Ruku’s Heart Balloon Review

Game: Ruku’s Heart Balloon
Genre: Puzzle, Board Game
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: RucKyGAMES | G-MODE Corporation
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $10.99 | UK £9.89 | EU € 10,99
Release Date: March 3rd, 2023

Review code used, with many thanks to G-MODE Corporation.

Ruku’s Heart Balloon is a cute adventure story about a rabbit, Ruku, and a cat, Lish. There is a similar title with the same name on mobile by the same developers, but the two games differ.

Make Heart Balloons

Ruku’s Heart Ballon is a story-based puzzle game. It’s similar to match 3, only in Ruku, you match more than three of the same coloured flowers; the more, the better. The idea is to clear the board of large areas of the same colour of flowers.

The game has a Story mode where you can enjoy the individual stories about Ruku and Lish in their quest to gather flowers to make balloon hearts. Their journey is quite sweet, and it is told through beautifully illustrated images with a Japanese voice relaying the story to the player. I liked the story, but it could have been better translated into English as there were many grammatical errors. On a few occasions, the word balloon is misspelt as ballone…which is kind of a big oversight on the developers’ part since its a word that is featured in the title of the game.

Story, Free and Puzzle Modes

Also included is a free play mode where you can choose easy, normal, hard or custom modes. You can not tailor the game however you wish in any mode as the developers have pre-set the win conditions.

In addtion, you can try your hand at the Puzzle mode; here, you must clear the board of flowers, which then change into balloons; unlike the free-play mode, the board does not refill once you clear the flowers. Furthermore, in puzzle mode, you also get Rainbow Flowers appearing and once you click on the Rainbow Flower, fever starts. This is basically a quick way to completely clear the board and earn lots of points.

Suitable for all Ages

Ruku’s Heart Balloon isnt a particularly difficult game; while there is a challenge on some levels, I found the game pretty easy. I would have liked more of a challenge. However, that does make the game suitable for all ages to play, and it has a charming story that young children will enjoy.

1-2 Players, Maybe; Who knows?

The Nintendo page for the game says the system allows for 1-2 players, and it’s also shown in the game that it is 1-2 players. However, after spending time convincing my non-gaming partner that she should play a two-player game with me so I could see what it was like, I then spent an additional hour of my time trying to get the 1-2 player option to work in the game but to no avail.

I’m familiar with setting up the Switch for more than one player, so I’m not sure what the problem was, but in the end, we didn’t get to try out the 1-2 player option. Could it be a bug? Who knows!

Visuals and Controls

Visually, Ruku’s Heart Balloon is gorgeous; it’s filled with muted shades of pastel colours, like a children’s storybook. Moreover, it looks beautiful on the OLED screen of the Nintendo Switch. Sound-wise, music accompanies your journey to find Ruku and Lish’s heart balloons. It is gentle and soothing to listen to while you complete the puzzles. Unfortunately for my ears, the music does get repetitive now and again, but that’s where the volume control comes in handy.

You can either use the joy-cons or the touchscreen to play the game. Furthermore, both options work equally well, though I did prefer the touchscreen controls over the joycon.

Conclusion

Ruku’s Heart Balloon is an enjoyable take on the matching puzzle genre. While I wouldn’t rush out to buy the game as it didn’t offer me much of a challenge, puzzle fans may still enjoy it. However, its target audience of the younger age group will thoroughly enjoy this sweet tale of Ruku and Lish and won’t notice the grammar mistakes.

Final Verdict: I Like it