Game: Balan Wonderworld
Platforms: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X and S
Genre: 3D Platformer
Developer: Balan Company
Publisher: Square Enix
Reviewed on PS4
Balan Wonderworld starts off with a great well-polished cutscene, but after that, the visuals just take a huge dip and start looking way worse. After the demo, I was not expecting much from Balan Wonderworld, and somehow I still got disappointed. Even though Balan Wonderworld did not disappoint me in every aspect, it just fails at being a good game. Nearly everything is generic except the music, and that’s might be the only part where Balan Wonderworld even stands out. However, it still fails at being Enjoyable. I did not even want to complete the game; I just straight-up wanted to delete it from my Console. The Level design is terrible; the colour scheme hurts my eyes. I am glad that they improved the Speed of the main character from the Demo.
Balan Wonderworld really doesn’t have much going on in terms of Story. It’s like there’s potential, but it doesn’t even do any justice to the potential. I think Balan Wonderworld should have been in the works for 2 or 3 more years because it might have turned out to be an Amazing Game.
A Place where Balan Wonderworld really shines is the special powers of Costumes you unlock in the game. There are tons of those. If the level design had enough going on for it and really made you use those costumes, I would have appreciated that way more. Another thing is that some costumes might not allow you to jump on the enemies, so you cannot kill your enemy, and it takes 2 seconds to switch to another or switch back to your previous costume, and you might be already dead by then.
Balan Wonderworld’s level design just feels really outdated compared to new AAA 3D Platformers; it just feels very generic, and it’s nothing more than that. Balan Wonderworld has received an abysmal reception from everyone so far, and the sales have been meagre too. To be honest, I feel bad for the developers; I feel like they should have gotten more time to work on this game and improving it. The game currently plays like it’s in an Alpha state; they should have considered delaying it right after the Demo’s reception because the potential seemed insane, but it fails to deliver, just like I said before.
Hopefully, the next game by Balan Company does not repeat all these mistakes again.
Currently, I cannot recommend anyone to buy Balan Wonderworld. It just seems like a huge waste of time right now; I regret playing it, and I hope that you guys do not make a mistake because there’s no way that this game is worth the 49.99$ price tag.
I wanna talk about the good stuff in Balan Wonderworld now, so just like I mentioned before, the Soundtrack is really pleasing, and some tunes are excellent. It fits the vibe for a platformer with this concept, but sadly, the game just feels incomplete. I did not expect this at all when I first saw the official trailer because it had talented people working behind it for 2-3 years.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, I would suggest you not buy Balan Wonderworld because of the number of issues I had with it. I cannot describe my disappointment in proper words. I did not have the motivation to completely play this game during my entire playthrough, and I wish the developers good luck with their next project because I am kind of excited to see what they will do after such a failure will they manage to make a comeback or will they disappoint again? Guess we will have to wait and watch for that.
I would definitely recommend you to give the Balan Wonderworld a listen because it’s really pleasing and makes you feel calm even when you are not playing the game. Overall though, Balan Wonderworld is still an awful game and the worst one I have played this year so far; hopefully, it does not get any worse than this in the future but let’s see.
3/10
Pros
- Great Soundtrack
- Tons of Costumes with different abilities
Cons
- Bad Level Design
- Tedious gameplay
- Awful Visual Design
- Generic
What do you think? Please let us know in the comments below.