When Balan Wonderworld was first revealed last July, we – and plenty of the Nintendo Life community, judging by these comments – were pretty intrigued to see how it would fair. The premise of a fresh 3D platformer from Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima, creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, was something we couldn't not keep an eye on, and hopes were high.
Sadly, though, things have gone downhill ever since. Doubt started to enter our minds as the game's demo hit digital stores, with the development team quickly stating that they plan to address all the negative player feedback it generated in a day-one patch. Then we got the final copy in our hands, and all our fears regarding the title's quality – or, sadly, the lack of – turned out to be true.
With very poor reviews all around, it's perhaps not surprising to see that the game has sold poorly worldwide. Last week's Japanese charts revealed that the physical copy of the game didn't manage to break into the top 30 in its opening week (it reportedly sold fewer than 2,100 copies), and it's a similar story elsewhere.
As reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, the game failed to hit the top 30 in the Nintendo eShop charts in both Japan and North America, and this week's UK charts show that the game didn't manage to break into the top 40, being outsold by plenty of titles that have been sitting in the charts for over 100 weeks.
It's a huge shame, especially since Yuji Naka has previously explained that this could be his one and only chance at making a successful 3D platformer at Square Enix, but it looks like even those suspicious, overly-positive fan reviews won't be able to turn this sinking ship around.
Thanks to Joe for the tip!
[source playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 178
Please stop, he's already dead.
The press killed sales.
This is why you don't hire arzest to develop your game
I'm not surprised. The caracter designs are very, very lacklustre.
If you were wondering about the PC sales.
They're pretty dismal too.
https://steamcharts.com/app/1341050#All
Which is probably a combination of the demo souring players, the $60 price tag, the mixed/poor reviews, and Denuvo anti-tamper being used, even ignoring competition.
How can this be with all that 10/10 user reviews in Metacritic????
As expected. From what I’ve seen, the game looked terrible.
Not that it's had much presence recently, and it's owned by different devs... I hope this doesn't impact NiGHTS, given they have similarities including creator. I tried the Balan demo with an open mind and was confused by some of the gameplay choices made. NiGHTS has been genuinely fun from memory and I hope this whole thing could revive the franchise if anything.
I still thinking Ratchet & Clank PS3 games look way much better and fun than Balan.
I'm happy to able to get ALL Ratchet & Clank PS3 games.
@Madder128 The sellers killed the sales imo
It is a huge shame but there is no escaping the fact that this is a truly dreadful piece of game development.
I find it hard to fathom that such a big name in gaming even allowed this to be released. It is shambolic.
Good. I only tried the demo and it was a dreadful waste of time. Waste of time and money for all involved I suspect!
Maybe they should have attempted to market this game? I'm generally pretty up on my game knowledge and what's comong out. Literally the only thing I've seen about this game is that there are lots of fake reviews.
Yuji Naki sounds like huge knac- erm, anyway, sounds like he made a balls up. O.<
To be serious, some folk I know who have played it have had some enjoyment out of it. Granted, it's no 10/10 But it is something I would like to play at some point as his work does have things to appreciate.
I mean when the top people in your creative team as well as all the producers live so far up their own ass they still think they can sell based on name alone ... you get this.
And FF13
And FF15
@HeadPirate
Idk why you put these two examples. FF13 had its flaws but its good it ain't bad, and FF15 is a fantastic experience even though it had a troubled development.
This is kind of a perfect storm: Bad game, terrible reviews, meager marketing, full MSRP. I think the character designs hurt too. Balan isn't immediately iconic like Sonic or Mario. What is Balan!? The average person won't know. The name too isn't catchy. Is Balan a character, a place?
Everything about this release seems ill-advised.
Man, the seizures problem with the final boss smells like rushed development. What kind of testing let all that white clipping go to the final product?
Edit- I say "rushed development" in the development team's defense. Maybe they weren't given a deadline that was possible to deliver the game they envisioned
Kingdom Hearts III singlehandedly turned Einhander into a cult classic. I don't know about the game proper, but pre-release material makes this a perfect fit for the Disney/Square multiverse.
In other news:
The sun is hot!
Hehe, I’m feeling something that’s called “Schadenfreude” in German.
@Madder128 unless you’re Pokémon...
The price tag was ridiculous, and the state of the game at release was especially outrageous given what they were asking for. Pretty sad that this is from Yuji Naka, surely he can’t be happy with what was put out there?
At least, despite all logic, they released a demo to warn us about their product.
