Balan Wonderworld review: Soundtrack and performanceĪlthough there are a lot of problems with Balan Wonderworld, one aspect of the game you can rely on is the soundtrack. I stopped playing Balan’s Bouts halfway through the game, and gave up the ability to hit 100% completion to preserve my sanity. There’s even a Statue available if you get a perfect score, and if you fail to do this (which you will) you have to leave the stage and find the mini game again. Every one of them takes so long, and I couldn’t tell them apart if you paid me. In these interactive cutscenes, you watch Balan fighting a shadowy monster and have to time a button press to his attacks. The opposite end of the fun spectrum are these abysmal sections called Balan’s Bouts. My favourite are the sports mini-games, which reward you with gems for hitting baseballs, scoring penalties or getting holes in one. There are a few other side activities in Balan Wonderworld, and like so much of the game are a mixed bag. None of this is particularly well explained, but it at least gives you a reason for collecting shiny things. Each turn of the wheel gets you closer to building a bigger tower and upgrading the clock of happiness. Tims that have bellies full of gems will help turn the wheel, so grabbing them is important if you want to partake is this side objective. By hatching adorable birds called Tims from the eggs, you can turn a wheel to build and upgrade the Tower of Tims. It’s usually easy enough to find enough to progress with the costumes found in the individual levels, but it’s also possible to return at any time with new powers to reach more when needed.Īlongside Balan Statues, you also find gems and eggs to upgrade the hub area. These are essentially the Stars or Jiggys of the game, and are needed to unlock new worlds. This one button control scheme even carries across to menus, and it doesn’t take long to realise that there’s a reason most games use other buttons! Collectibles and mini-gamesĭespite these issues, Balan Wonderworld is enjoyable when exploring a small world looking for collectible Balan Statues. Switching between outfits takes longer than necessary too, as an animation takes place, so constantly swapping between an outfit for fighting and one for jumping gets pretty tiresome. Everything you do in Balan Wonderworld is controlled by pressing a single action button, and because of this there are no abilities (like jumping) that are applicable to every outfit. The core concept of transforming into different outfits would be a lot more fun if their powers were a little less basic. It’s only possible to bring three costumes at once, so it’s important to bring useful powers. Some costumes assist with getting to platforms thanks to jumping abilities, some give attacking powers with which to pummel enemies and breakable blocks, and others do very little outside of very specific circumstances. To traverse these worlds you’ll need to find and switch between different costumes, each with their own unique ability. Very little of what’s happening is truly explained, but the premise lends itself to visiting some worlds I found interesting. Its the protagonists’s job to help with that, by beating a boss and performing a dance number with them. These range from having no friends due to an obsession with creepy crawlies, to losing a farm due to a tornado. Balan Wonderworld review: interesting worldsĮach world in Balan Wonderworld represents a real human with a life issue. That’s where the introduction of the titular Top Hat wearing demon happens, where Leo (or Emma) is whisked away into a world of campy stage outfits full of people with problems that need solving. Two months later and the full game is ready to experience in its entirety, for better or worse.Īfter choosing the character of Leo or Emma, the adventure begins by wandering into the mysterious Balan theatre. Unfortunately the release of a demo in January did little to impress, with many fans begging for a delay so that issues could be fixed before launch. With Square Enix publishing, there was a glimmer of hope that we’d get a new Platforming franchise going forward. When announced last July, 3D platformer fans (myself included) were excited to get a new game from many of the talent behind the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Balan Wonderworld has had an eventful road to release.
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