Balan Wonderworld Reviews
Check out Balan Wonderworld Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 20 reviews on CriticDB, Balan Wonderworld has a score of:
“Balan Wonderworld is a hodge-podge of half-formed platforming ideas that squander a whole lot of charm.”
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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.
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Balan Wonderworld is definitely an odd one. After all, 3D Platformers are a niche genre, with many being dropped in favor of more trendy genres like Metroidvanias. Admittedly, I really like the look of Balan Wonderworld- Balan’s design is one of the best mascots in recent years, having that Sonic-esque level of charm to it. That being said, a sexy hat man does not a videogame make, and the overall product we got definitely left me wanting.
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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.
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Balan Wonderworld is an occasionally inspired, often unimaginative platformer lost to time.
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Like I said at the top of this review, your enjoyment of Balan Wonderworld is going to depend on your tolerance for primitive 3D level design. Strip away the unnecessary costumes and their poorly implemented management system — and fire those Balan’s Bouts into the sun — and you might have a nice throwback to a more experimental time of platform gaming, one that would be easier to recommend. But sadly, you can’t just strip those elements away. They’re here, and they’re ruining what is otherwise an enjoyable rewind to the golden era of the mascot platformer.
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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...
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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...
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The finished state of Balan Wonderworld is disappointing to say the least. For all of its style, I was really interested to see how they would expand upon the preview. The aesthetic and characters are there, the music is captivating, the level design made me want to explore and experiment where I could, and the abilities mostly gave me options to do so. However, these things are held down by a lot of contrivances and outright holes in either functionality or context. The final release of Balan Wonderworld felt like a rush job where good ideas, visuals, and sounds were...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. Your goal to restore the heart of...
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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.
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Painfully average in most respects, Balan Wonderworld won't draw much admiration for its contents. Still, it's a competent game that does have its charms, few as they may be.
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Balan Wonderworld, Yuji Naka’s first game in many years, his first project with his new team, and also his first project being published by the juggernaut known as Square Enix. People were hyped for it when the game was first announced, but it seemed like all hope was lost the moment that infamous demo dropped a month ago. Developer Arzest promised that some of its most glaring issues, namely the bizarre physics and janky controls, would be fixed with a day-one patch. That announcement alon...
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Exploring intricate game worlds is the key to a great 3D platformer and thankfully, Balan Wonderworld is here to provide just that.
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The £50 price tag for the full game doesn’t help either. Do you want to know what else you can get for £50? Super Mario Odyssey, which literally does everything that Balan Wonderworld does but 100 times better and has a lot more content to boot. It’s harsh to compare the two and Balan isn’t trying to beat Mario but that’s the reality and Square want this to be a blockbuster franchise.
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Balan Wonderworld isn’t always an awful platformer, but it is a consistently boring one. It’s full of charming character designs and the occasional hint of a clever idea, but its insistence on being a one-button game with dozens of needlessly overlapping abilities that are thrown aside just as fast as they are introduced rots it to the core. It’s a mess of undercooked concepts and clunky mechanics that slow it to a crawl, and it seems to take inspiration from better games without properly recapturing what actually makes them fun. Its platforming never evolves beyond the most basic possible obstacles...
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