My biggest problem with the game is everything between the start and end of the game, although the game has one great feature that I love, The Uninstall Button
"Balan Wonderworld was supposed to be the biggest 3D platformer of the year." Me: it was? I thought that was supposed to be Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart or Psychonauts 2
I'm playing through it right now and it's hard to explain it's attempt at mixing wonderment with game design and visual story telling. It's not perfect which is why it makes it so fascinating. I just recently played through Lucky's Tail which is why it's easy to make this comparison but, what that game lacks in whimsy this totally makes up for it. Lucky's Tail is a very competent and well put together game but it's ideas and stylization are so derivative of the genre. I'm honestly having just as much enjoyment scratching my head through Balan Wonderland.
This was a game that by all means SHOULD'VE BEEN GOOD! This was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Nights, but sadly, something went wrong in development and the game suffered as a result.
@@sakurai143 Kirby still keeps the attack and jump actions mapped to different buttons and Kirby has the advantage of 2D allowing directional inputs in combination with the attack button to dictate extra actions.
Totally agree. I mean Balan is like it could've been Night's from "Nights into Dreams" grandfather because this game borrows a lot of that game's concept but yet they somehow drop the ball big time
Any other person defending this game angrily shouting to others to play it and give it a chance instead of being a "hater." Well thing is, others *had* played the game and used that as their experience to convey their opinions about it.
@@orangeslash1667 Let's be honest, Yuji Naka never really cared that much about Sonic given that he is partially responsible for the cancellation of Sonic X-treme. Also, many of Sonic Adventure's problems are his fault.
@@Austinator0630 the reason why sonic X-treme was canceled is because Sega needed the nights engine to make X-treme, Yuji Naka would not allow it because he loves Nights too much.
@@orangeslash1667 That's the point. The fact that Naka refused to allow others to use dev tools he created show how selfish he is. Besides, everyone who loved the original knows how lackluster the sequel is.
I honestly thought Square Enix could do no wrong since it released amazing titles such as the Kingdom Hearts franchise, the Final Fantasy franchise, the Dragon Quest franchise, Trials of Mana, etc: but now I don't know anymore. Why would Square Enix be involved with this?
This game is a great example of why legacy of old creators that had megahits 3 decades ago doesn't mean he still knows how to make a game good or even understands what made Sonic games good originally.
I have a feeling that this might be one of those games in the future that is worth a lot of money because of how terrible it is. It might be this generation's Superman 64.
The one button control scheme causes a cascade of other bad design choices as a result. The game is also a very clear case of quantity over quality with the power ups.
I rented it from my public library for my ps5 to see for myself if it's that bad..... to be fair it is a pretty looking game. Some of the graphics of the game looks gorgeous on my ps5 but the game play can be frustrating. I will play it until I beat it and will probably pick it up on a deep sale for my switch as part of my digital collection....I will be real and say that I can't wait to finish this rental and return it to my local library so many other rentals I want to play ie Rachet and Clank Can't wait to play that one!
Balan Wonderworld is one of the most disappointing games ever for me, however, It got a few things I liked. The story was mysterious and touching at times , and the character design is very inspiring. Just like other games by Naka, it created an innocent, bizzare enviroment that made me feel somewhat nostalgic. But of course when a game is bad, then everything is bad in it, so developers will be too scared to get out of their safe-zone and will continue to feed us the same expriences forever.
NO NO NO! I refuse to believe that this game is bad! this is supposed to be the resurrection the original Sonic Team! I wanted them to bring back Akinori Nishiyama and make a spiritual successor to the Sonic Adventure series if this worked! I WANT THIS TO SUCCEED!!!!!!
I'm not defending this game, but you were wrong about one thing. The dance animations are actually in sync with the music. It looks really forced, janky, and emotionless but they do actually dance with the music.
Does anybody think that this game has the chance to turn around aka redeem itself? Do you think Square Enix should give Yuji Naka another chance? You may never know. If this game were to be overhauled, it would have better control (not being overly simple), more music tracks, reducing the number of costumes and make the game more fleshed out than when it came out. And you know, those cutscenes look like something that should be made into a movie, it looks just as good as a Pixar movie.
