With its controls being so unintuitive, Balan is a hard game to play or explain, undermining the goal of bringing a '90s-style experience to a younger generation. RELATED: Why the Best Star Ocean Game Isn't the One You ExpectĪbove all else, though, Balan Wonderworld absolutely needed a much better control system that either gave certain buttons useful actions or made them "dead buttons" in gameplay. Either way, something less confusing would have made playing the game more fun and easier to pick up. However, between the boring mini-games and frustrations with the suits overall, the existing game gives players no reason to bother with them. For example, had the mini-games used to win valuable suits been more fun to play, it would have encouraged players to spend more time in Balan's world. Had that carried over to the rest of the game, the entire experience would have been more rewarding, keeping older gamers engaged with more content to dig deeper into. Likewise, concepts like feeding the game's Tims are never explained, making the side content feel like obvious filler.īalan's boss battles were perhaps the only element that was universally praised, as they were challenging and varied. In fact, some can't even jump, making the inability to switch them out freely in a level a tremendous pain. For instance, some levels or objectives require the player to wear specific costumes, but these suits aren't always useful enough to use for the rest of the level. Still, that doesn't excuse the game's more egregious issues. Part of the problem with the gameplay was the relative simplicity of it all, which may have been meant to appeal to younger audiences. However, for as much as it tried to replicate the iconic games of yesteryear, Balan Wonderworld was simply dated. Plus, Balan was a "collectathon" platformer in the same vein as Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64 and other hits from the '90s, and that genre has seen a renaissance recently thanks to games Super Mario Odyssey and A Hat in Time. On top of that, development was lead by none other than Yuji Naka, the landmark creator behind Sega's Nights into Dreams and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. It was the first game for the eponymous Balan Company, which itself had the support of legendary publisher Square Enix. At least I didn't pay for this game because it's currently free for PS Plus Extra/Premium subscribers.Balan Wonderworld had pretty much everything going for it. I played this game for 1 hour or so, up until the first boss fight, and was disappointed enough to delete the game. I expected more from the lead programmer of the classic Sonic games. I know there were issues behind the scenes during this game's development, where creator Yuji Naka had a diss with Square Enix and was fired, but even if that's to blame for the technical shortcomings and lack of polish, the core game idea is nothing special. At least I didn't experience any Cyberpunk 2077-style freezes, slowdowns and glitches. On last-gen consoles and the Switch it's said the game runs horribly. Even the typically upbeat guys over at Nintendo Life didn’t have much positive to say about it, writing that it feels like it’s straight out of 2001 (not in a. IGN calls it a consistently boring platformer that’s a mess of undercooked concepts. On PS5 the game kinda runs at 60 fps, but moving objects and even parts of the environment that lie 10-15 meters away run at 30 fps or lower. To say that reviews for Balan Wonderworld have been bad would be charitable. And I haven't even touched the technical issues of this game with low frame rate and ridiculous grass pop-in like 2-3 meters away from the avatar. Even then, controls are far from being tight and precise. You can hold 3 costumes at any time or find different ones in the levels. Abilities that are taken for granted in 3D platformers or are unlockable, here are just randomised, that's some odd decision-making. There is a costume for a spin jump, another for a long jump, a third one for spitting fireballs, a fourth one for jumping and slamming down, and so on. It's a cute 3D platformer but other than moving around, your abilities depend entirely on which costume you happen to wear. It's a cute 3D platformer but other than moving around, your abilities depend entirely on which Balan Wonderworld is a trainwreck of a game. Balan Wonderworld is a trainwreck of a game.
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