Balan Wonderworld Reviews
We're not going to mince words here, Balan Wonderworld is a waste of your time. Monotonous level design, awful performance, and shallow gameplay combine to make for an experience that is simply not fun to play. It may look pretty (when it's framerate isn't chugging), but there simply isn't enough good content here to justify your time or money, and this is doubly true when you take into account that this is a full-priced retail release. If you're looking for a good 3D platformer for your Switch, this most definitely isn't it.
Balan Wonderworld is a hodge-podge of half-formed platforming ideas that squander a whole lot of charm.
There's a lot of content in Balan Wonderworld, but the amount of backtracking and costume swapping makes returning to previous levels feel too demanding. Pairing Balan Wonderworld's small environments with its lackluster 3D platforming fails to provide the AAA entertainment players come to expect from similar modern titles. The main issue with the game isn't its outdated take on an already niche genre, but that its core gameplay isn't fun and its supporting elements aren't amusing. Balan Wonderworld is hard to recommend to anyone outside of diehard genre fans considering the quality of other 3D platformers on the market.
Balan Wonderworld feels like a platformer game from 20 years ago, with outdated mechanics, controls and a horrible costume mechanic which locks the player out of many collectibles way too soon.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Balan Wonderworld is sadly an old-school platformer with all of the 90's worst flaws. Yet colorful, Yuji Naka's first game with Square Enix lacks almost everything, and everyone who likes even a tiny bit the genres should look somewhere else to find some fun.
Review in French | Read full review
Yet Naka and Oshima's new toil collapses under the weight of a shoddy, disoriented realization, mostly unable to pay homage to the old days without being unnecessarily cumbersome. What Balan Wonderworld leaves good, to top it off, is an imagery that might be worth taking back in the future, as long as you find him a less crumpled playful suit.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Balan Wonderworld has things to be an excellent 3D platform title, of those that are much needed these days, however those elements are very abstract, offline with each other and feel wasted. Is it a bad game? No, not at all, but if you consider the trajectory of the members of the developer team, it could be much more, although for a first adventure the game meets what it promises without standing out too much.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Balan Wonderworld is a game of missed opportunities. It's simplified control scheme robs it of any of the subtle complexity that the genre is best at, its various ideas are half-baked at best, and its core gameplay is a taxing uphill climb through even the most basic of platforming principles. Amusing visual design aside, the only thing that Balan Wonderworld is good at is being consistently boring.
Balan Wonderworld feels like it's shrouded in mystery because there's a woeful lack of explanation for the majority of its mechanics. Nobody should be left looking for external guides to gather even the most basic information for a game aimed at children. When added to the frustrating management of the game's costumes (including those that can't jump in a platformer), its underdeveloped story, the overly simplistic platforming, and the tortuous Balan Bouts, this is a game that had promise but is ruined by a multitude of bizarre design decisions.
In so many ways Balan Wonderworld feels like a weird game that hopes the concept will make up for execution. With extremely little to see, a minimal story to explore, and visuals that honestly do little more than remind me of simpler times, it's hard to suggest what value Balan Wonderworld adds. It certainly isn't engaging, interesting and so many of the elements are painfully basic. Throw in needless costume-changing animations (I don't need a three-second animation every time I swap), extremely small worlds, and minimal… well, everything and it's hard to be optimistic.
I understand that Balan Wonderworld wasn't made with me in mind – clearly it's meant for a far younger demographic. But even from an objective standpoint, I can't figure out why anyone would want to voluntarily sink hours of their life into such an annoying and incoherent game.
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.
Balan Wonderworld is just plain bad. Apart from its terrible costume system, it does nothing new and just poorly copies things that other 3D platformers have already done better.
You’ll have fun if you like puzzle platformers, but you’ll lament what Balan Wonderworld could have been, and deserved to be. I do want to close out saying that I did enjoy Balan Wonderworld, but I can appreciate the fact that it’s an unpolished game oozing with wasted potential. I just have a soft spot for 3D platformers.
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.
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.
Wonder how a very well known publisher could stomach having it in their library. Wonder what in the world happened with the Switch version. Wonder where your $60 went.
Balan Wonderworld is perfect for those who want a relatively relaxed game that delights the mind while not being overly tricky, fills up the cuteness meter, and rewards those who seek out every collectable. There are occasional frame rate drops and some potential confusion at the start due to lack of narration or knowledge about musicals. Along with what for some will be an issue with minimal lack of difficulty increase outside of boss battles and post-game content, this means overall enjoyment may be restricted for some players. However, for the ideal target audience the world of Balan is a joy to explore; the various textures of clothing, the world and items make it feel immersive. The whimsical and unique costumes add more than a style change, they are central to the thrill of helping chapter characters regain their happiness for their passion, be it a hobby or a job. The darker elements of the bosses' appearance and the regular enemies balance the predominantly cute style, making Balan Wonderworld a great new title from Square Enix.