Balan Wonderworld

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Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 59

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Balan Wonderworld is full of charm, but half-baked platforming, clunky controls and generally sloppy execution mar the experience. This is easily one of the worst 3D platformers in recent memory.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 59

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 59

Balan Wonderworld is full of charm, but half-baked platforming, clunky controls and generally sloppy execution mar the experience. This is easily one of the worst 3D platformers in recent memory.

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Critic Reviews for Balan Wonderworld

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

59

Reviews

Average Score

100

Ranges

4/10

Tom Marks (IGN)

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.

April 15, 2021 |

Full Review

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.

April 1, 2021 |

Full Review

4/10

GameCentral (Metro GameCentral)

Not Recommended

Martin Robinson (Eurogamer)

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

April 1, 2021 |

Full Review

Tom Marks (IGN)

4/10 - (Read 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.

GameCentral (Metro GameCentral)

4/10 - (Read Review)

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.

Martin Robinson (Eurogamer)

Not Recommended - (Read Review)

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

**Read all 59 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (59 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
33bits	Rubén Rionegro	65 / 100	03-30-2021	What could have been another of Yuji Naka’s great successes has finally turned out to be a standard game that doesn’t stand out or stand out, inspired in its designs and visual style but without leading the title in the right direction. The best? the soundtrack, the large number of costumes and the imagination that overflows in each section. The worst? the numerous problems it has that wouldn’t have been difficult to solve.	Read review
Atomix	Rodolfo León	65 / 100	03-30-2021	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.	Read review
BaziCenter	KamiabG	3.5 / 10	04-21-2021	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.	Read review
CGMagazine	Jed Whitaker	2 / 10	03-31-2021	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.	Read review
COGconnected	Jaz Sagoo	60 / 100	03-30-2021	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 expectations of the genre. Although the game has a lot of charm, it does little to stand out amongst the crowd and due to this, it can be rightfully overlooked.	Read review
Critical Hit	Darryn Bonthuys	4.5 / 10	04-08-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a game of missed opportunities. It’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 uphill climb through even the most basic of platforming principles. Amusing visual design aside, the only thing that Balan Wonderworld is good at is being consistently boring.	Read review
Cubed3	Unknown	8 / 10	03-31-2021	Balan Wonderworld is perfect for those who want a relatively relaxed game that delights the mind while not being overly tricky, fills up the cuteness meter, and rewards those who seek out every collectable. There are occasional frame rate drops and some potential confusion at the start due to lack of narration or knowledge about musicals. Along with what for some will be an issue with minimal lack of difficulty increase outside of boss battles and post-game content, this means overall enjoyment may be restricted for some players. However, for the ideal target audience the world of Balan is a joy to explore; the various textures of clothing, the world and items make it feel immersive. The whimsical and unique costumes add more than a style change, they are central to the thrill of helping chapter characters regain their happiness for their passion, be it a hobby or a job. The darker elements of the bosses’ appearance and the regular enemies balance the predominantly cute style, making Balan Wonderworld a great new title from Square Enix.	Read review
cublikefoot	Chase Ferrin	3.5 / 10	04-07-2021	BALAN WONDERWORLD is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. It may good graphics, level design, and music, but that is ultimately brought down by its outright boring and tedious gameplay.	Read review
Destructoid	CJ Andriessen	5.5 / 10	03-31-2021	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	Read review
Digital Trends	Giovanni Colantonio	1.5 / 5 stars	03-29-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a hodge-podge of half-formed platforming ideas that squander a whole lot of charm.	Read review
Digitally Downloaded	Matt Sainsbury	3.5 / 5 stars	04-07-2021	I genuinely love Balan Wonderworld because it caught me at just the right moment to indulge its whimsy. I don’t for a second think it’s a great game or platformer, but then I also just don’t care. It offers something much more viscerally engaging; raw creative energy, and I would rather a hundred games fall flat like this one has and at least give me something different than play yet another highly refined copy of something I’ve already played a hundred times. Sometimes, just sometimes, raw creativity is enough in itself.	Read review
Easy Allies	Brad Ellis	4.5 / 5 stars	04-03-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a disappointing platformer that feels like a wasted opportunity.	Read review
Eurogamer	Martin Robinson	Recommended	04-01-2021	Surreal, enigmatic and often sloppily executed, Balan Wonderworld is a 90s throwback that might be too period correct for some.	Read review
Everyeye.it	Andrea Fontanesi	5.5 / 10	04-01-2021	Yet Naka and Oshima’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 that might be worth taking back in the future, as long as you find him a less crumpled playful suit.	Read review
Gameblog	Thomas Pillon	4 / 10	04-01-2021	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.	Read review
