Balan Wonderworld

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Balan Wonderworld
"I swear on my top hat, I will not end up like that! Do you hear me? I refuse to share your destiny!" — Balan
Protagonist(s): Leo Craig Emma Cole Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Release Date: March 26, 2021 Engine: Unreal Engine 4 Developer(s): Arzest Balan Company Publisher(s): Square Enix Country: Japan

"Okay, this is my theory on this game: started off as an actual video game, then they realized that they wouldn't have enough time to actually make it good, so the developers started trolling each other and putting in these shitty power-ups, and then it just became a contest of who could make the shittiest power-up imaginable, and now this is the final product."

— videogamedunkey

"Don't play Balan Wonderworld! There's nothing here but Misery! This game’s not worth sixty! Nights is 7.99! The Switch version is broken! This game gave people seizures! I wasted my time with this game, so you should not do the same! Seriously, what was Yuji Naka thinking? He has many good concepts, But he didn’t, quite, do it, right! Balan Wonderworld should have been called Balan Wonderland because it’s a better name!!! Also don’t buy it!"

— Sam Procrastinates

Balan Wonderworld is a platform video game released on March 26, 2021 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It was co-developed by Arzest and Balan Company, and published by Square Enix. The game was directed by Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Nights series, and this game was intended to be a spiritual successor to the latter.

Development

Balan Wonderworld is the first video game ever developed under the Balan Company brand, the subsidiary of Square Enix. Naka described Balan Company as a collective of designers and artists focusing on genres outside the norms of the Japanese company Square Enix. Apart from the Balan Company, Arzest is also responsible for the game's development process, and was previously working on Nintendo-published games, including Yoshi's New Island and Hey! Pikmin. A key staff member at Arzest was Naoto Ohshima, a former Sega artist, the co-founder of Artoon and Arzest, and a designer of Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman. It was the first collaboration between Naka and Ohshima since Sonic Adventure in 1998.

Naka was given the go-ahead for the project by Square Enix due to his experience with platforming and action games but was told it was his "one chance" at the genre with them. The game was described as a fusion of multiple popular styles of platform games aimed at as wide an audience as possible. Describing their approach to production, Ohshima compared it to an earlier less structured style, where features and adjustments continued past the halfway point of production. Development began in July 2018. The game was co-produced by Ohshima and Square Enix's Noriyoshi Fujimoto. Late in development, the team shifted to working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Naka said that he was removed as director six months before the game's release after complaining over its state, and that Arzest had submitted it with unaddressed bugs. He said the decision to remove him was made by the producer and other senior product staff. Naka felt Balan Wonderworld was released in an unfinished state. In a report following Naka's 2022 arrest for insider trading, an anonymous employee said Naka made unreasonable work demands, wanted Arzest to work an additional two months for free to address his problems, and treated staff abusively during the conflicts prior to his removal.

Before the release, Yuji Naka said that Square Enix gave him only one chance to create a platform game. Naka explained how he managed to convince the RPG giant to greenlight a platform game – his first in many years, saying "I think Square Enix has an RPG image, but I don't think I'd be good at making RPGs"

Gameplay

Players take on the role of either Leo Craig or Emma Cole, two children drawn into the magical realm of Wonderworld by a being called Balan. The game plays out across twelve multi-level areas called Chapters. At the beginning of the game, only the first Chapter is available, unless you collect "Balan Statues" in each area will unlock new Chapters. In each Chapter, the player must navigate through a sandbox environment, searching areas for collectibles, and solving puzzles to progress to the end of the level. While exploring, you find costumes unlocked from crystals using collectible keys. Costumes grant abilities such as hovering, navigating particular hazards and paths, and fighting enemies. When not wearing one of 80 costumes, the main character is only available to jump and do the basic movements. During exploration, enemies called Negati will appear and attack Leo or Emma. Each Chapter ends with a mini-boss after the Chapter's environment and narrative.