I doubdt it, but if something like that would ever happen I want it to be No Man's Sky style. Just tweet that you will be working on the game, go silent and just do it. There is enough constructive criticism and great ideas in a lot of reviews, so just use them. If they do that they'd be legends
I disagree with the music statement. The Mario Odyssey point is kind of valid, but most of the other tracks (ESPECIALLY THE BOSS THEMES) are pretty memorable
It's bad because the "talent" behind the game is bad. Many people are forgetting that Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima's studios "Prope" and "Arzest" are Bargain Bin game developers who haven't made a single actually great game since their establishment. And NO, Rodea the Sky Soldier on Wii is nowhere NEAR as good as the games they made in their prime at Sega. The two of them lost their touch decades ago, and they thrive on their former glory days rather than innovate for the current gen.
Wow, slap that into the pile of "stuff seemingly ripped off from Super Mario Odyssey". 6:34 - the costume is pretty much the exact mechanic that Mario gets when he possesses an Uproot.
The only feeling I have that can best describe this game is in the very 1st trailer for Sonic Forces. Sonic grins in anger as he sees the mass produced Death Egg robots lay waste to his world. And to me, it's as if he has that same reaction when he sees the dumpster fire that Balan Wonderworld is, and the shame he feels for his father figures that let him down since 2006 and fell into the abyss to this very day ...
So many ideas and gimmicks being thrown at the player, but with very little direction or guidance. Some costumes hinder the player and slow their progress to a halt, while other costumes completely break the levels and/or game overall. The cut-scenes and "Balan Bouts" look amazing, but the latter offers very little interaction from the player, while still demanding PERFECTION in order to get a necessary reward. All of the interesting information (i.e. character/NPC names and respective backstories, obscure game mechanics, and even game lore) was WITHHELD from the game itself, and placed into a separate, rarely mentioned book! Whether you like this game or not, you can't deny that it certainly has MORE than its fair share of flaws.
4:14 BULLSHIT! They could have made at least ONE dedicated jump button and the other 3 buttons could have been for suit powers. That is a piss poor excuse when Mario has been pulling this off for YEARS
"buh-ins", it fucking irritates me when people pronounce simple words incorrectly. It's one thing if English isn't you're first language and are just learning it. It's understandable then. He's a born and raised Canadian. English is his first language. There is no excuse.
@@gfear24 I’m not Canadian but I don’t think you understand the difference between someone pronouncing something incorrectly, and just someone having a different accent to you…
I like the game. I thought the music, game scenery, character design, and cutscenes were good. The gameplay... I don’t know if I can find the right word, disappointing but kind of tolerable. Slowly gets better but not to being great. I can see why some to little amounts of people can like this. It kind of has a oddly unique charm. The one button mechanic is okay to me. However, I didn’t like the idea of 80 costumes and the “Balan’s Bout” mini game. Too tedious to do and to get the 100% completion. Maybe make the numbers of costumes less and make them upgrade as you progress in the game. About 40 costumes. Also I didn’t feel like it was a $60 game. Probably $20-$30. Another thing is probably make cutscenes about the characters in each chapter. Surprisingly, there is a book that talks about the lore of the game. This includes Balan, the playable characters, Lance, and the people you help in the chapters. Maybe they should have added some parts of that book into cutscenes as you progress through the chapters. Lastly, which is a small one, I think they should have had more interactions with the hub world and the Tims. As it can be kind of boring at times. The Tims look cute but it still can be boring at times. Despite me liking it, I definitely don’t recommend it for the majority of gamers. However I do see why some people like myself like it. It’s not great as it’s a mess, but likable. I think currently, the only people that would play this game would be the ones that will still try the game because they know it (like myself) or for the curiosity that it does exist. Is that fair to say? I’ll gladly agree to disagree and shake hands for people that oppose the game though.
I actually liked this game. Don't get me wrong, it's clunky and the music is terrible, but the concept of helping people just for the sake of helping people made this the kind of game I could enjoy, I find it soothing
I am currently renting this game from my local library for the ps5 and while it's a pretty looking game at times and some fun could be had........I just want to beat this game and return it and move on to something else......maybe I'll pick it up on sale digitally for my switch at a really steep discount....maybe.....
