mode which are nice (4 players rally is really fun).
I agree with lanafire7, the IGN reviewer did not kept in mind this was an only 500 points game (mainly made by one personn). So no online leaderboard for this one

Is the review coming out soon?

@Syr- Thanks for the compliments. Hope you like it.

@Kristof- Thank you for the compliments, and congrats on a great game! I'm still playing it (and enjoying it), but I haven't been able to try any of the multiplayer modes. Hopefully the multiplayer mode will be in the official review. As with the other aspects on the game, I didn't come across many problems. Even though I did say that it was difficult on the wii balance board, it still is a fun challange (it's just incredibly difficult.) Here's to it being on the top 20 soon!

So this is one of the first times that I've bought a WiiWare game without waiting for the review from here. Needless to say, I am disappointed. I greatly respect anyone that put effort into the game, but unfortunately, the product did not deliver.

My score: 3 (maybe 4)/10

General Comments (actually, just the intro to the complaints)
1) Time to beat all 64 levels using only the balance board: 1 hour. This is basically the entire game's content. And it only lasted 1 hour.
2) Challenge mode: 5 levels - all the same levels I just played, but some levels have a time limit. Others are simply "beat the level again." Or occasionally "beat the other ball (who is pretty lame)".

GLARING PROBLEMS:
1) MENU - ok, the tilt thing is cute and all, but EVERY TIME I either beat or fail (rarely happened) a challenge or random level, it takes me back to the MAIN MENU! To play another random level or try challenge mode again I have to wait again until I re-select my profile, number of players, choice of controller, etc! This is simply frustrating!
2) Choose a level: Why the heck can't I choose to replay a level again that I've already beaten, unless I beat all 64 levels? What if I wanted to replay that last once because I missed a star? NOPE, you have to wait until you've beaten all 64 levels to replay it. This is a huge turn off, and there is no way for anyone to practice (although, I'm not sure if you'll need practice; the game is pretty easy).
3) So the level content... around level 40 there were actually some creative levels. I don't want to talk about them because I don't want to spoil the 4 or so surprise levels that are actually really fun. On the other hand, for each fun level there are about 10 "navigate up the 'U' shape holes, about 10 "fall down vertically without breaking" levels, and then when you do get to the last level, they introduce a new gameplay mechanic for JUST THAT LEVEL!!!??? Come on guys! The levels felt very uninspiring and once you figured out how to do one of the types of the levels, the next time that mechanic came around it was the same thing.
4) Points: They never tell you how it's calculated; but it seems like it is time based. (maybe # of lives it takes to pass too?? who knows?) If it is time based, there is NO TIMER to indicate that, nor to show you how you're doing!
5) Difficulty: Another "WHAT THE HECK". The player is left to wonder how it's really calculated. I was passing level after level in practically under a minute (the levels are short) and it was saying "hi, you're a beginner, so you're at level 1." I got to level 3 at one point, but then it lowered. WHY CAN'T I SET THIS MYSELF?! I want a challenge, and apparently the game thinks I can't handle it! I paid $5 for a game that is only showing me the simple levels, and there is no way for me to change that!
6) Map issues: Trampolines and soft landing pads are ESSENTIAL to the levels, but not included on the map. In one way, I guess it makes the game slightly harder (which is about the only thing at this point making it hard)... so maybe it's actually a good thing.
7) CHECKPOINTS: I remember when you had to play a game for several minutes before hitting a checkpoint, and when you hit it, the checkpoint was actually worth something. In Equilibrio, you get a checkpoint on most levels that have them after about 15-30 seconds. Maybe this was again because the game thought I was too stupid to handle a harder level, but whatever the reason, there were too many checkpoints that weren't needed.

Over two hours ago I was looking forward to playing this. An hour passed, and I was disappointed and saddened that this was all the game was offering. If I had gotten this as a free iPhone game, chances are I probably wouldn't keep it.

To sum it up:
1) The game choosing the difficulty is frustrating, unnecessary, and insulting
2) The levels are too short and HIGHLY repetitive (some are the same exact levels with about 20% changed)
3) If you're relatively good at any video game and have a basic sense of balance, you will only get an hour worth of gameplay.

@Kristof: Why the annoying difficulty thing, and will any future remake/release (if they happen) of this game be worth buying?

Hi BLueSS,

Thanks for your review.

You are obviously a skilled player (finishing the game with the board in less than 1 hour is an exploit, congratulations !).

To quickly answer (I sent you a mail with a complete answer to all points) :

• Yes Equilibrio is a game for the whole familly. So I choosed to keep the game simple (that's why the game choose the difficulty for you)
• Yes the game could have been better on some points (some more levels with last level mecanism for example), but at a point, I had to limit my money invest. This is a 5$ game, and it worth them (If you played 1 hour, this is already a good ratio ).

Anyway, glad to see you went through the whole game. That's a positive point.

Kristof,
Thank you for your reply. I emailed you back and hope to hear back from you again.

I do see how the game is targeted to the casual crowd, but found it sad that there couldn't be an option for more experienced players. I also totally understand that there is a limited amount of money that you can put into a game and still hope to make a profit.

I am sure that there will still be many people out there who enjoy the game on both the WiiWare and iPhone. I hope the game sells well for you so you can continue to make games, since it seems that you enjoy doing it.

Ahem! Did someone forget the review?

Yeah, where's the review? Have you been too busy? LOL

@BLueSS- First, congrats on beating the game in an hour. To do so with the Wii Balance Board is extremely impressive, especially to someone who said that it was a real challange to do so.

Now I want to comment about the review you gave. Most of the stuff I read I noticed as well (I just didn't mind it myself) and agree upon, so I just have a few comments.

1) I did think that it was tedious that every time you beat the challange mode or random mode, you went straight back to the main menu, but I didn't think much of it since with the wiimote it only took a minute to get back to gameplay. I did notice that it takes longer to load up the game with the balance board, so I understand where the comment came from.

2)An in-game clock would have been nice for scorekeeping, since the scoring does seem like an odd combination of time and lives lost.

3)Were you able to try the game out on multiplayer? For a game that is focused on casual family play, it seems rather harsh for either of us to give it an accurate score without playing the multiplayer mode.

4)This is just my personal opinion, but I don't think any game is fun if you blow through it in an hour. Granted, beating it in an hour is impressive, but I ended up enjoying the game more through pacing myself and not just going rushing through all the levels in an hour.

Other than the comments above, I would have to agree (in one way or another) with what you. However, other than wishing I would have added in the fact that you can't choose the level you want after beating all the levels, I still believe it's a good game at a great price, and I would still recommend this game to just about anyone up for a quick challange.

@Crazed:
#3) I did not try the game out on multiplayer, because I don't play WiiWare games with anyone else. If I ever have people over, we end up playing Guitar Hero or a board game. My review was from a single player only view, which is the same way I've viewed every other WiiWare game. If the game cannot be enjoyed in a single player mode, I would have to say that is another weak spot.
#4) The reason I kept playing was because I was waiting for some longer, more challenging levels.... otherwise yeah, it wasn't fun playing it straight through.