Why It's a Nightmare and Anything BUT Wonderful

1. Outdated mechanics and gameplay: The most fundamental problem is that the game itself feels incredibly dated, which is unacceptable for 2021 standards. The game mechanically and in terms of playability and other problems from which it suffers is reminiscent of a game from the late 1990s, more specifically the era of early platformers from the era of the first PlayStation, Sega Saturn or Dreamcast games, only with partially modern graphics.
   • Generally the game is boring because there is little action compared to constantly exploring boring levels. The number of enemies is pathetically small, but also enemies aren't common at any level.
   • The enemies themselves are an absolute disappointment, due to how badly designed they are in terms of the very limited actions they have. They are repetitive, but also defeating them in some situations is pointless because at times you can complete the level without any problems, as long as they aren't close to the gate that must be opened by defeating the mini-boss in each Act Two of any Chapter.
   • Another aspect that shows why the game isn't fun is the puzzles. They are extremely easy, even for a game aimed at children. They mainly focus on puzzles based on floor buttons, manipulating a large ball that is chasing you, using a costume to manipulate objects, and other simple puzzles for a dedicated Chapter.
   • However, the worst part of this game is the limited actions that are devoid of the often known actions in platform games, such as double jump (excluding the Double Jumper costume), spin jump, crouch, slippery, somersault, sprint, and many other important actions.
     • Even worse, there's no climbing mechanic when jumping onto any ledge. Some early 3D platformers like Super Mario 64 had the player able to climb on a ledge, which was implemented nearly 25 years before this game came out. This is blatantly unbelievable for a platform game released in 2021.
2. While it may be colorful, its overall graphic artistry is outdated. Despite running on Unreal Engine 4, it is more reminiscent of a budget game from the Xbox 360 era, and you can see it at every step. The game features many low-quality textures that look mostly from an early 2000s game, and at worst from the Nintendo 64 era, the character models are stiff, lifeless, and reminiscent of Chinese bootleg dolls, and there are some poorly done objects like mirrors and many objects dedicated to any Chapter. However, the ugliest element of the game is certainly the natural elements, such as the ground, grass, and plants. At times, pixels are visible, especially in the previously mentioned character models.
3. The Nintendo Switch version is made for the least resistant line. It suffers from many aspects worse than the average Switch port, making it the worst option to play. However, it's not an Ark: Survival Evolved level of porting awfulness or even Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for that matter, but the port still certainly looks and plays terribly.
   • The graphics look worse here, making it look like a game from the era between the sixth-gen console and the Wii. There are even more blurry textures, less refined character models with even more visible pixels, and much worse-looking objects that look unimaginably awful, and generally feel like a shovelware cash-in when it comes to lazy graphic artistry. The main problem with the downgrade the game goes through is that it plays in low resolution and in 480p.
   • The optimization is also extremely poor. The game is not only about 30FPS but also not stable, mostly running in less than 25FPS, at worst 15FPS. It is also worth mentioning that this port is so badly made, that the mirror is not only uglier, but the frame rate is also pathetic, which is noticeable when you control your character on the mirror side. This makes this release extremely obnoxious, and at worst, unplayable.
4. Due to Square Enix's unwillingness to delay the development of the game, the game was released in an unacceptable condition, bearing in mind that the game lacked polish and the developers made strange design decisions that resulted in a worse experience and a great feeling of junk.
   • When you approach any NPC, they suddenly disappear for no reason. Some have called this "Reverse Draw Distance".
   • When playing any level, you will often experience unnecessary bubbles that appear in random places that are unpleasant and annoying.
   • The game uses the rotation effect that is visible when running forward and backward, which is very strange, and unnecessary, and at worst, some players who are sensitive to this effect might get dizzy.
   • When entering a body of water, the character's legs don't enter the water, but they instead walk on the water, and you additionally run at normal speed, instead of physically moving slower.
   • The game can be illogical. For example, in Chapter One, Act One, in the beginning, you will encounter a giant farmer sitting around and staring at you, where he will disappear when you approach him, but the same farmer reappears above the mirror, and at almost the end of the stage in normal height. You will also experience this in the rest of the Chapters.
   • In the game, the characters do not express any emotions and the facial expressions do not change, except for the CGI cutscenes. It is also noticeable in the in-game cutscenes of the dance show, where everyone is dancing, but the facial expressions remain as is.
   • The dance of creatures is added just to see anything alive except the main character, some characters who occasionally appear, and enemies along the way. This is very bland and completely artificial, because not only do they dance forever, but they also do it for no reason because they don't have a device that plays the music for which they can freely dance.
   • Destructible objects are placed in the wrong places or lazily placed in random places, which is downright ridiculous. This is especially visible in the first level, where a destructible object prevents you from going up a hill (until you destroy this with the help of the first costume, which you receive), where there is a floor button that allows the player to open a door that is impossible for the player, alongside with some destructible objects that hide Drops.
   • Like destructible objects, keys are also not only placed in random places, but they are also pathetically close (and even literally next to the crystal that gives you the costume) which poses no challenge to you.