GameMAG	Unknown	5 / 10	04-05-2021	All in all Balan Wonderworld is an archaic action-platformer with tons of shortcomings in terms of level desing and overall presentation. If you love the genre, you would probably be repulsed by this game, instead of welcoming it with open arms.	Read review
GamePitt	Rob Pitt	8 / 10	04-11-2021	Although it may not be for everyone, I personally found Balan Wonderworld to be a delightful 3D platformer that is oozing with charm and fantastic visuals – especially the cutscenes. Some people may see the backtracking to collect costumes so you can progress in other stages as a negative, yet I enjoyed this as it reminded me of the LEGO games and it felt like I was always progressing. Some boss battles were a little tricky, and the unlocked third stages are harder than the previous two, but it’s a fair challenge that can be overcome with time and practice. My only issue is that the game is clearly one aimed at children, yet the consumable costumes and frustrating bosses may actually be a little too annoying and/or difficult for them to enjoy.	Read review
GamesBeat	Jeff Grubb	20 / 100	04-13-2021	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 great one for all those fans of masochism out there.	Read review
GameSkinny	Jordan Baranowski	3 / 10	03-30-2021	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.	Read review
GameSpew	Richard Seagrave	6 / 10	03-29-2021	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 perturbed by the eagerly respawning enemies and repetitive Balan Bout sequences. For most players though, everything combined will probably prove to be a little too much. Balan Wonderworld is a game that’s capable of bringing out both delight and dismay in its players, though it serves up a little too much of the latter at times to be easily recommended.	Read review
GameSpot	David Wildgoose	5 / 10	04-06-2021	Balan Wonderworld is an occasionally inspired, often unimaginative platformer lost to time.	Read review
GameXplain	GameXplain	Not Recommended	04-02-2021	Video Review	Read review
GamingBolt	Matt Bianucci	4 / 10	03-30-2021	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.	Read review
Generación Xbox	Gabriel Fuentes	7.2 / 10	04-05-2021	‎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 all, but if you consider the trajectory of the members of the developer team, it could be much more, although for a first adventure the game meets what it promises without standing out too much. ‎	Read review
God is a Geek	Lyle Carr	5 / 10	03-30-2021	Exploring Balan Wonderworld’s levels can be fun, but ultimately its single button gameplay and technical issues hold it back.	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Kyle LeClair	2 / 5 stars	03-31-2021	Balan Wonderworld presents itself as having a world filled to the brim with imagination, ambition, whimsy, emotion and more.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Francis DiPersio	2 / 5 stars	03-31-2021	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.	Read review
Hobby Consolas	Daniel Quesada	68 / 100	03-30-2021	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.	Read review
IGN	Tom Marks	4 / 10	03-30-2021	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.	Read review
IGN Italy	Mattia Ravanelli	4.7 / 10	03-30-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a dull game and a boring experience in a lackluster world.	Read review
INDIANTVCZ	Barbora Šalandová	4 / 10	05-10-2021	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.	Read review
Just Push Start	Dominic Weakland	3 / 5 stars	03-30-2021	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 of simpler times, it’s hard to suggest what value Balan Wonderworld adds. It certainly isn’t engaging, interesting and so many of the elements are painfully basic. Throw in needless costume-changing animations (I don’t need a three-second animation every time I swap), extremely small worlds, and minimal… well, everything and it’s hard to be optimistic.	Read review
Merlin’in Kazanı	Samet Basri Taşlı	45 / 100	04-07-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a mid-level platform game that looks great, has great music but its potential was largely wasted.	Read review
Metro GameCentral	GameCentral	4 / 10	04-01-2021	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.	Read review
MonsterVine	Samantha Lienhard	2.5 / 5 stars	04-05-2021	If you’re a diehard fan of 3D platformers and you’ve run out of better games to play in the genre, you might get some enjoyment out of Balan Wonderworld, but only if you’re willing to put up with a lot of tedium along the way.	Read review
Niche Gamer	Brandon Lyttle	4.5 / 10	04-16-2021	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 that it’s an unpolished game oozing with wasted potential. I just have a soft spot for 3D platformers.	Read review
Nintendo Life	Mitch Vogel	3 / 10	03-29-2021	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.	Read review
Nintendo Wire	Ricky Berg	3.5 / 10	04-07-2021	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.	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	John Rairdin	3 / 10	03-31-2021	Wonder how a very well known publisher could stomach having it in their library. Wonder what in the world happened with the Switch version. Wonder where your $60 went.	Read review
Noisy Pixel	Orpheus Joshua	5 / 10	03-29-2021	Balan Wonderworld contains elements of what could have been a stellar platformer with its compelling ideas of advancement notions. However, its ineptitude with several gameplay design decisions makes it a constant struggle of unfun progression, questionable execution, and ultimately a heap of lost potential.	Read review
PC Invasion	Andrew Farrell	6 / 10	03-29-2021	Painfully average in most respects, Balan Wonderworld won’t draw much admiration for its contents. Still, it’s a competent game that does have its charms, few as they may be.	Read review