Maybe Naka and Oshima could go back to Sonic Team, and create a THIRD NiGHTS game, about a girl who wants to be better in sports, and a boy who wants to take the stage, you know, to change up the formula of the Two Visitors from the past two games. I mean, the two Visitors can have their own personal nightmares to overcome by Dualizing with NiGHTS, and defeating Wizeman and Reala together.
@NintendoKnight
FF13 was a walking simulator. 12 hours of moving forward and watching cut scenes before a single open zone. 13-2 was great, but that was tri-ace.
FF15 wasn't even an experience. It was a small part of experience. The hubris in saying "if you want to know who these people are, go watch our movie" is, objectively, something not a single person should have forgiven. Also we must have played a different game ... the one I played day 1 was a almost completely empty world with no side quests and combat that completely broke down as soon as you have 3 enemies.
By all means, like what you like. You don't have to justify why you enjoyed something to anyone, least of all some dude on the internet.
But ... my point. I guarantee you that if some no-name studio released an RPG with no branching paths of story that was basically linear hallways or a game where the "open world" was devoid of anything whatsoever, where you had to go on a treasure hunt of other media if you wanted the full experience ... it would be remembered as a disaster.
Yuji Naka won't last long at Square Enix if he kept making a flop like this. I hope his next project will be better otherwise I don't see them keeping him for long.
Well, I still bought the game anyways. My flagship EB Games in my region only had 1 copy to sell on PS5 and I took it. It's alright overall. Maybe I'm too generous with 3D Platformers, since I like the format and there's not much of it to get these days, but it's at least keeping me engaged.
The worst thing about it is that it has no problem wasting your time. Platforming is clunky, animations are long, enemies spawn way too quickly. Backtracking between worlds is naturally in this game's identity. In order to retry Balan Boughts (since you only get trophies if you perfect the QTE and nothing less), you have to finish 3 levels first. How is it, that the man who brought us Sonic the Hedgehog has made a game that plays so painfully slow?
The thing that amazes me is that they put out the demo.
Without it (and with very limited reviewer access) they might have had a shot at decent sales before anyone realised it was a turkey.
The existence of the demo suggests to me that they somehow didn’t realise it would put people off.
Look at your Switch library and then remember they thought 60 bucks was fair market value 🤦♂️.
I mean, I bought it but I'm not proud of myself.
I wasn't expecting it to chart even if a lot of the technical/design issues were sorted. It's not particularly appealing besides the quality of the cutscenes.
-hopefully the devs don't feel to bad, this must have been a rough few months for them
The game is bad...
@Raylax legit, who keeps hiring these devs? The only good things Artoon/Arzest ever made were co-produced
They were given Yoshi's Island, as is, to make for DS. And the game's OST got massacred, additions don't fit, missing effects from the snes ver, lame gimmicks and some of the worst level design I've experienced, every single bit of it was painful to behold
They turned a 10/10 to a 3/10. Truly amazing
Between it not charting anywhere, not even on the eShops and a peak of 94 players on Steam.
Apparently it has Denuvo DRM on steam which costs ~£120,000 per year.
https://www.overclock3d.net/news/software/the_cost_of_denuvo_-_leaked_documents_reveals_how_much_crytek_paid_for_denuvo/1
There's a decent chance they won't even make enough back (24,000 copies) to pay for the DRM letalone the rest of the game development, marketing, shipping,etc.
I like your old stuff better than your new stuff.
@Madder128 More like the lack of
@Dr_Lugae I sure hope the prices are somewhat linked to sales/expectations of sales.
Because this is a lot of money.
Every time I hear something bad about this game, I just think 'schadenfreude!'
This game is one of those rare cases in which releasing a Demo hurt the game. If Square Enix hadn't done that, then lots of people would not have been turned of by it so early.
Sure, reviews would've still been bad but I don't think it would've had as big of a negative impact on the sales as the Demo has.
@Daniel36 That is literally the least of its problems.
@Josh_Hickory89 Bots
Hmm... Strange... Very strange indeed...
I'd say at $20 and you like platformers (or wait for PS Plus/Gamepass), it's worth a try. Definitely not at $60. There's a charm to the art style of the game and some of the costumes are creative. It's just too bad the main part of the game is a pretty mediocre at it's best experience and bland at it's worst.
My kids love this game. Maybe...maybe they made it for kids and not man babies?
PSH! This game is a 10/10. Glad I bought the physical copy. It's fun, charming, trippy, and a great experience.
