Imagine going though a wonderful adventure in a colorful world, with beautiful, cute creatures, menacing enemies, emotional connections from the denizens you encounter and rewarding challenges that push you to your limits… that world is called Ori and the Blind Forest. Balan Wonderworld is a different place, a dark place where your inner child goes to die and all things you love about gaming die alongside it. I am not even certain that is an exaggeration.



Balan Wonderworld identifies as a platformer, but the challenges are somewhat childlike, and failure is mostly caused by not understanding what the game wanted from you due to its poor game design, rather than requiring you to improve as a gamer. The design of these levels is also archaic, a random mess with little to no consideration. In today’s day and age, it is totally unacceptable, particularly for a title with as steep a price as Balan Wonderworld. The fact that levels are often complex, including portals, high rises and winding steps makes it all the more unpleasant to experience.

The game does include some collectables that entice players to explore and be more thorough with the environment, but due to the lacklustre environments, it feels more like a chore than a challenge.



I also found the levels to make me feel physically unwell, not due to flashing lights, but rather the strange wavelike behaviour of some of the maps, the painful camera clipping or the head-scratching camera changes that occur from time to time. Although this may be something oddly specific to me or my environment, it’s an additional bit of evidence that this game simply wasn’t given the love it really needed before being released to larger audiences.

...the diversity in design, powers and impact it has on the game was actually quite refreshing.

The one aspect of Balan Wonderworld I did enjoy were the outfits - some of them were underwhelming - but the diversity in design, powers and impact it has on the game was actually quite refreshing. Unfortunately, some of these outfits are very one-dimensional and it's almost hard to find uses for them where they would excel over even the base outfit. Some of them are a load of fun and I do think there is an opportunity here for some fantastic speed running material, but for the average gamer, it probably just is not enough to save the game.



Most of the enemies you encounter are also very one-dimensional. If one could compare a game like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that balances the game around knowing and limiting all the experiences one could have, Balan Wonderworld instead runs into the opposite issue. By making the encounters so randomized that the only option is to dumb them down to the point that anything will work against them, often you can simply ignore them as they offer little to no threat anyways. Now, that’s not to say that there was a total lack of effort and there are exceptions to the rule, but the gameplay loop just doesn’t hold up when the foes that block your path are burdens instead of memorable.



The boss fights are not much better either. Comparing Balan Wonderworld to something like Mario seems difficult considering how far behind it is, but even though both games often have basic bosses with repetitive move sets, this game simply does not do it well. It is not fun, it is not smart and the biggest threat of the bosses, as a repeating theme in this game, is simply not understanding what exactly you are supposed to do against them. Once you do go through the trial and error issues you may encounter, these bosses become trivial.

Comparing Balan Wonderworld to something like Mario seems difficult considering how far behind it is...

The bugs and exploits are something else. It is rare that a game can make it out to consumers with such glaring issues that are easily found. But what if the exploit is intentional? See, it's possible to cheese bosses with mechanics that are just part of the game. It is somewhat the same issue as you experience with regular mobs, but if you can triple jump and the boss doesn’t cater for it, you have a problem with your design.



The controls are messy at best, although they do not really have any sticking issues and since the outfits are mostly easy to understand, it is not hard to pick up a new outfit and master it. It does fall short for the same reason that many games of this nature do, as it is uncomfortable trying to land on a specific spot when you jump. It is not challenging, but it just does not have the same feeling you get when playing something that is a little more polished. There’s a difference between feeling the controls and figuring out where the shadow is in relationship to your character and it's evident that Balan Wonderworld doesn’t hold up in that regard.



I really did find myself oddly attached to the character design and graphics, it was the one really redeeming factor for me and I particularly enjoyed the look and feel of the cinematics, but that is not nearly enough to save this game.

Honestly, I think it is unacceptable that a game was released of this quality at this price point. I urge people to ignore Balan Wonderworld as it is evident that the developers and the titans that are Square Enix were simply happy producing a cash grab that could be given little concern as the it would not affect their bigger titles' reputation.



*PS5 Review code provided by Square Enix
*Reviewed by Devin Rigotti