Balan Wonderworld Reviews
If you have a soft spot for classic 3D platformers and imaginative game worlds, you'll have a lovely time with Balan Wonderworld. With a heartfelt story, plenty of cuteness, a clever costume system, and oodles of stages to master; it's one incredible adventure.
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.
Although it may not be for everyone, I personally found Balan Wonderworld to be a delightful 3D platformer that is oozing with charm and fantastic visuals – especially the cutscenes. Some people may see the backtracking to collect costumes so you can progress in other stages as a negative, yet I enjoyed this as it reminded me of the LEGO games and it felt like I was always progressing. Some boss battles were a little tricky, and the unlocked third stages are harder than the previous two, but it’s a fair challenge that can be overcome with time and practice. My only issue is that the game is clearly one aimed at children, yet the consumable costumes and frustrating bosses may actually be a little too annoying and/or difficult for them to enjoy.
Balan Wonderworld will be divisive, but I actually had a pretty fun time exploring its whimsical levels and using the creative costumes to overcome its platforming challenges. The level design itself is on point too, whilst the wonderful soundtrack and addictive nature of grabbing all of the collectibles kept me coming back for more. Of course, there’s no doubting that it’s VERY simple in design, whilst a lot of elements of the gameplay and its visuals are pretty dated too. There was nothing on show across the game that you wouldn’t have seen done before by plenty of other 3D platformers over the years, with Balan Wonderworld falling very short of the evolution of the genre some gamers might be hoping for in 2021. Still, there’s no doubting that there’s still a good time to be had in the game, especially for younger gamers or those who appreciate the genre. It’s certainly no masterpiece, but Balan Wonderworld still offers a wacky yet wonderful escapade that might pleasantly surprise those who give it a try.
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
I genuinely love Balan Wonderworld because it caught me at just the right moment to indulge its whimsy. I don't for a second think it's a great game or platformer, but then I also just don't care. It offers something much more viscerally engaging; raw creative energy, and I would rather a hundred games fall flat like this one has and at least give me something different than play yet another highly refined copy of something I've already played a hundred times. Sometimes, just sometimes, raw creativity is enough in itself.
I think the best way to describe Balan Wonderworld in a short but easy-to-grasp way is by comparing it to Yuji Naka’s Sonic Adventure. Both are graphically impressive, both feature phenomenal soundtracks, both are packed with a lot of content… but both are pretty underwhelming when it comes to their gameplay, even though you can get used to their jankiness and still have a great time.
In the magical, musical realm of Balan Wonderworld, you’ll discover endless possibilities waiting for you! But if that sounds too good to be true… then you just might be onto something. If you’ve done any searching into Balan Wonderworld, you’ve probably already run into its less-than-stellar reception. An unpopular demo, dismal sales, and a (since-patched) bug that could trigger epilepsy… the list goes on.
Mixed feelings: graphics and sound offer a surreal and engaging experience, but gameplay wise, several camera hiccups and uneven level design may become frustrating. Balan is able to appeal your inner child... If that child is a patient one.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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 a great idea on paper, and it's perfectly playable from start to finish, but it's held back by some baffling design decisions and boring gameplay. The idea of a protagonist who swaps between costumes to collect Mario-style shines could be great, but the costumes are too simple, the environments are too boring, and the gameplay is too basic. It could possibly be a good game for extremely young players due to its low difficulty and cartoony graphics, but even then, I would recommend one of the many other offerings intended for that demographic instead.
Balan Wonderworld is not a complete disaster – there are some interesting ideas at certain points in the journey and the soundtrack is often striking. However, the mechanics of the costumes (that are the heart of the game) aren't very good and are very unbalanced. In addition, the design of the levels is strange and Balan's Bout minigame is just horrible.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Not so charming all-action show, however still acceptable for young players.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
What could have been another of Yuji Naka's great successes has finally turned out to be a standard game that doesn't stand out or stand out, inspired in its designs and visual style but without leading the title in the right direction. The best? the soundtrack, the large number of costumes and the imagination that overflows in each section. The worst? the numerous problems it has that wouldn't have been difficult to solve.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Those looking for the next great platformer will probably not be impressed either by the design, nor by the mechanisms or the difficulty.
Review in Greek | Read full review
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.
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 forced to dance among either unfinished or unfun nonsense.
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.
Balan Wonderworld features a range of interesting ideas that are plagued by dated mechanics. Even after losing yourself in the absurd universe, you are quickly brought back to reality due to the rigid movement and odd control scheme that oppose expectations of the genre. Although the game has a lot of charm, it does little to stand out amongst the crowd and due to this, it can be rightfully overlooked.
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.