@AbejaGrande Games can be made to appeal to adults and children simultaneously. The 3D Mario titles are living proof of that. And even games directed solely at children can be better designed or at least run smoothly. I'm glad your kids enjoy the game, and nobody wants to take that away from them, but Balan Wonderworld has some serious game design and performance flaws, and noticing and pointing those out doesn't make anyone a "man baby."
I do feel bad for Yuji Naja but realistically he's done nothing good since Sonic and NiGHTS. I didn't rate Billy Hatcher highly either.
@AbejaGrande I’m glad your kids like the game, but the game was marketed to a wider audience than just kids.
@AbejaGrande Most children also think Fortnite is the BEST GAME EVER. When I was a child I thought Home Alone 2 on the SNES was an amazing game and put hours into it. Children, especially young ones, are easily amused and don't always have the experience to differentiate between good and bad games.
@Madder128
The first trailer killed sales.
The demo killed sales.
The game is awful and there was never any real demand except from Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima diehards which turns out isn't that many people.
The game is trash, end of.
@Madder128 pretty sure it has more to do with the game being a steamy pile of hot dog sht.
I liked FFXIII I don’t care what anyone says.
To be honest, I thought this game was going to be stupid. I didn't try the demo but when I first heard about this game I was a little intrigued. The problem I had was trying to figure out what it would be about but I lost interest pretty fast and just thought it would be some dumb game probably.
Yuji Naka is no Shigeru Miyamoto.
@Bankaj LOL
I really want to pick this up once the price drops. The trailers made it look so good, but with all the criticism I'll be waiting just a bit longer before picking it up.
The only people who bought it were people who don’t read reviews and don’t look at gameplay to decide if they want to buy a game.
@AbejaGrande It's funny how some people resort to calling others "man babies" for not instantly liking something, as if liking something with childish appeal doesn't already make one a man-child.
@russell-marlow Neither of those things make people man babies or man children. Name calling/insults like that for liking or disliking different games to you is pretty childish though. Mostly teenagers who think they're too edgy to play colourful light hearted games who carry on like that.
@Clyde_Radcliffe Adult me often looks at idiot-child me with a raised eyebrow for the games I liked as a kid! Hahaha...
@BloodNinja Real talk, if Yuji Naka ever had a concept for a game, he should've made a Kickstarter project out of it. It would've probably have gained more attention then being published by Square Enix, whether or not it would've been a successful game in the first place. Either way, he failed to keep up with trends in the industry, especially when it comes to game design and crowd funding, and he ultimately pays for it.
Heres a tip to the devs: if you want to make a platform, make the character thats on front page the main character, not some kids.
A platformer will almost always fail if it doesnt have a catchy mascot.
Imagine Crash Bandicoot but instead you play some humans that got sucked into the world.
@russell-marlow You’re 100% on the money, here. I think one reason it failed is because he published through SE, and had to raise the price past a reasonable point for what it is. Kickstarter and a $30-$40 price tag probably would have seen a drastically different outcome.
@HeadPirate I actually really enjoyed FF13.
The demo should have been a huge wake up call to delay the game for like another 2 years or something lol.
The demo really killed this game
Wow, epic fail
@Clyde_Radcliffe What about fair constructive criticism?
Seems way too many people these days are mindless consumers that have a lot of brand loyalty to their favorite companies.
It's funny to think that an expansion to a Wii U port that isn't even completely polished beat this entire game.
Day 1 for me, box art was nice
@ModdedInkling
Because one is a great game and the other one is terrible.
@russell-marlow Brand loyalty is insanely powerful. It’s almost cult-like in its ability to trap the mind. Like a form of hypnosis.
@Madder128 the demo killed it, I played it (all the levels) and it wasn't good
I and my daughter adore this game! Nights Artstyle, collectathon, 2 Player coop. No its not Sonic, its not Ratchet..... it‘s a game for kids and we like it a lot. Way to go Yuji! Of course we play it on PS5.....
That horror jumped straight into my "don't give a doodoo" list the second I saw the first trailer. It looked like poo and I still don't know why anyone was expecting anything from it.
Almost feels like NL has a grudge against it.
I might buy it just to spite them
I sorta want a physical copy as a collector’s piece.
@Josh_Hickory89 yeah there bots they created accounts just try to make game look good.
@tanaka2687 Go sit on the naughty step.
It saddens me this game is awful even when I played the switch version for the demo. But damn this ain't worth 60 bucks for this mess.
@Clammy
There's also this Sonic game from 2006 that reviewers have a grudge against where the creators were bullied so much that they changed the formula and stopped selling it.