   • For an undefined reason, (in some places) creatures always appear out of nowhere, dancing for several seconds to the same song, then they disappear.
   • When you press a floor button, especially that which opens the gate that allows you to pass, has a huge ball that follows the player, then the main character freezes, and you are unable to move for that moment. Speaking of freezing, this is what happens when you try to fall lower or jump after pressing that button.
   • In situations where you see a passage to a given inner place, the passage is blocked by a white screen, though this only acts as an effect that is still penetrable.
   • Every time you fall off a level, a white screen appears for a few seconds until you respawn at the last checkpoint. This was not something in the demo, but for a stupid reason, it is introduced in the full version.
   • The game in some places has ineptly inserted platforms that can be passable next to them, mainly in Chapter One, Act One, when you want to get one Balan Statue.
   • The final boss contains unimaginably displeasing things that could easily trigger seizure issues for the player, especially for whom this game is aimed. It is supposed to be a game for children, but such an effect could have negative impressions on an adult person, at least one who is very sensitive to such effects. This issue appeared in the full version before the Day 1 Patch, which later got rid of it.
5. It suffers from some technical issues, mainly graphical ones.
   • In the first level, you can always notice a penetration of every object, which collapses under the gears, which later generates the level.
   • Due to its terrible draw distance, there are frequent pop-in issues, which are noticeable in its demo version, when you approach an object that could not be seen from a greater distance, but also experienced in in-game cutscenes, especially in the first in-game cutscene, where clouds and natural elements appear after a while. This has been partially fixed in the full version, although it can still be experienced in some places.
   • In the demo, there was a problem with the character models that made a T-pose, specifically the main character in the Isle of Tims in the first frame, and the first boss. This was most noticeable on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 versions, but this issue has been mostly fixed in the full version. Despite efforts to fix this graphical glitch, in the full version, it's still there, which can be seen in the mirror, for example, showing a chubby woman doing a T-pose.
   • Its performance crunches at times for an undefined reason, at least for console versions. The Microsoft Windows version is reasonable because it has a built-in DRM called Denuvo Anti-Tamper which results in weak-to-see optimization.
   • In co-op mode, when you play with your friend and want to get to a distant place, you can fly endlessly; when you initially turn on the interconnect mechanic and then turn it off, you can safely fly while your friend is falling and respawns under you. This method works best with a Soaring Sheep costume.
6. The controls are not only poorly implemented but also incredibly limited. As befits a platformer, the controls include not only controlling the main character by jumping and running but also doing whatever action. However, in this game, when you don't have the costumes that the game tells you to get, as regular Leo or Emma you can't do anything except jumping and running.
   • The game is so inept that the four basic buttons + two triggers on any controller perform the same action. If that wasn't enough, any action like jumping, shooting, pulling up, spinning, and many others, are implemented under the same button as jump.
   • The options menu uses all four main buttons as the select option, so you're pretty much forced to go back by selecting the back option. They even managed to cripple the menus for this game, which is impressive in itself.
   • The characters also move unimaginably slow, even though they appear to be running. It is also worth pointing out that the characters move like they're on the ice, which results in the fact that at every turn, the character momentarily slips and then twists.
7. The animations are so hilariously terrible that they make you laugh.
   • The biggest display of mediocrity is the running animation, which not only is inaccurate to the speed of the character but also looks like a preschooler is chasing you at ferret speed.
   • It's worth recalling the jumping animations, specifically jumping at a thin-winged flying golden ball.
   • After defeating any boss, you have the opportunity to see repeated animations that are limited to the suffering of the boss, which later shrinks to microscopic sizes, ending with the rescued person who also has the same animation of flying down and approaching the protagonist for each chapter.
   • In some situations, if you are wearing a Ladderman costume, you have the opportunity to see an extremely stiff animation of climbing a ladder that only causes a burst of laughter from such ineptitude.
8. This is one of the few platformers that forces you to grind with your costumes. If you want to collect as many Drops and Balan Statues as possible, you are forced to unlock all the costumes from later Chapters that perform the given action, which is absolutely necessary if you want to collect all of them for 100% completion. For example, in Chapter One, specifically in Act One titled The Man Who Rages Against the Storm, you will encounter a spider web that has several Drops at its disposal, then you'll need to use the spider costume (even worse, if you don't have it, you'll have to go all the way back to the levels it's in).
   • It should be noted that most Lego games do something similar but there you just had to unlock a character with the needed ability by collecting studs and once you unlocked them you can switch to them whenever.
9. False advertising and misleading appear both inside and outside the game:
   • Square Enix and Nintendo provide trailers from the game, which are dedicated to the Nintendo Switch version, where the gameplay is actually from other versions, because the Switch version differs in the quality of graphics and stability, making Switch owners feel cheated. Additionally, on the Nintendo e-Shop digital platform, there are only three screenshots that come from the cutscenes, showing nothing at all related to the gameplay.