@matt fahringer It's more that he wants smash to be a celebration of videogame history, which means it only stars characters that originated in video games.
Welll.... Maybe if they were more open about the games development during the time it was being developed, they could've gotten well needed criticism so they could improve the game. Plus it's always hard to create a game with such a scope They should've tried for smaller, rather than going as big as they could, basically making this a collect-a-thon. Even if the game was 6 hours tops, like Luigis mansion or something, it would be fine anyway. I feel like the potential WAS there, since people were captivated by the games cutscenes and animation, but because of the gameplay, it sorts fell short. Heck, even the levels themselves look great. The balance of work was very clearly poorly done, since it looks like they put too much work in the costumes and worlds
I actually thought it *was* wonderland. I haven’t seen much of this tbh but from what I have seen it looked like it had a sort of Alice in Wonderland aesthetic going on so wonderland made sense in my mind. When I heard wonderworld I was like what?? 😹
I think they have to REMADE game, with the stuff everyone wants, like what happen with No Man's Sky, which got updates where they make it better than it was released years ago.
This game is horrendous, its like a kid's game. No difficulty, the costumes have really stupid abilities and the levels are so boring. What a pile of hot garbage. Good thing I only played the demo before I committed any money to this dump.
More accurately, a bad kids game that treats kids like idiots. There are plenty of kids games that treat respect the player's intelligence, Balan doesn't.
Aside from terrible controls and confusing gameplay, the game’s biggest problem in my opinion is not fixing the game with updating the game or with patches. How would you explain games like Assassins Creed Unity, Rocket League, and Minecraft? Those games each had struggles and are terrible during the first months or the first year of release. If Balan World gets fixed with updates or patches, then it could be better. But Yuji and the team chooses not to update or fix the game, the same problem with a lot of Sonic games
@matt fahringer that's fair enough dude. It may not be for everyone. I think it's a good game. 30 minutes is probably not long enough to establish a fair judgement
I was so excited, like the most excited I've ever been about anything and had a spark ignite with the trailer but it was sad it flopped, this is made by the co-creators of Sonic and the closest to a sequel or anything related to NiGHTS and I really thought it would succeed but no, it didn't and that alone pulled me back into a depressive state.
Not a single jump button? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! This is NOT the year 1981. It's 2021! This game is worse than your average Atari 2600 game. Having every button being the action button is wasteful. Yuji Naka is now a laughing stock. What a s---load of f--k! Talk about a rise and fall of a legend. The higher-ups at Square Enix (known for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest) are going to have to let the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog off the hook. Somebody's gotta hack this crappy game, implement a separate jump function by untethering it from the actions, and remove all the musical plagiarism, and make custom 8K textures. See? That solves the problem. Looks like I gotta get going! L8R N3RDZ!
The whole game feels like a Mario Odyssey rip off gameplay wise. "Get different costumes with different powers " ... kinda like absorbing different enemies to get different powers. One of the powers is exactly like mario Odysseys not just in action but appearance. Use a plant based costume/ enemy to stretch your twisted vine body to get higher.
Wow, playing this game right now and I don't see why people say it's bad? The worlds are colorful and vibrant, the characters are lovable, the costume mechanic is solid and everything else that people said is garbage, I liked it too! I think just like No Man's Sky, this game will get better with updates. Although this game was negatively received, I love the absolute heck out of it! And everyone's got to realize this. It's better than freaking Sonic 06!
Being better than Sonic 06 or being compared to No Man's Sky in any capacity isn't saying much. Balan is also not a game that can be fixed with updates, especially now that the game is 100% dead and Square is already forgetting that it ever happened.
Wow, The Gaming Community has become so toxic, they even needed to have WatchMojo of all people tell us how trash this game is... As for me? I never cared about it since the day it was announced, sooooo...Whatever.
@@ClockwerkSamurai12 Nobody ever pointed the hate at the man himself... Your the only one bringing it up, the creator of this video didnt even CONSIDER any racism.
