Balan Wonderworld

 PC
Balan Wonderworld Image
Metascore
38

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 196 Ratings

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  • Summary: BALAN WONDERWORLD is an action platformer game themed around the Balan Theatre. Led by the enigmatic maestro named Balan, the stars of the show Emma and Leo will use special abilities from a multitude of characterful costumes as they adventure in the bizarre and imaginary land ofBALAN WONDERWORLD is an action platformer game themed around the Balan Theatre. Led by the enigmatic maestro named Balan, the stars of the show Emma and Leo 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 the Wonderworld, each with their own unique quirks. They will explore all corners of these labyrinthine stages, filled with a myriad of tricks and traps, to get to the heart of each story.… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 11
  3. Negative: 8 out of 11
  1. Atomix
    Mar 30, 2021
    65
    Balan Wonderworld feels like a platformer game from 20 years ago, with outdated mechanics, controls and a horrible costume mechanic which locks the player out of many collectibles way too soon.
  2. TierraGamer
    Apr 1, 2021
    62
    From afar, Balan Wonderworld looks amazing and charming, but as soon as you get a little closer, its magic is lost. Balan Wonderworld got stuck in the nostalgia and success that Sonic and Nights into Dreams had during their prime. It does not take risks and its creativity falls short.
  3. PC Invasion
    Mar 29, 2021
    60
    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.
  4. IGN
    Mar 30, 2021
    40
    Balan Wonderworld isn’t always an awful platformer, but it is a consistently boring one. It’s full of charming character designs and the occasional hint of a clever idea, but its insistence on being a one-button game with dozens of needlessly overlapping abilities that are thrown aside just as fast as they are introduced rots it to the core. It’s a mess of undercooked concepts and clunky mechanics that slow it to a crawl, and it seems to take inspiration from better games without properly recapturing what actually makes them fun. Its platforming never evolves beyond the most basic possible obstacles it can throw at you, but it's the fundamentally flawed choices behind that mediocrity that take Balan Wonderworld from unamusing to outright bad.
  5. Gfinity
    Apr 5, 2021
    30
    Balan Wonderworld gets no standing ovation for me – not even a clap. In fact, get your tomatoes at the ready for this musical theatre flop because as much as I wanted to like Balan Wonderworld (and believe me, I really wanted to like it) this game gets more than a few boos from me. With basic platforming, the removal of a jump button, and a distinct lack of challenge, there's little to recommend here.
  6. GameSkinny
    Mar 30, 2021
    30
    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.
  7. CGMagazine
    Apr 11, 2021
    20
    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.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 74
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 74
  3. Negative: 37 out of 74
  1. Larryor
    Mar 28, 2021
    10
    The most adorable and fun game released this year.
    I appreciate each strange mechanism of this, and Balan is just the best charismatic hero today
  2. Ixyom
    Mar 29, 2021
    10
    Easily one of the best platform games of this decade.
    A truly surprising experience.
    Fun to play
  4. Ephuna
    Mar 27, 2021
    10
    What a ride. A luminous and intriguing journey around the normal experience of the people of this game.
    Lovely message with sublime    What a ride. A luminous and intriguing journey around the normal experience of the people of this game.
    Lovely message with sublime soundtrack.
    Top 10 best platform for me    … Expand
  5. Sprixy
    Apr 16, 2021
    4
    I think young kids might be fine with this game and will find much enjoyment out of this but anything past that is a far cry. This games plotI think young kids might be fine with this game and will find much enjoyment out of this but anything past that is a far cry. This games plot is quite unexplained with it only being told through cutscenes which sometimes literally have no subtitles or context to explain whats going on. Part of the story also feels pretty much like a knockoff of Persona 5 or Kingdom Hearts plot as it revolves around stealing/changing hearts narrative. But what P5 and Kingdom Hearts does well with this game does not. I dont even wanna go into the dance scenes that happen at the end of the levels as they are even more of a complete joke on this games story and content . Level wise, the rolling features and how the world is generated are actually quite creative and is likewise a unique concepts that i do think would work well in a far better game. Aside from that, most of these levels suck and are far too simple and boring to be considered a challenge for anyone whos not a young child. Costumes are also probably the worst feature of this game by far when it comes into level design(and they have 80 of them!). For example, you literally have costumes that break blocks but cant jump and then literally costumes that do the exact same thing. You could also even have costumes that are strait useless since the level literally doesn't even require you to use the abilities presented. However I think the biggest waste of time in the levels is the gold hats that take you through these weird mini game things where you literally press A at a specific time ( I dont know it was a weird concept ). Boss battles however are the worst of this game. Understanding that this is a kid friendly platformer, I do get that boss battles like these are meant to be simple, but the ones in Balan are too simple and worse. You can literally walk up to the boss and hit it without even trying and the game has no defenses in place to make it challenging. One boss even moved so slow that you could literally catch up to it and showed how baffling unfinished and easy the level was. It is such a shame that this is actually the only action gameplay presented in this game as it is unbearably slow and boring. Overall, this and the story shows how much of a joke this game is. From the cringeworthy narrative and god awful dance scenes to the nightmare of gameplay, this game is a joke to all platformers. Whats even ironic about this all is that the creators of one of the best platformers (Sonic) are involved in this game and this game was built as the launch title for the new Balan company at Square Enix. I don't even know how the hell talent such as theirs lead to such an awful game and could be one of the worst games of 2021. My only positives I can however give this game is the level generation (specifically on the first world) that actually was quite interesting, the entertainment and simplicity that may make it popular for young kids, and some of the soundtrack although there have been theories of this game using stolen Mario and Ghostbusters music. As for my final thoughts for this game however, I would definitely not buy this.… Expand
  6. Selenio
    Apr 17, 2021
    2
    bad platformer. most suits useless or one time gimmicks. simply horrendous control binding
  7. yourmomspartner
    Aug 18, 2022
    0
    game bad no update me angy me no like ths gme is soooooooooo bed not fun and realy annotin
  8. beegyodhi
    Apr 1, 2021
    0
    This game is like eating burnt toast off of rotten broccoli. The sluggish pace is like the slimy verdure, and the burnt toast is like theThis game is like eating burnt toast off of rotten broccoli. The sluggish pace is like the slimy verdure, and the burnt toast is like the stiff animations and bland gameplay. Truly a catastrophe. Would trip over again… Expand

See all 74 User Reviews

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37
#37 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

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