   • As Sonic Team creates the Sonic the Hedgehog series, where Sonic actually plays the main role, this game is the complete opposite. Although the name of the company and the title of the game suggest that Balan will be the main character, it turns out to be completely misleading. The main role is played by children named Leo Craig or Emma Cole if you choose one of them, but Balan is only playable in the QTE sections.
10. There's no plot at all at least, not in the game itself. It was discovered that this game does have a backstory as to what's happening but you have to buy the book, Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders, to even know what's happening, which is ridiculous. What's worse is that you have to pay an extra $10 just to know what's happening in a game, which was $60 upon release.
    • So this is the plot. Balan Wonderworld mostly takes place in the Balan Theater, a magical realm overseen by a mysterious being called Balan. The Balan Theater appears when one's heart loses its balance and connects to Wonderworld, a realm merging reality and fantasy created from memories and hearts. The protagonists are two children called Leo Craig and Emma Cole. Both are troubled; Leo isolates himself from social contact due to an argument with a friend years before, while Emma suffers from anxiety about what others might be saying behind her back. Both are drawn into the Balan Theater and travel through twelve worlds born from the hearts of troubled adults and children alike. Leo and Emma are opposed by Lance, a counterpart to Balan who commands the Negati, monsters born from the darkness of Wonderworld's visitors and is turning the troubled adults and children into bosses of the game. After completing all twelve worlds and freeing the inhabitants of their burdens, Balan opens a portal for the chosen character to fight Lance. Upon his defeat, Lance is briefly shown in his true less menacing form before the Negati drags him into their realm. Balan then bids farewell to all of Wonderworld's visitors, though Leo and Emma's farewell is touching enough that he sheds a tear and shows them his real form; a human-like being similar to Lance in appearance. Leo and Emma are returned to the real world and face their problems; Leo connects with a dancing group he had previously shunned, while Emma learns of a birthday party thrown for her that her servants were keeping secret. The ending credits show stills of Wonderworld's visitors reuniting in the real world watched over by Balan.
    • This would be more or less fine except for one thing: NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED IN THE GAME PERIOD! In-game, the plot boils down to Leo leaving the playing field and Emma leaving the castle, where they both find one of the Tims, who leads to the theater where Balan is located. Balan then begins a show of the eponymous "Wonderworld", accompanied by Tims, where he leads the main characters to Wonderworld. At the end of the game, there is a typical happy ending, where the entire crew of the two children you control, the rescued people, Balan, and Lance in good form will assemble, where everyone later leaves the theater, until eventually, both kids return to the same place where they both came from, except in a better mood.
      • Even with this context, the characters have no personalities at all. The main characters especially are generic and forgettable kids who are not even mentioned in the title of the game.
      • What doesn't help is how incredibly little dialogue the game has, with only Balan speaking throughout the entire game, while the rest of the characters at most make no noise.
11. The costumes, the main indicator of this game, are a complete disappointment in several respects, mainly because of how they have limited actions combined with the strange direction of the game controls, but also there are many unnecessary costumes. There are those who have one duplicated action. The most pointless costumes are the ones that won't even let you jump, in a platforming game, where jumping is a common action. Examples of poorly done and duplicated costumes include
    • Elastiplant: You play as a sunflower costume in which you stretch your body upwards, but it doesn't let you jump and just lifts you slightly when you let go of the action button. It is abysmal in sections when you need to attack an enemy, and is completely useless in platform sections.
    • Dainty Dragon: A costume depicting a dragon that is the most useless one in video game history. Its shooting distance is pathetic, no matter how much you shoot, the effect will remain the same. The dragon cannot move for awhile while shooting or throwing, which can result in the loss of a costume if the enemy attacks you. At worst, it is the second costume that does not allow you to jump.
    • Jellyjolt and Dynamic Dolphin: Both can swim on the water that is designed to put you on the way to the level crossing. The only difference is that the Dynamic Dolphin can descend while swimming (as only he can), while the Jellyjolt is more useful for combat than for its main action.
    • Bubble Blower: A costume that activates a bubble under you that moves slowly but breaks after a few seconds. For the rest of the game, it is terrible due to the limitations of the costume.
    • Telepotter: Completely unnecessary and weak costume that is not suitable for platforming and combat elements. It is used to teleport only a few centimeters forward; however, it has little or even no impact on the further progress of the game.
    • Lovely Lantern: The costume serves only under the lighting of the nearest place, but suffers from even more cumbersome and slower controls, which makes it woefully ineffective for the rest of the game.
    • Web Wrangler: A costume where you play a role as a spider that just climbs a spider web, while in combat it is uninvolved as it hasn't been given any combat-related power. The possibility for him to throw a spider web (which will be useful for its combat) hasn't even been added, which shows that this spider is completely soulless and artificial.
    • Itsy-Bitsy Elf: It is useless in platforming and combat due to its height, so it only serves to get into places unavailable to other costumes that contain several Drops.
