Fans of the Perfect Balance series will have reason to be happy with the release of Perfect Balance 3. They also will have little new to hear from us. Perfect Balance 3 is not a wild reimagining of the series, but a refinement. The presentation may be a little slicker, but fans will find this next installment of the series quite familiar, and will be pleased that it is so.

For the uninitiated, Perfect Balance is a series a physics puzzle games that rely on stacking awkward shapes in such a way that they don't fall over, like making card houses, or stacking silverware and jam dispenser when your brunch order is late. The controls in Perfect Balance 3 are the same as the rest of the series: Select shapes and drop them in the play field with the mouse, and rotate them with [W] and [A], or [left] and [right] if that suits your fancy. Most shapes obey Newtonian physics and will drop unless something blocks them, but there are also a few special shapes. Some float, some are super-heavy, and some move in whatever direction you point them. Shapes are "live" as soon as you drop them, so it takes a delicate hand to keep everything balanced perfectly.

One new twist is the addition of gems. After beating each level, a row of gems appears at the top of the screen, which are essentially additional shapes you can add to your carefully balanced setup. Adding gems not only grants you bonus points, but you also need to successfully deploy a certain number of gems to unlock the next block of levels.

It looks good, plays well, and has a number of clever puzzles. Perfect Balance 3 is not the most original sequel, but it is exactly what fans of the series should expect.

Play Perfect Balance 3

You can also play Perfect Balance on your iOS devices!