After the free demo for Balan Wonderworld experienced abysmal reception from critics, the momentum built for director Yuji Naka's return to AAA games all but vanished. Publisher and Developer Square Enix boasted a massive wardrobe of costumes, fantastic worlds to explore, and a heartfelt story about self-reflection, but what players receive is an outdated 3D platformer that lacks originality and direction. Balan Wonderworld is the skeleton of what could have been a magical gaming experience, but it crumbles under the weight of dated choices and, fully realized, is a bland, unexciting addition to the genre.
Expectations for Balan Wonderworld were fairly high after it was revealed that Yuji Naka would be directing the project. Naka is known for his work as the former head of the Sonic Team, and as the lead developer of Nights Into Dreams, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, and Phantasy Star Online. These hit titles from the '90s and early 2000s raised the hopes of nostalgic gamers that Balan Wonderworld would be a successor to the adventure platformers from their childhood.
However, the first few minutes of beautiful CGI is both captivating and confusing, and sets the stage for the reality of the Balan Wonderworld experience. Square Enix is known for its impressive cutscenes, and Balan Wonderworld's are no exception. The issue is that the game itself has very few story elements. Outside of the beginning and end cutscenes, the main character isn't involved in Balan Wonderworld's story. There are two cutscenes that play before and after every boss fight that tells the story of the person involved in that level, but they would have been more effective if put at the beginning and end of each world. In Balan Wonderworld, things just happen and continue to happen with no explanation. This lack of story is not only frustrating but also removes any drive to beat the game.
What's more frustrating than the lack of story is the simplicity that is Balan Wonderworld's gameplay. Every button on the controller is the same action, so outside of controlling the camera and what direction the character walks, players just have to press any of the buttons on their controller to perform the single action they are allowed. This is an annoyance when navigating menus and there isn't a back button. It also feels like wasted potential and makes some of the costumes feel cheap or a nuisance.
There are 80 different costumes that can be found across 12 worlds but there definitely don't need to be this many. There are various costumes that are the exact same as one another in terms of ability, and the only thing that changes is the character's appearance. Several costumes allow players to float for a distance after they jump, some shoot lasers involuntarily if the player is standing still, and others feel like they do nothing at all. Some of the costumes grant very cool or useful abilities that make playing Balan Wonderworld a lot more enjoyable, but if a player takes damage while wearing that costume they will lose it. The player will then have to travel back to the level where that costume is found and collect a new one if they wish to continue playing as their favorite costume.
However, players will have to do a lot of backtracking to get certain costumes if they want to complete Balan Wonderworld 100%. That's because Balan Wonderworld's means of progression is through collecting golden trophies. Similar to Super Mario, players have to collect a certain number of trophies to unlock the next set of worlds. There are 228 trophies in total, but players only have to collect 110 to beat the game. Despite being less than half of the total number, collecting 110 trophies is a slog and some trophies require players to obtain hidden costumes that can only be found using other hidden costumes.
Balan Wonderworld litters dull mini-games throughout each world, and some of them are mandatory for players to collect every trophy. Some one-time-use costumes will enter players into a small sports game where they have to play soccer, golf, or baseball. There are also near-identical quick-time events that require a perfect score in order to get a trophy. Balan Wonderworld has a few other collectibles to hunt, but they don't have any major effect on the game.
Revisiting levels wouldn't be so bad if the levels themselves weren't as uninspired or boring. Compared to the visual appeal of the game's cutscenes, the actual environments in Balan Wonderworld aren't nearly as polished. It's essentially one big scavenger hunt, but every level being a straight shot to the end makes finding trophies feel less like an achievement. A spectacular collectathon like Super Mario Odyssey hides Power Moons in a way that makes players feel a sense of accomplishment when they find one, but Balan Wonderworld's gatekeeping trophies are a chore to collect. There are minuscule portions of Balan Wonderworld that allow for exploration, but they feel more like an afterthought instead of an explored concept.
As memorable as Balan Wonderworld's levels aren't, the boss fights that conclude every world are even less so. With the exception of the final boss, which is one of the highlights of Balan Wonderworld, each boss has a small move pattern they follow and only takes three hits to kill. They aren't very challenging and none of them have additional boss phases which make each fight take a few minutes. There's also no risk of getting hit by a boss's attack since each fight has an infinite number of dev-intended costumes readily available during the fight.
There are a couple of bright spots amidst Balan Wonderworld's mundane platforming. The Tim Tower is similar to Sonic Adventure 2's Chao Garden where players can collect little chicken-bunnies and feed them the crystals they obtain in each level. The more Tims eat the more they will contribute to the growth of Balan Wonderworld's hub area. This doesn't have any major impact on the overall game, but it's still an enjoyable little farming simulator.
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.
Balan Wonderworld is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. Screen Rant was provided a digital PlayStation 5 code for the purpose of this review.