Balan Wonderworld

If you’re the patient sort, chances are you’ll have a good time with Balan Wonderworld overall. Costume management is clunky, but you’ll deal with it in order to find the secrets hidden within each world, and you won’t be too perturbed by the eagerly respawning enemies and repetitive Balan Bout sequences. For most players though, everything combined will probably prove to be a little too much. Balan Wonderworld is a game that’s capable of bringing out both delight and dismay in its players, though it serves up a little too much of the latter at times to be easily recommended.

Similarities to his previous titles are instantly recognizable, the googly-eyed, family-friendly characters evoke a sense of innocence and awe that will communicate with younger gamers. Coupled with this is the simple plot. Upon selecting your male or female character, you discover a theatre that acts as a portal to other worlds. Each of the 12 areas are manifestations of memories and hardship of different people. These simple stories add relevance to the areas and will pique the interest of youths, however, the childlike situations and scenarios are largely forgettable for those more mature. ...

Balan Wonderworld is a passable platformer marred by a string of increasingly baffling design decisions. It has charm by the bucketload and off-the-wall concepts that land well in spite of themselves, but the experience is inconsistent at best and frustrating at worst. There is a good game in here somewhere, and it is great fun at points, but waiting for those points isn’t really worth it.

Balan Wonderworld is an occasionally inspired, often unimaginative platformer lost to time.

Balan Wonderworld Review - Balan Wonderworld had promise but is unfortunately ruined by a multitude of bizarre design decisions, including costumes that can't jump in a platformer.

The unwavering cheerfulness that permeates every ounce of Balan Wonderworld can’t overcome the shallow gameplay and questionable design choices that come every step of the way.

Balan Wonderworld presents itself as having a world filled to the brim with imagination, ambition, whimsy, emotion and more. And while the game's world has a lot of that, the actual game sadly does not. It lacks a solid narrative, satisfying gameplay and a good amount of variety, instead containing uninspired levels, awkward controls and a progression system that feels more like it rewards grinding. Fans of early 2000s platformers may be tempted to try it out, but there are far better alternatives to pick up instead. If this is supposed to be an ode to musical theater, then this is Balan Compa...

Balan Wonderworld tries to be an homage to nostalgic platformers from the PS2 era, but it forgets to be a good game in the process.

“Balan Wonderworld is a hodge-podge of half-formed platforming ideas that squander a whole lot of charm.”

With a price point of $60, it's hard to recommend Balan Wonderworld, especially when other platformers (and even collections such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which contain multiple games) are a lot cheaper and are much better. The ingredients are all there for a great game, but everything has gone off and rotten. What's been cooked up is a bland, uninspired trip into a world that should have been anything but. Balan Wonderworld feels like bargain bin material that should be avoided at all costs... at any discount.

Gamers have been treated to a 3D platformer renaissance over the past few years. The likes of Yooka-Laylee and A Hat in Time have shown the world that 3D platformers aren’t just a genre of the past, but a formula that can still be iterated upon. Enter Square Enix and legendary game designer Yuji Naka, best known for his work on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Together they set out to create a brand new 3D platformer like the world has never seen before. To that extent, they have succeeded, as the mediocrity of Balan Wonderworld stands out as one of the worst and underdeveloped platformers in...

If only Naka, staying true to form, had given the whole thing a dose of high speed; his work holds together only when it hurtles past our eyes, growing vivid with velocity.