    • Box Fox: Easily the worst and utterly useless costume. As the name implies, it is a fox costume that automatically turns into a box, over which you have no control, including stopping it and twisting it to a different side. The creation of such a costume will be a mystery for the next millennium.
    • Happy Horn and Amadeus: Costumes that don't make any sense whatsoever and have little to do with a movement or combat upgrade, only have the ability to start a section of a short concert that rewards a few Drops.
    • Guardian Bird: It is a bird costume that appears to be slow and the combat is clunky and unsatisfying, as the action it uses is used under the same buttons as the jump, which is an underwhelming and pointless combination. There are times when its shot is missed, even though you hit him, resulting in a poor shooting distance.
    • Lickshot Lizard: Another non-jump costume, this time played as a chameleon that only can shoot its tongue at the objects it needs to target in hopes of passing the game. In combat, it is horrendous, because even with its tongue, it cannot attack.
    • Lucky Egg and Lucky Bird: Lucky Egg is a costume that shows a chicken almost hatched from an egg, which only has a magnet at its disposal, attracting Drops. In terms of combat elements and platform, it is completely pointless. The situation is similar to Lucky Bird, except that it is not partially in the egg.
    • Pumpkin Puncher and Paladin Puncher: Pumpkin Puncher is a pumpkin costume distinguished by the fact that it has body parts. Its only ability is to punch. In combat elements, it might be decent, due to its punching distance, but in platform elements, as befits a costume with jump allergy, is abysmal. The Paladin Puncher has a similar ability to the previously mentioned costume, except that the punch distance is much weaker, making the latter pointless.
    • Lethal Vacuum Blaster and Vacuum Blaster: The most cynical costumes in which you play as a vacuum cleaner that can only suck Drops and enemies out. They are completely unnecessary in the rest of the game, and they only show the humor of the developers. They are the next costumes for which the jump is impossible to do and are distinguished only by their appearance.
    • Laser Launcher and Quad Cannon: In the case of Laser Launcher, you are a robot that can shoot lasers while you are standing still. It is generally useless due to its shockingly bad actions and does not affect the gameplay at all. The only redeeming trait is that it can jump because the main action does not require an action button. It is the same as the Quad Cannon, except that it is one of the chess pieces that shoot the balls.
    • Speedy Cheetah: A cheetah costume that has a power that allows you to sprint automatically, but can get in the way in some situations, especially in places with the most abysses.
    • Hardy Hammer: A poorly made costume that you can hardly ever need, except when destroying objects impossible by other costumes. This costume is frustrating due to the slower movement and, like the mass of other costumes, it has no idea what jumping is.
    • Frost Giant: Once again, a costume that has no idea what a jump is. In terms of combat, it is more useful because it will freeze opponents in ice with the snow it spits out of its mouth. However, the costume does not affect the walkthrough at all.
    • Lethal Laser Launcher: A costume that never saw a jump. Its handling is cumbersome, due to a very slow movement, and shooting is not at all satisfactory, as it cannot be controlled during the shot.
    • Rail Runner: A costume useful only during running on a train rail. For the rest of the game, it's completely redundant as it doesn't get any upgrades for jumping or combat.
    • Happy Blaster: A costume that is completely redundant and does not affect the progress of the game. All it can do is explode to the distance indicated by the game, and the jump is utterly avoided.
    • Slow Tortoise: A costume that has completely wasted potential, because it is another costume that does not allow for the basic element of the platformer, which is the jump, and is useless in terms of combat. The only thing that can redeem it is that it can slow down objects, which is useful in some situations.
    • Moon Walker: Redundant costume that only exists to add more costumes. This in no way affects the progress of the game and does not receive any upgrades for the rest of the aspects. The only thing it can do apart from the basic jump is stop the world, but it's pretty useless as there is absolutely no difference in terms of gameplay.
    • Inky Blaster: A costume that has not learned to jump. The only thing he does is paint with his balls, which is only useful for the Chapter Ten walkthrough, but it's completely unnecessary for the rest of the game.
    • Sneaky Lizard: A costume that is not only useless in the platforming elements, due to its lack of abilities like a jump, but also in combat. The only thing it will ever do is teleport to Drops.
    • Double Trouble and Air Double Trouble: Clone-forming costumes that only lasts a dozen seconds. Overall, they are completely unnecessary due to how poorly they work in terms of platform and combat elements. Air Double Trouble differs only in that the clone can fly, but it is not needed to complete the game.
    • Key Mouse: A costume that plays as a mouse with a key on its tail that allows the costume crystal to be opened without the usual key you are looking for. In other cases, it is unnecessary.
    • Water Blaster: A hydrant-like costume reminiscent of Mega Man, only this one has a fear of jumping. He uses his arm cannon to defeat lava with the help of spherical water, flying from the hand. The shooting itself is terrible as you don't control the shot, only the power-up itself is fired directly, which in some cases results in it not always going where you want it most. In other cases, it is completely inept, due to the inability to jump and is useless in combat.
    • Iron Apollo and Airy Apollo: Two of the worst costumes ever made. In the case of Iron Apollo, you become a rocket that moves and flies up unimaginably slow compared to the speed of a turtle. This makes the costume completely useless in general, both in combat and in platform elements. The same situation is with Airy Apollo, who shares the same skill and utility level, except that you are not a rocket, but an astronaut.