I'm sure it's on Ebay for an inflated price, so you can help support the devs.
@Toy_Link
Are you seriously suggesting Sonic 06 didn't deserve all the negativity it received?
It makes Balan look like a masterpiece!
@TheFullAndy
I was joking, applying Balan logic to that game. I don't know how buying an used copy of anything would help support the company/devs making it.
@Toy_Link
Fair enough, to be honest I only read the first line of your comment and was dumbfounded so missed the joke!
@HeadPirate 100% agree with you. 13 and 15 were terrible. Square Enix thinks they can release any turd they want and fans will buy it (they will because they love turds). So happy they announced XVI and has nothing to do with nomura
@AbejaGrande your kids have terrible taste. Get them help. And FFXIII and XV. They might like those terrible games too!
@needmorecowbell
I fi wanted this trash, i'd be paying 80 DOLLARS
Actually hard to believe a game of this quality, published by a company as massive as Square Enix, was released at retail in 2021.
@TheFullAndy
Yeah the mods didn't appreciate me saying it, so it was removed.
@TheFullAndy
Ah, that makes sense. Still I've seen worse around here than calling someone a bot jokingly,.
@Screen
You horrible person! 😉
@Madder128 totally. When I actually played the game for myself I realized the game wasn’t as bad as the reviews showed. Definitely dated but not THAT bad.
this one looks and runs like a $6 game without discount, no exaggeration
I thought it isnt a good idea for Naka to name his new development team ‘Balan Company’. Sad that with such a reputation, this could very well be the first and last game from the company.
Ok, Arzest is involved. That might explain a lot...
Is this one of the baddest 3D platformers ever made?
@Strictlystyles Exactly how I feel, it's just like playing a Sega Saturn game.
I understand a lot of the criticism.
I just don't feel it's as bad as its made out to be.
The big issue is that full price tag.
@Clyde_Radcliffe That is such a stupid response. A good game is one you like. Even if it sucks. Home Alone 2 was fun, I played that too. I played all kinds of games that wouldn't hold my attention now. The Noid comes to mind. I played that ***** forever. But I liked it.
This game was obviously made for children. Hence the man babies crying it's not for them so it's bad.
@Fulgor_Astral lol, what a tool. Get *****.
@AbejaGrande It was marketed towards all ages:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balan_Wonderworld
@AbejaGrande
I assume those stars are for the big bad words you haven't learned yet from your parents?
I won't lie, upon the release of the demo I've had more than my fair share of laughs at the expense of this game but I do feel bad for it, I take no pleasure in its failure.
Never mind the pedigree behind it, it's clear, at least to me, that the design had charm and from what I've seen there are some good ideas, the world they came up with had (and still could have) potential. Whether it was the budget, the team, mismanagement or whatever else I'm sure had this been given the attention it deserved it could have been great. Such a shame.
That's a shame. One more going to the list of "the great could have beens"
@AbejaGrande If a game sucks, it gets a bad score. End of story. Do your kids also love Mario games? I bet they do! So do a lot of other people. Mario is geared towards a younger audience, but they’re also great games. Balan Wonderworld is fundamentally flawed. Even if your kids enjoy it, that isn’t an excuse to ignore some of the game’s major issues. The rating for a kids game is E for EVERYONE. Not E for excusing fundamental flaws because they’re games for a younger audience. (Though I may point out that Balan Wonderworld is E10+)
@F_T_Wolf I think its a great thing they released a demo so no one had to waste their money.
Don't care what people think, if I can grab it for around $45 with tax; I'm going to give it a shot. Yeah, the characters look generic; but the gameplay looks interesting to me from the YouTube videos I've seen. If I do, I'll post my results. Definitely not paying $60 plus for it though.
@PeteyO Good point. If they marketed it as a new 3D platformer made by someone who made sonic I bet they would of been a good chunk of pre orders
@Madder128 No..the fact that its a horrible garbage trash fire of a game killed sales. Every single review, even independent Youtubers and streaming are talking about how trashy it is. It has simple design flaws that were eliminated decades ago in gaming.
@Henmii I would say its close. Sonic 06 was unplayable. At least this is 'Playable' haha...just dont
@NintendoKnight FF13 was miles better than people gave it credit for. I thought the art style was amazing, the sound track was perfect and i even liked the battle system.
FF15 i felt the story lacked big time but the world and music was amazing. But i did play it on launch so maybe the story is feels better now.
