Want to turn your iPad into a wooden table-top marble madness game or a virtual board game made out of fancy wood and containing laser beams? Do you enjoy the Labyrinth series of games or logical games that test your hand-eye coordination? All these descriptions can be attributed to the latest marble-rolling game — Zen! by Marco Siino. It is an intriguing table-top ball rolling game where the objective is match color-coded balls to their destination holes. However, you will be putting multiple balls in their respective holes at once in many of the levels and even splitting balls into multiple parts simultaneously to complete the board. All this will also be done while avoiding various obstacles, like laser beams, as well as balancing the board to prevent balls from falling into the wrong holes. The game is very relaxing and soothing and you can really hear the marbles bounce off the wooden walls as if your iPad was really made out of wood.

Review
Zen! Really feels authentic in the sense after a while it made me forget I was using an electronic device but felt more like I was playing one of those marble-rolling wooden board games. The tilt-based accelerometer controls are really spot on in the game. You have to tilt and balance multiple marbles at once and split them apart through careful maneuvering so they can hit the right holes color-coded for them.

The lasers that you will have to avoid come in different colors as well. The blue ones will destroy your marble and make you restart that board level but green ones just push the marbles back. Besides the various color-coded holes you need to send the marbles into through careful balancing and maneuvering — there are holes with no matching colors you must avoid at all costs for all of the marbles. There are also various small metallic beams you will have to outmanuever. Some levels also have these multipliers that you need to reach with your white-colored marble to color split it into multiple marbles.

The game is very soothing and relaxing as it aims to be because of the music and atmosphere in gameplay. The music is very well implemented and there are hums, for example, chants mixed in with flutes or other instruments being played. It is all meant to relax. Although the game can get difficult and frustrating the music will keep you relaxed and playing.

The graphics and animation in general is also very fitting and well implemented in this title. The look of the board and gameplay represent ‘Labyrinth’ or ‘Marble Madness’ styles of board games. There are scattered pieces of wood but in an arranged order that act as little obstacles; they are done just right in the various levels. You can even move some small wooden blocks around. Each level feels like a different board setup — or, like you took a whole board game and played a new one every time arranged over the previous. There is also a wide variety of layouts and levels in general.

The only complaint I have about this game and such games on the iPad is it can be sometimes disorienting or hard to control the game if you are not sitting upright — with your iPad in front of you pointing toward empty space. If you try playing it on your bed or on your lap than the game will be hard to tilt forward and control. Sometimes, even when holding the iPad in the perfect tilt position, it will be hard to see the entire board because you have to tilt forward a lot. The other minor complaint is that the game doesn’t seem to save your progress automatically but you need to click the save command every time you want to save your progress. This can be annoying as it’s easy to forget, with all the games that offer automatic saves because of multitasking on the iPad. From the menu you just click on continue but it will load from the last save not last level you were playing necessarily.

Tips
I would recommend to aim for the multipliers, if there are any, first and see how many holes there are in the level you are playing. Form a strategy beforehand and analyze the obstacles first before starting to aim for the holes.

Recommendation
Zen! Comes highly recommended for board game fans, wooden-tablet Labyrinth fans, gamers wanting a new type of game you don’t see on standard video game consoles, and for anyone looking for a soothing and relaxing type of experience. Zen! Is currently available on the App Store for the iPad and selling at a 70% discounted price of $.99.

Gameplay Video

Photos

Note: A promotional copy was provided by the creator for use in this article.

Please post your comments, tips, and your own reviews below in the comments area!

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