    • Flame Blaster: A costume reminiscent of Shadow the Hedgehog, only this one has a fear of jumping. His flame missiles are fired from his hands, which can bounce off the floor, making them turn at moments in the direction you don't want.
    • Invisible Man: The name itself suggests that you will be invisible; however, in this game, it is more disturbing than helping, especially in dark levels. In platform elements, it also leaves a lot to be desired, often leading to cheap deaths because you can barely notice a shadow while jumping.
    • Jolt Tiger: A tiger costume that is also not gifted with a jump. Instead, it activates a shield that is barely useful as the enemies themselves do not appear often and can be quickly changed to a different costume.
    • Sun Walker: A costume depicting the sun with a body. It can stop all objects so they can't move at all, but it's only triggered when you're standing still, making it useless. You do not even use this power with the action button.
12. The level design is shabby, boring, seems unfinished, and at worst looks like it was designed by a college student in two weeks. The levels are short, there are too few details, and they do not pose any challenge to traversing the platform elements, which are not so much here for the standards of this genre. The worst offender is Chapter One, which is so monstrously blandly designed that it looks as if it was designed in less than one month.
    • Some levels are poorly programmed; in Chapter 8: Act 2 - The Lady Too Scared to Love, you can pass through the trees and jump in a part where you can skip all the level until you reach the goal . With this glitch, you can complete this level without needing a costume to solve the puzzles in the level. It sounds like no one could even program a single invisible wall to prevent players from cheating by cutting paths.
    • It was later revealed that all this was because an AI algorithm was used to take into consideration the difficulty, costume placement, and enemy spawns within every level.
13. The game may be easy, but to some extent, it causes artificial difficulty.
    • In this game, if you get hit once, you lose one of the three costumes you already have. If that wasn't enough, after losing the costume that accompanied you during the game, you cannot choose that lost costume in the menu related to costumes, you are forced to choose another costume. To get it back, go and luckily find a crystal that will give you a random costume or restart the level.
    • There are situations where, due to your decision, you will be left with one costume that will not allow you to jump in a place where the jump is necessary to pass, which results in preventing the passage of the level at this point, until you die and go back to the wardrobe to choose a more useful costume.
14. The mini-games are boring and repetitive. Overall, they feel like they've been put in just to keep you from experiencing the platforming levels themselves, which aren't fun on their own.
    • Balan, the most distinctive character, so praised by the developers due to their studio name and their gaming masterclass, is treated as a side character. The only way you get the chance to play as Balan is in a boring and repetitive quick-time events mini-game. When you find a large golden hat with a hiding Balan, a mini-game starts where you control Balan and go through four rounds of quick-time events, in which you have four times to tap or mash one button, when Balan's shadow lines up with him. This mini-game is repeated almost fifty times with pitifully little variation.
    • The sports mini-games are a tad disappointing, mainly because there are too few of them and they are repetitive. There are only four mini-games that are available through the crystal that generates the costumes, which consist of:
      • Football: The mini-game is unlocked through the Footballer costume. The task is to make you kick a ball at square vertical wall tiles, avoiding the wooden Balan imitation. It gets boring quickly as it has no other content and no variety.
      • Golf: The mini-game is unlocked through the Golfer costume. The rules are the same as in ordinary golf; it consists of hitting the ball in the designated hole. The mini-game is annoying because of how close the goal is, which can make you hit too hard often.
      • Bowling: The mini-game is unlocked through the Bowler costume. It follows the same rules as regular bowling, except there are pins with pasted Balan faces. This mini-game is boring as it has no variety, just regular pins with different patterns.
      • Baseball: It follows the rules of baseball, but in this game, you bounce the ball to hit the vertical tiles.
15. Collecting Drops is completely irrelevant as they do not affect the gameplay at all. It's practically useful only in the situation of feeding the Tims, which are used to build structures with the help of the windmill on which they crawl. These structures themselves only exist as decorations and other things from the Isle of Tims are simply pointless.
16. Tims are poorly executed in the levels you are heading for in a given Chapter. On the one hand, they find a few Drops or eggs, but on the other, they are extremely weak when it comes to combat, because they cannot defeat the enemies, but only touch them. Besides, Tims are very often eaten by a live aggressive plant, falling into it without making any effort to free themselves from it, only you must defeat a plant to rescue Tims. They are designed for a farm, which itself is redundant, as mentioned earlier.
17. The bosses are stupidly weak, as they only take three hits to defeat. The final boss takes three hits too. So you will have a short battle during his two phases and you can do the trick of being invincible by changing costumes to easily dodge the attacks of several of these enemies that while creative in design and attacks and atmosphere and also interesting, are disappointing and flawed in their execution.
18. The number of levels is pathetically small, especially compared to many modern platformers like Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. That game had 100 levels, while Balan Wonderworld in every Chapter has two platform levels, and a boss, having a total of 37 levels if you count all 24 platform levels and 13 bosses. All this means that you will complete the game in less than 10 hours, which is a result shorter than in the previously discussed game.
