Balan Wonderworld

"Yet Naka and Oshima&s;s new toil collapses under the weight of a shoddy, disoriented realization, mostly unable to pay homage to the old days without being unnecessarily cumbersome. What Balan Wonderworld leaves good, to top it off, is an imagery …"

"Painfully average in most respects, Balan Wonderworld won&s;t draw much admiration for its contents. Still, it&s;s a competent game that does have its charms, few as they may be."

"Balan Wonderworld is a disappointing platformer that feels like a wasted opportunity."

"You’ll have fun if you like puzzle platformers, but you’ll lament what Balan Wonderworld could have been, and deserved to be. I do want to close out saying that I did enjoy Balan Wonderworld, but I can appreciate the fact …"

"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;s an embarrassment that this game was …"

"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;s some enjoyment to be had with it. By …"

"Like I said at the top of this review, your enjoyment of Balan Wonderworld is going to depend on your tolerance for primitive 3D level design. Strip away the unnecessary costumes and their poorly implemented management system - and fire …"

"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."

"Balan Wonderworld is a game of missed opportunities. It&s;s simplified control scheme robs it of any of the subtle complexity that the genre is best at, its various ideas are half-baked at best, and its core gameplay is a taxing …"

"Balan Wonderworld is an occasionally inspired, often unimaginative platformer lost to time."

"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 …"

"‎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 …"

"Balan Wonderworld is a hodge-podge of half-formed platforming ideas that squander a whole lot of charm."

"The music is as diverse, and I often found myself just sitting back, taking it all in, because the second I picked up the controller, the magic clashed with how stiff the character was. That toppled with awkward controls that …"

"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 …"

"Balan Wonderworld is just plain bad. Apart from its terrible costume system, it does nothing new and just poorly copies things that other 3D platformers have already done better."

"The kindest thing I can say about the game is that it does make for an entertaining livestream. I broadcasted my play on Twitch, and my audience seemed to really enjoy watching me suffer. So I guess this is a …"

"Sometimes, Balan Wonderworld evokes a bygone era of platformers very well, but this is all too fleeting a feeling. All the creativity seems to have gone into the characters and music while the actual act of platforming leaves a lot …"

"Balan Wonderworld tries to be an homage to nostalgic platformers from the PS2 era, but it forgets to be a good game in the process."

"If only Naka, staying true to form, had given the whole thing a dose of high speed; his work only holds together when it hurtles past our eyes, growing vivid with velocity."

"Balan Wonderworld is a game that I tried hard to love. It is not the pariah that the internet makes it out to be though. I think the game is charming and flawed. It has tons of issues, but I …"

"Balan Wonderworld presents itself as having a world filled to the brim with imagination, ambition, whimsy, emotion and more."

"Surreal, enigmatic and often sloppily executed, Balan Wonderworld is a 90s throwback that might be too period correct for some."

"The unwavering cheerfulness that permeates every ounce of Balan Wonderworld can&s;t overcome the shallow gameplay and questionable design choices that come every step of the way."

"Balan Wonderworld is a dull game and a boring experience in a lackluster world."

"We&s;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 …"

"Balan Wonderworld feels like it&s;s shrouded in mystery because there&s;s a woeful lack of explanation for the majority of its mechanics. Nobody should be left looking for external guides to gather even the most basic information for a game aimed …"

"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 …"

"If you’re the patient sort, chances are you’ll have a good time with Balan Wonderworld overall. Costume management is clunky, but you’ll deal with it in order to find the secrets hidden within each world, and you won’t be too …"

"I understand that Balan Wonderworld wasn&s;t made with me in mind – clearly it&s;s meant for a far younger demographic. But even from an objective standpoint, I can&s;t figure out why anyone would want to voluntarily sink hours of their …"

"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."

"Balan WonderWorld deserved to be far more than average, as the final game is a marked improvement over the demo. It&s;s beautiful a lot of the time, character designs are mostly wonderful, the unique ideas that appear in each level …"

"Balan Wonderworld is sadly an old-school platformer with all of the 90&s;s worst flaws. Yet colorful, Yuji Naka&s;s first game with Square Enix lacks almost everything, and everyone who likes even a tiny bit the genres should look somewhere else …"

"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, …"

"All the charm in the universe couldn&s;t save Balan Wonderworld&s;s half-baked platforming and ill-advised one-button design from being a complete bore."

"There&s;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;s small environments with its lackluster 3D platforming fails to provide the AAA entertainment …"