60
Balan Wonderworld deserved to be far more than average, as the final game is a marked improvement over the demo. It's beautiful a lot of the time, character designs are mostly wonderful, the unique ideas that appear in each level are great fun… however the overall execution is simply lacking something important. The repetitive bouts, rough edges, and the sometimes awful physics make this a much harder title to recommend. It is full of bubbly unique charm, and is mostly heart-warmingly fun, but many will be put off by the slow, restrictive design, despite this being designed around it. Hopefully, the game will get some traction.
70
While not reaching its full potential, Balan Wonderworld is a grand and well designed adventure, which runs superbly on PS5. It’s perfect for family co-op play. [Issue#1, p.76]
55
Balan Wonderworld offers a great story, accompanied by an absolutely wonderful soundtrack. That's about all it offers, though. In the end, mediocre graphics and rough gameplay make for a rather disappointing package.
5
quello che sembra una demo è purtroppo un gioco completo venduto a un prezzo boostato con fin troppi problemi che annoia in poco tempo con un level design pigro e un gameplay legnoso e facile. 3.2/10
0
Alright, so I wanna make this VERY clear.... The 10 ratings are by users with well... Only one review to their account. I don't use review sites outside of reference but because either devs or bots want to make this seem like a wrongfully hated game... I gotta do my part in giving it a 0. Realistically it's a 1. Read below as for why: They spent all the budget on the cutscenes... No for real though the cutscenes resemble end of service ps3 era anime like graghics but when you play the **** boy! It lookslike a horrible GameCube tech demo. The game runs like ****, I'm talking 15-45ish frames with background objects going even worse. Play it on modern Gen hardware? It's more consistently 50 or so frames but that's not a complement. This is bad game engine optimization. Game looks like outdated no budget trash. On a very powerful system.... It should have zero lag. This is incompetence. Now allow me to lecture you the story... Drugs. No, no, I mean it has no narrative. No dialog other than balan ego stroking. There's literally nothing here man. It's a vacant story with bad cutscenes that look like they were pitched by a middleschooler. Npcs? Why are they HUGE? Why does everyone dance? Soundtrack is also incredibly mediocre it isn't great. Stop it. Npcs don't fade out they just pop out. Anytime you're close poof gone. Vanished. Now let's talk sound design... Not great. Hey, ho, whaho. That's the jump sounds. They get old... FAST. balan is literally Cappy but without any charm. He has horibble, as others put it copy and paste QTE sequences because yeah.... They're the same. Every. Single. Time. Trophies of balan... Look the exact same and they insist on showing you a big pop-up screen every time you get one. Why? Next let's talk about damage... You'll get hurt by moving objects that don't even crush or squeeze you or fall onto you. Yeah just touching them is enough to get an ouchie. The big part... Power ups.
I wanted to save this one for later, so you can hold like 3 to start the game... And that should tell you puzzles will be simple. Here's why... Some powers are simple as a jump. Spin jump. Yoshi jump. Bubble jump. Slam jump. Jump with electricity and can swim verrrrry sloooooow, dolphin can swim faster. Some powers can't even jump. It's Mario you jump on heads and they die. Bosses = 3 hit kill. Bosses lack any depth whatsoever it's just hit a projectile and then they loop an animation and throw more stuff for you to throw back at them. Literally sonic the hedgehog had more depth than this. F*** it even bubsy had better bosses. Even Alex Kidd. Alright I'm gonna a make this blatant as possible the game fricken ****. The endgame...
Chao gar... Sorry, I meant TiMs garden. You find droplets scattered across every level and mini game, you can throw them at color coded flower fields in the overworld hub.... Because you totally need colored flowers to drop colored droplets... And basically they glitch out like crazy and TiMs follow you around making weird mentally challenged Pokémon like noises. Why do they follow you? Who knows. But theydo automated tasks and it makes a ticker go up and at different numbers you unlock more stuff for your TiMs to like play or whatever... This doesn't do crap for you btw. Oh yeah you can breed them... How? Just throw the small Tim at the big Tim... Yikes.
10
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Balan Wonderworld
Released On:
Mar 26, 2021
Metascore
Mixed or Average
51
User score
Mixed or Average
5.1
My Score
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
51
3% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
66% Mixed
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
31% Negative
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
Mar 27, 2021
82
If you have a soft spot for classic 3D platformers and imaginative game worlds, you'll have a lovely time with Balan Wonderworld. With a heartfelt story, plenty of cuteness, a clever costume system, and oodles of stages to master; it's one incredible adventure.
Jul 20, 2021
60
Balan Wonderworld deserved to be far more than average, as the final game is a marked improvement over the demo. It's beautiful a lot of the time, character designs are mostly wonderful, the unique ideas that appear in each level are great fun… however the overall execution is simply lacking something important. The repetitive bouts, rough edges, and the sometimes awful physics make this a much harder title to recommend. It is full of bubbly unique charm, and is mostly heart-warmingly fun, but many will be put off by the slow, restrictive design, despite this being designed around it. Hopefully, the game will get some traction.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.1
43% Positive
129 Ratings
129 Ratings
7% Mixed
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
50% Negative
148 Ratings
148 Ratings
Oct 11, 2024
10
The choice of psychological themes was simply unique. I love music in video games and I thought the choreography of the characters was really beautiful.