19. The game, although it is aimed at children from different worlds, offers many languages to choose from, the voices are only done in the game's language, which is known as "Balanese", which uses English words pronounced backward and some Japanese words too. The average player wouldn't mind at all role-playing games, but in platform games, it is pointless and only makes it so that children are forced to read dialogues in a language that's made up. It is worth recalling that several Japanese companies release platformers with English voices from under their hands, which has always been a staple in Sega and Nintendo games.
20. The game was extremely overpriced on the release, as it used to cost a whopping $60, but this price is not in line with the quality of the game that was treated by the producers. It currently costs $40, but still not worth that much money. The most adequate price for this game should be $10 or less.
21. Absolutely terrible release: The game was released at an inopportune time, especially since on the same day two large gaming companies also released their one game, including Capcom and their Monster Hunter Rise, and Electronic Arts released It Takes Two, and both games were critically acclaimed and sold fantastically. This game didn't stand a chance due to the demo disclosure which completely killed all hope of the game, especially since Square Enix didn't even delay the game and many people could expect a game that was doomed to start from the outset.
22. Although the soundtrack is generally good, it does not shine with originality, and even the game commits plagiarism. Some songs are counterfeit from other series. Here are a few examples.
    • According to videogamedunkey in his video, Balan Wonderwold's main theme is ripped straight from Super Mario Odyssey.
    • A song from Chapter 11 is ripped straight from one of the Ghostbusters songs. Because of this theme, some may even compare with a composition in the level of SiIvaGunner.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The game's cinematics are absolutely gorgeous, incredible, and surprisingly good. They are so wonderful that they almost resemble a movie by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Don Bluth, 20th Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios, or DreamWorks Animation. The reason for this is that Square Enix's subsidiary Visual Works was responsible for the cinematics. They have worked with them to create rendered cutscenes for their games in the past. There is a certain chance that a lot more budget was allocated here than for the game itself.
   • Speaking of cutscenes and the fact that they are extremely well-kept, the game has both versions of the first cutscene at your disposal, Leo, who is on the playing field, and Emma, who is in the castle. They can also differ in the color of the skin and hair you choose in character selection, and the version of your character appears in pre-rendered cutscenes.
   • After defeating each boss, there are in-game cutscenes where a dance show takes place, with the NPCs, the main character, and the rescued person. This is a nice addition as the game mostly takes place in a theater where music also plays a major role.
   • The ending is very sad since all the characters come to see Balan and empathize with him, when the characters leave, Leo and Emma hug Balan sadly and Balan reveals his face that is handsome, but the wind prevents Ema and Leo from returning to the real world, Balan picks up the gem that had dropped a tear and Ema and Leo return to the real world.
     • Leo's, when he sees the boys I see before, Leo and the boys dance in the park, and Leo throws the basketball in the basketball session, Leo is entertained and proud.
     • Emma's, when Emma enters the castle and sees the girls after she is depressed, she greets them but a girl takes Emma and all the girls in the castle throw her a birthday party, and Emma in everything they do, I see the cake with her face and she cries when she sees the cake and they give her gifts.
2. The soundtrack is wonderful (it lives up to the title of the game), especially the songs Clocktower, Grassland, and Winter, which are both enjoyable to listen to, but also relevant to the vibe. The best songs you can hear in its cutscenes, both pre-rendered and created on the game engine.
3. The character designs are very nice and creative, especially Balan who has a hat with vivid eyes attached to them, as is the case with many costumes who can look adorable on one side, and crazy on the other. All this shows that this easily noticeable style of characters must have been done by Naoto Ohshima, as already proved in the case of Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman, despite the outdated graphics.
   • Speaking of designs, the characters themselves are endearing and charming, an example is Balan, who is an easy-to-like character to please and is the most interesting and the coolest, another example is the Tims, who are not only the most adorable but which are "living stuffed animals".
4. At least the Bosses while bad in execution, they're creative with cute design at best. You can also defeat them in several ways, with the best being the final boss. The fights themselves are quite interesting because they don't do the same thing over and over again, but sometimes they try to attack in a few other ways like you defeat them. Despite this, they are flawed, as discussed in WIS #17.
5. Some costumes are good, especially the ones that have useful action and allow you to jump. Many helpful costumes affect the completion of the game, especially the Gear Prince (a costume that you use to interact with gearboxes to move platforms towards you), Tornado Wolf (a costume that can spin into a tornado when it jumps to attack enemies that is reminiscent of Taz the Tasmanian Devil), Pounding Pig (a pig costume that you use to ground pound that is reminiscent of Mighty the Armadillo), and even some of the useless ones dedicated to any Chapter.
   • There is even a Balan outfit. To do it, you have to complete the levels to get rainbow gems, on the island of the Tims, you must feed many of the Tims, after feeding the Tims, they will be enlarged with 3 gems stuck in their belly, and you must get a Tim too white color with a crown, and then you throw it on the statue, and the giant Tim comes to life and sends you an extra Balan suit, and best of all, with this suit you can explore all the levels by flying infinitely, resulting in a surprisingly good suit to use.

