Balan Wonderworld Reviews
Unlike what it preaches, Balan Wonderworld made me sad after finishing it. Sad not because I had a bad experience, but because of the opportunity missed by Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima and their team. It is clear that the developers had passion for the project. After all, nobody would make such a creative story, with very well produced cutscenes and great soundtrack, if they didn't care about their work.However, the way in which this project was carried out leaves much to be desired. Lack of explanation of the narrative and in-game mechanics, slow and confusing controls and gameplay, repetitive combat, poor stage design and performance problems make this visit to Balan Theatre one of those difficult to endure.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
All the charm in the universe couldn't save Balan Wonderworld's half-baked platforming and ill-advised one-button design from being a complete bore.
A slightly embarrassing attempt to recall the early days of 3D platforming, with a central gimmick that never really captures the imagination and clunky controls and gameplay.
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 The main issue with the game isn't its outdated take on an already niche genre, but that its core gameplay isn't fun and its supporting elements aren't amusing.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 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
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 basically a game for no one. It can attract the youngest, but provided that they like the specific design. This one will rather reject older fans of the genre, as well as low difficulty. It also tires of repeatability and many missed solutions in the game.
Review in Polish | Read full review
No amount of good cutscenes or music can salvage a game with bad gameplay. Balan Wonderworld is average and mediocre at best. For a AAA 3D platformer with a AAA price, that’s not acceptable at all.
While Balan Wonderworld has a few interesting ideas tucked up its costumed sleeves, none of them are executed particularly well, which makes the game feel like a real chore to play. From its dozens of forgettable costumes and frustrating mechanics to its uninspired visuals, it’s hard to recommend adding this one to your PS5 library, especially when there are much better platformers like Astro’s Playroom and Sackboy: A Big Adventure already available.
Balan Wonderworld is a visually beautiful adventure that even tries to have a captivating story. However, its flaws stand out and make it a very uninteresting game. Not even Yuji Naka's name can bring anything striking to this title, which is a shame.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
All in all, Balan Wonderworld just wasn’t the game for me. The gameplay was tedious, the story was all over the place and the mechanics belonged to either a prehistoric or an unfinished game. To be quite honest, I’d say that the price to get into Balan Wonderworld is too high for an experience with the quality too low.
Balan Wonderworld is definitely better than people say, but that doesn't mean it's good. If you are looking for a game for your children or you really want a new title, which 100% completion is very insidious, you can try it. In any case, take into account that most of the game is simply boring and does not offer anything downright interesting.
Review in Czech | Read full review
For better or worse, Balan Wonderworld feels like an HD take on a PS2-era platformer. As long as you manage your expectations accordingly and accept the limitations that come with this, there's some enjoyment to be had with it. By modern standards, however, the game falls far short of expectations.
It pains me to say this, but all the color and character in the world—and even the legendary pedigree of developers Yuji Naka and Naoto Oshima—cannot save this outdated, uninspired, and just plain boring platformer.
Balan Wonderworld is a boring, dull and dated platformer presented in a beautiful package to persuade parents who are looking to buy a game for their children.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Outside of its design, I struggle to find anything praiseworthy about Wonderworld. It is an unfortunate example of inspiration exceeding innovation, and is borderline unplayable on Switch.
Balan Wonderworld stands out as easily one of the worst 3D platformers in the past decade. There was no good reason for Square Enix and Yuji Naka to salvage this train wreck and it's an embarrassment that this game was allowed to be released at all in its current state. When the game's only redeeming qualities are some good music and neat DualSense features, something clearly went wrong here. There is no doubt that Balan Wonderworld should've remained locked up in the game design vault it was conceived in twenty years ago.
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.