Mar 31, 2021
60
Balan Wonderworld is a passable platformer marred by a string of increasingly baffling design decisions. It has charm by the bucketload and off-the-wall concepts that land well in spite of themselves, but the experience is inconsistent at best and frustrating at worst. There is a good game in here somewhere, and it is great fun at points, but waiting for those points isn’t really worth it.
Mar 30, 2021
55
Balan Wonderworld had good intentions, but it get two of its core mechanics wrong: its control and the suit system. It’s still enjoyable, although not as much as it could have been.
Mar 27, 2021
50
Balan Wonderworld offers some good and colorful stories for the younger gamers, but there are too many technical problems and the gameplay is far too rigid and abstruse.
Mar 30, 2021
40
While Balan Wonderworld has a few interesting ideas tucked up its costumed sleeves, none of them are executed particularly well, which makes the game feel like a real chore to play. From its dozens of forgettable costumes and frustrating mechanics to its uninspired visuals, it’s hard to recommend adding this one to your PS5 library, especially when there are much better platformers like Astro’s Playroom and Sackboy: A Big Adventure already available.
Apr 5, 2021
20
If only Naka, staying true to form, had given the whole thing a dose of high speed; his work only holds together when it hurtles past our eyes, growing vivid with velocity.
Jun 23, 2021
10
Balan Wonderworld > The Last Of Us Part 2! Balan Wonderworld has everything that TLOU2 doesn't, including the following. 1. Gameplay that is generally fun and full of unique/creative variety that always keeps the game fresh as you progress through it, and is not just a boring walking simulator. 2. Characters that are interesting, charming and naturally likable, and the way they tackle serious issues in life gives you a good reason to care about the characters!... In other words they're not just bland generic flesh-robots that you're forced to play as after one of them abruptly murders the beloved main character (without any proper transition/build-up that would've given it an emotional impact that it completely lacks when it happens), nor do they feel incredibly forced and manipulative with little to no actual character development whatsoever with their main appeal being pretty much just SJW bait. The characters in Balan Wonderworld are nothing like that at all. 3. A decent story that is pretty simple but carefully structured in a way that is easy to follow, and is not an overly complicated incoherent mess that doesn't even know what kind of messages it's trying to convey, nor is it overall insulting to human intelligence to the point where it ultimately pushes you away and makes you never wanna play it ever again, instead of it drawing you in wanting more, which Balan Wonderworld always does! (Unlike TLOU2)
Oct 9, 2025
5
quello che sembra una demo è purtroppo un gioco completo venduto a un prezzo boostato con fin troppi problemi che annoia in poco tempo con un level design pigro e un gameplay legnoso e facile. 3.2/10
May 13, 2023
5
Just a boring one-button platformer, which clearly did not have enough time to finalize the game.
Apr 22, 2021
4
I was planning to review games for a long time. But it's sad that my first review has to be negative. This game is just not very good. There are some ideas that may would have worked, if they would have delayed the game to polish it. The character design is cute and some worlds also look nice. But the main game play is just not very fun. There are costumes that disable your jump in a jump and run game. And changing costumes cost way too much time. Some are even an insult. Like costumes that activate randomly and may throw you down into a bottomless pit. Just who thought this is a fun ability? The Level design is weak and difficulty is non existed. (Okay for a kids game) But again: Why do you add a QTE mini games that you have to perfect (first try) to 100% complete the game? If you fail, you have to restart the stage. And this stupid mini game appears in every stage. And takes way too long. And in some stages even 2 to 3 times. Who thought this would be a nice idea? Kids get bored or frustrated by this. Cut scenes are nice and some of the mini stories would be cute. But again there is repetition. And you not learn much else about the characters before the boss fight. I don't know how often i have to ask why? Why do you only show cutscenes before and after the boss? Why not tell the story starting in level 1 (introduction), level 2 (the conflict), Boss (Resolve) Whoever made the gameplay decisions in the game, has never played a game before. There is no other explanation. The game sabotages itself at every corner. Every good idea is crushed by bad design choices. But the worst: The developers are buying reviews. I would have give the game a 6 but for this alone i have to subtract 2 more points!
Mar 31, 2021
4
One button masterpiece more like one button disasterpiece although astetically this game looks pretty and the idea behind the game was intuitive and somewhat creative it just doesn't tick the correct boxes for this generation of consoles merely a switch game at least. Although like everything it's to the players disiiar to play the game and make up there own mind.
SummaryBALAN 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 ... Read More
Rated E +10for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- Xbox Series X
- PlayStation 5
- PC
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date:Mar 26, 2021
Developer:
- Balan Company
- Arzest
Publisher:





