Reception

Ratings

Aggregate score	Score
Metacritic	36/100 (NS) 38/100 (PC) 44/100 (PS4) 51/100 (PS5) 47/100 (XSX)
OpenCritic	49/100
Publication	Score
Comicbook.com	1/5
Easy Allies	4.5/10
Gamereactor	2/10
GamingBolt	4/10
God is a Geek	5/10
Hardcore Gamer	2/5
Metro	4/10
Nintendo Life	3/10
NintendoWorldReport	3/10
Noisy Pixel	5/10
PlayStation LifeStyle	4.5/10
Pocket Tactics	2/10
Pure Xbox	3/10
Push Square	3/10

Critical reception

Balan Wonderworld was met with mostly negative reception from critics and users alike. The game has been widely criticized for its level design, technical issues, design choices, controls, costumes, and performance, while the soundtrack, character design, and cutscenes were largely praised.

According to Metacritic, the game received "generally unfavorable reviews" on most platforms, and "mixed or average reviews" on the PlayStation 5 version. Moreover, it has been accused on Metacritic that positive user reviews consist of bots, featuring similar writing style, and randomly generated usernames that look similar, and they have reviewed only one game on their accounts, which is Balan Wonderworld.

On OpenCritic, the game received a rating of "Weak", an average score of 49/100, and 10% of critics recommend it, based on 69 reviews.

Metro gave Balan Wonderworld a 4/10, saying "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."

Giving Balan Wonderworld a 3/10, Nintendo Life's Mitch Vogel considered the game "a waste of your time". He criticized the performance, level design, and gameplay, while he praised the graphics. Alex Olney made the video version of Vogel's review, though he didn't always agree with the lead reviewer in terms of graphics he found "atrocious". Alex considered Balan Wonderworld as one of the worst games he had played in years. Sister websites, Push Square and Pure Xbox gave the same score for Balan Wonderworld.

Cameron Bald from Pocket Tactics gave a 2/10, describing the game as "an otherworldly disaster". According to the reviewer, the game is "tedious to play, visually repellent, and – at least on Switch – stomach-churning to control".

The game is not only a failure in the press but also in terms of sales. According to PlayStation LifeStyle, the game flops in Japan, selling less than 2,100 copies in its first week. The game failed to hit the top 30 in the Nintendo eShop charts in both Japan and North America, and this week's UK charts show that the game didn't manage to break into the top 40, being outsold by plenty of titles that have been sitting in the charts for over 100 weeks. Due to its demo, which was met with a negative reception and the fact that Monster Hunter Rise and It Takes Two were released on the same day, it resulted in sales incomparably lower in comparison to both other games. According to Bumbles McFumbles, the few people who did buy a copy of Balan Wonderworld almost certainly didn't play the game for long, as in the Xbox versions, beating the fourth world "The Boy Who Would be One With the Wind" is considered a rare achievement.

Yuji Naka announced his retirement due to his age, leaving Square Enix a month after the game's release. As of September 2021, it was revealed that Naka was not yet considering retiring, who thanked fans for the birthday messages he had received and said he was studying to program smartphone games using the Unity engine.

Trivia

• This is currently the largest page for any game-related page on the "Bad Media" side on this wiki, having 59,200 bytes as of the current revision.
• The Drops collecting sound effect was inspired by the game called Nights into Dreams, another video game in which Yuji Naka was involved.
• Yuji Naka hoped that the game would spawn a new long-running 3D platforming franchise centered on the Balan character, but publisher Square Enix has only given him one chance to develop a platform game that will depend on sales and critical reception. With reception and sales below expectations, there will certainly never be a sequel, and the Balan Company brand has been quietly discontinued.
• On March 26, 2021, both other games were released, including Monster Hunter Rise and It Takes Two.
• It is likely that Square Enix hired Arzest to develop the game because Yuji Naka's friends worked at this company, who used to work with him back in times when they used to be employed at Sega.

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