PlayStation LifeStyle	Rebecca Smith	4.5 / 10	04-08-2021	Balan Wonderworld feels like it’s shrouded in mystery because there’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 at children. When added to the frustrating management of the game’s costumes (including those that can’t jump in a platformer), its underdeveloped story, the overly simplistic platforming, and the tortuous Balan Bouts, this is a game that had promise but is ruined by a multitude of bizarre design decisions.	Read review
PlayStation Universe	Joe Apsey	5 / 10	04-01-2021	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 to be desired. It’s far from the worst modern platformer, but given the names involved, it’s a thoroughly underwhelming one.	Read review
PSX Brasil	Ivan Nikolai Barkow Castilho	65 / 100	04-05-2021	Balan Wonderworld is not a complete disaster – there are some interesting ideas at certain points in the journey and the soundtrack is often striking. However, the mechanics of the costumes (that are the heart of the game) aren’t very good and are very unbalanced. In addition, the design of the levels is strange and Balan’s Bout minigame is just horrible.	Read review
Push Square	Brett Posner-Ferdman	3 / 10	04-04-2021	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.	Read review
Rapid Reviews UK	Jason Kenyon	3.5 / 5 stars	04-22-2021	In the magical, musical realm of Balan Wonderworld, you’ll discover endless possibilities waiting for you! But if that sounds too good to be true… then you just might be onto something.	Read review
Screen Rant	Zackerie Fairfax	2 / 5 stars	03-29-2021	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.	Read review
SECTOR.sk	Michal Korec	6.5 / 10	04-19-2021	Not so charming all-action show, however still acceptable for young players.	Read review
Shacknews	TJ Denzer	6 / 10	03-31-2021	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, the level design made me want to explore and experiment where I could, and the abilities mostly gave me options to do so. However, these things are held down by a lot of contrivances and outright holes in either functionality or context. The final release of Balan Wonderworld felt like a rush job where good ideas, visuals, and sounds were forced to dance among either unfinished or unfun nonsense.	Read review
Sirus Gaming	Kurt John Palomaria	4 / 10	04-07-2021	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.	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Reuben Mount	6 / 10	03-31-2021	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 at worst. There is a good game in here somewhere, and it is great fun at points, but waiting for those points isn’t really worth it.	Read review
Use a Potion	Daryl Leach	7.5 / 10	03-29-2021	Balan Wonderworld will be divisive, but I actually had a pretty fun time exploring its whimsical levels and using the creative costumes to overcome its platforming challenges. The level design itself is on point too, whilst the wonderful soundtrack and addictive nature of grabbing all of the collectibles kept me coming back for more.	Read review
Video Chums	A.J. Maciejewski	8.2 / 10	03-27-2021	If you have a soft spot for classic 3D platformers and imaginative game worlds, you’ll have a lovely time with Balan Wonderworld. With a heartfelt story, plenty of cuteness, a clever costume system, and oodles of stages to master; it’s one incredible adventure.	Read review
Video Games Chronicle	Chris Scullion	2 / 5 stars	03-27-2021	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.	Read review
VideoGamer	Josh Wise	2 / 10	04-05-2021	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.	Read review
WayTooManyGames	Leonardo Faria	7 / 10	03-28-2021	I think the best way to describe Balan Wonderworld in a short but easy-to-grasp way is by comparing it to Yuji Naka’s Sonic Adventure. Both are graphically impressive, both feature phenomenal soundtracks, both are packed with a lot of content… but both are pretty underwhelming when it comes to their gameplay, even though you can get used to their jankiness and still have a great time.	Read review
Worth Playing	Chris “Atom” DeAngelus	6.5 / 10	04-01-2021	Balan Wonderworld is a great idea on paper, and it’s perfectly playable from start to finish, but it’s held back by some baffling design decisions and boring gameplay. The idea of a protagonist who swaps between costumes to collect Mario-style shines could be great, but the costumes are too simple, the environments are too boring, and the gameplay is too basic. It could possibly be a good game for extremely young players due to its low difficulty and cartoony graphics, but even then, I would recommend one of the many other offerings intended for that demographic instead.	Read review
Xbox Achievements	Richard Walker	30 / 100	04-02-2021	I understand that Balan Wonderworld wasn’t made with me in mind – clearly it’s meant for a far younger demographic. But even from an objective standpoint, I can’t figure out why anyone would want to voluntarily sink hours of their life into such an annoying and incoherent game.	Read review
ZTGD	Ken McKown	5 / 10	04-08-2021	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 still finished it. I had some good times sprinkled in with the frustrations. It took me to a simpler time in platform games and there is truly nothing else out there with the same kind of presentation and whimsical ideas it delivers. That said $60 is a hard ask for a game that seems to want to frustrate players at every turn. I wanted to love Balan Wonderworld, but it did everything in its power to test my love every chance it got.	Read review

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About Balan Wonderworld

Game Description / Storyline:

Balan Wonderworld is a wondrous action-platformer game themed around a mysterious musical theatre. The stars of the show will use special abilities from a multitude of characterful costumes as they adventure in the bizarre and imaginary land of Wonderworld. Here memories and vistas from the real world mix with the things that people hold dear. Twelve different tales await our stars in Wonderworld, each with their own unique quirks. They will explore all corners of these labyrinthine stages, using all the tricks and gimmicks hidden along the way, to get to the heart of each touching story.

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