BALAN WONDERWORLD

I love this game. I really do. I'm not going to tell you that this game is "THE WORST THING KNOWN TO MAN" or be ironic and tell you how this game is "A SUBVERSIVE MASTERPIECE" and how it changed my life, cured cancer and had my child. I'm telling you my honest to goodness thoughts on this game. I don't love this game ironically. I love it genuinely. Which sounds weird, because the first thing I'll tell you about this game is: This game isn't "good". This game isn't a good platformer. It tries to imitate what Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong or Spyro have accomplished by doing it's own thing but it fails spectacularly at doing so. If you're looking for a good platformer, look elsewhere. This game isn't a good narrative experience. If you buy the game expecting to understand the story by simply playing the game, tough luck. Nobody speaks english, every cutscene is up to personal interpretation (if you watched Alpharad's video on the game, which I highly recommend you do, he's dumbfounded by the plot, and ended up making wacky interpretations, such as a man loses to chess once and feels better by beating kids at chess.) The actual story is explained via novel or the Balan wiki. This game isn't a good game. It fundamentally goes against basic gameplay elements. Complicated design choices plague this game. Why is every button the same thing? Why is there no dedicated jump button? Why is Balan's Bout a thing? Why is quit to the title an option in minigames? Why is returning to the hub world buried in menus? These questions will not be answered. So why am I recommending this game? I initially bought this game as a laugh. To put on the grueling task of 100%ing this game to display on my profile ironically as one of the few people who 100%ed Balan Wonderworld. It was on sale, and I decided it'd be fun. But, and maybe it's because my expectations with this game were egregiously low to the point of playing it solely due to it being bad, I ended up having fun. It's true, I genuinely had fun playing this game. It's inoffensive, really. Once you get used to the controls, it's not bad. The game is playable and short. Definitely not to the standard a studio as legendary (and loaded) as Square Enix can put up, but if you told me this was an Indie game, I'd bet people would be less upset over this. The game inspired within me a sort of childlike wonder I've not experienced in a while. Seeing something like this in something that's objectively mediocre is a special feeling, and it's why I encourage people to play quote unquote "bad" games. Games that were slammed by pretty much everyone for one reason or another. You may end up finding something that ends up being a gem. The art, the music, the animation, all of this really made the game pop for me. Yeah, a lot of the levels are in voids, and they're sorta like ultra diet mental worlds of Psychonauts (an objectively amazing game), but I like that aesthetic. The skyboxes made me stare in the distance a lot to make me wonder. The music is breathtaking at times, minus the dancing sections, and the character designs are some of my favourites Ive ever seen (NiGHTS into Dreams will come to mind to you) It's hard to put who I'd recommend this to into words. If you don't take games seriously, if you're into experiencing something not many others have, if you have an open mind, willing to go against the current to appreciate something many don't, you might (and I repeat, might) find yourself pleasantly surprised. It's not a game that'll blow your mind, hell you might even regret buying the game even if it was for free. But for a select few people, those who want to experience so many sides of the medium, give this game a chance. Just don't pay full price for it.

It's a one of a kind experience, as in I'm never playing this game ever again after finishing it

It's beautiful. The schizophrenia feature is amazing, as soon as I approach any living creature they just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ disappear. The hell? Why is the farmer majestically descending down from the heavens? 10/10 game.

I desire Balan carnally and want to wonder his little world, but if I give this game a bad review it feels like I'm picking on the handicapped

only buy this if you wanna have a good laugh with your friends or if you genuinely hate yourself

Balan Wonderworld is one of the most mind-numbing and boring experiences I've had playing a game. The music is certainly the only highlight of the game, but it's not really worth mentioning when everything else is incomprehensibly awful. I feel bad for the developers who were tasked to work on this project when it was clearly going nowhere but the gutter.

[h1] I played Balan Wonderland in 2026 so you don't have to [/h1] [hr][/hr] This generational fumble should be studied under a macroscope, because it had the pinnacle of potential to be an amazing platformer. It's almost as if it was set up for success with a GOATed lineup behind it, but only for it miss so far from the mark that it's astounding how things came to be. [h3] Firstly, compliments to the chef. [/h3] The art in Balan Wonderland is amazing. Not just the great artworks, but the music and designs of characters too. The cutscenes have great animation made by Visual Works. [h3] Secondly, the game sucks. [/h3] I'm not gonna sugercoat it, the game itself just sucks. While I don't hate the one button controller scheme as much as others probably do, I don't love it. Most of the 80 costumes are just gimmicks for one single level, chapter, or special interaction. Out of all costumes, I don't think they were prepared for how most of the game can just be trivialized by Air Cat, but that kind of sums of a lot of the game: trivial. While I had some "aha!" moments when I finally found the costume to get a Balan Statue in an earlier chapter, they were not a common occurence. The whole system of finding a key to unlock a costume is pointless when the key is only a meter to the left of it. You can barely call this game a "puzzle game" when most of the answer is the super convenient costume. Balan Bouts were fun at first, but when the last 4 chapters have you doing 3 of them in one act with 6 inputs you have to do? I felt my brain turn to mush. Boss fights can go so fast because of how easy they are. Some acts fly by while some are a complete slog. [i]Chapter 10 felt so unbelievably rushed.[/i] [h3] Closing off, [/h3] I want to like the game because of all the positives that I have found in it by playing it for myself, but there is so much stuff that makes me think of all the lost potential it had. In my most humble opinion, if they had the chance, and made a Balan Wonderworld 2 after what they must have learned by releasing this mess, it could very well be a top tier platformer, but until then this is what we have. If I had to recommend a good 3D platformer, A Hat in Time instantly comes to mind. Amazing game throughout, and a very much worthwhile game to play. [u]Shoutouts to my boy Skauen for gifting me this wonderful game[/u] [b]Tornado Wolf will always be my GOAT[/b]

I upped my gamerscore with this one.

- Boring gameplay - Boring story - Boring powerups - Boring level design - Solid music - Solid bosses - Amazing cgi cutscenes Had great potential, get it on sale.

This game is what some would say GOAT. It truly changed my perspective on life and made me better myself. This game is truly a masterpiece that was graced by God himself.