Burger Balance

Game 1 in our “Professor Puzzle Games for Younger Kids series” is Burger Balance.

Burger Balance is a simple dexterity game from Professor Puzzle, originally it was just going to be played with Henry(2) but Jack(.8.) and Toby(5) decided they wanted to play too.

The game is pretty straightforward once you get past the slightly unusual rules. Essentially, you start the game with the ketchup bottle in the middle and take turns rolling dice, and placing a new burger item as you go. After a pre-agreed number of items, you’re ready to start the next phase. The game then becomes slightly more challenging, as between each item, you have to put the burger bun back on the top of the pile and ensure that everything remains balanced.

This continues until someone knocks over a piece, in which case they have to put double the amount of pieces back on the pile. If someone knocks off four or more pieces, they’re out, and the game continues until there’s one player left.

There’s a lot to like here. Firstly, in terms of it being a dexterity game, it’s not that difficult, which makes it perfect as a “my first dexterity game,” which this very much is. Henry was able to do this without any issues, understanding what to do and being physically able to do it. I purposely put myself before Henry in the round purely so I knew that the boys wouldn’t do anything mean to sabotage his attempt… we’ll work up to that.

I like the fact that the game ends with a winner, as I’m not overly keen on a lot of dexterity games where someone is the loser and everyone else wins. Jenga, probably the most well-known dexterity game in the world, suffers from this issue.

The components are outstanding, really well-made, and wooden. Actually, you could use this as a burger playset in your child’s play kitchen, alongside being used as a game.

It comes in a really nice-sized box that perfectly fits all the components, and everything is plastic-free, if that’s important to you.

My only real point of improvement would be that for such a simple game, the rules are really confusingly written, and understanding that there are two phases to the burger building is not clear.

If you’re looking for a dexterity game for younger children as an entry point to the genre, then this is a really good choice. Also, the components are really nice and of high quality, and for the price, it’s well worth it.

“Burger Balance” was kindly provided by “Professor Puzzle” for the purpose of review. Our thoughts and opinions are, however, our own