This game is not even worth $4 on any platform
@Isaix
Given that square Enix often puts out a demo, gets feedback, then fixes things, when the demo came out and the previews were panicking, I was like, "Well at least they have time to fix it, " and then suddenly, the game was out, and I knew they were going to have some real trouble.
@earthinheritor FFXIII is trash, it's barely a game, more like an interactive movie
@earthinheritor have you played the full retail version?
I don't get the "it's for kids" argument. There are so many fantastic games for the Switch for kids. Why spend 60 dollars on a poorly reviewed game with a bad demo and almost no significant proof it's any good aside from a handful of people who are really mad about it reviewing poorly? Let's plop down all this money because it might be kinda good? Even people who like it say "it's more of a 6/10 than a 3!"
Super Lucky's Tale, literally any Mario game, Crash Bandicoot (though that one gets too tough for me at times), either Yooka Laylee game, A Hat in Time, Snake Pass, De Blob, Poi....these are all games I enjoyed that are also great for kids. The argument of "it's ok it's an average/below average game because it's for kids" is kinda insulting to kids tbh
@Madder128 There is no way I'm blowing money on it. I get to ignore IGN etc but when every day people are ***** on it i know to ignore it, as do most people.
@Isaix Its your opinion that its trash but how it is barely a game? Just because the battle system is different it doesnt make it not a game. You still have to fast swap classes. Granted it wasnt great as manually selecting skills etc was pretty pointless. But in some tougher fights it got pretty fast paced.
I am genuinely saddened by the entire state of this game and everyone that worked on it. I think this was a passion project made with nostalgia in mind, but core concepts were so dated and unpolished that I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled by the publisher in mid-development. They probably won't even make 20% of development costs back from this.
@HeadPirate Yea you did play a different game. The XV i played at launch which is inferior to the one with updates, had optional dungeons, rare weapons and items to look for, hunts for unique enemies, and mini games like fishing or Chocobo racing. Its no more empty than BotW unless you want to count the 900 pieces of turd that not even the devs want you to look for
It also had plenty of side quests but a lot of them were terrible fetch quests like the ones you'd find in BotW, the so called "masterpiece"
Good. That's what they get for releasing a bad game on the same exact day as the newest Monster Hunter.
not surprised, the demo put me (and probably many others) off the game entirely
I tried the Demo. It's bad. It's bad.
@HeadPirate 15 was a garbage fire, but I feel like 16 will probably be better, due to the team working on it.
@earthinheritor I can say the story is still sort of a mess, but it's way better than it was.. if you buy the DLC. So many important chunks of the story are locked behind a DLC paywall.
@Franklin Technically, those are all subjective. For some people New Horizons is the best Animal Crossing, but for a lot of fans, they were left disappointed by the game itself as it takes the life sim elements that the other games had.. away.
Breath of the Wild isn't a perfect 10/10, despite being a good game. Many people don't like how the dungeons were handled, or how the story itself was handled. The korok seeds themselves were flawed, with there being no actual reward for going out to complete them, making them effectively useless to get all of them.
Super Mario Odyssey could be argued that the Kingdoms themselves were too small, and that the moons aren't as special as past game's collectables due to being absolutely everywhere..
There are no "Perfect" games. Games can always stand to improve, and rarely are there ever any that are 10/10. Subjectively, they might be to you, but using them as objective evidence for an objective argument.. isn't really good proof to support your claim.
@VoidofLight
When you talk in terms of 10/10 scores, you accept the subjectivity of the measure, for otherwise why refer to an imperfect and obviously subjective metric? "what games are [10/10]" is clearly someone's view, placing the discussion in the subjective realm. When someone says "I acknowledge the game isn't a 10/10" they've already taken their opinion and applied it as a fact, clearly placing the parameters of the discussion into subjectivity.
To say that no game is perfect, would have made more sense.
The games I listed were given 10/10 on this site.
@AbejaGrande
Incels?
Sort yourself out chump.
@VoidofLight
Resident Evil 4 is perfect and anyone who says different is simply wrong!
I feel bad for Yuji Naka but when was the last time he actually produced or directed an undisputedly good game? Rodea wasn't great. Balan isn't exactly great either. Ivy the Kiwi was good... for a very simple puzzle game concept. I remember Let's Tap being somewhat well received. Billy Hatcher... also very average at the end of the day. It starts out great but as you keep playing it and mission objectives get repetitive and the imperfect gameplay gets in the way of the enjoyment, you realise it's not such a great game after all...
... and that's sadly symptomatic of practically every original platform game he's produced or directed for the past 20 years. His games look and sound appealing and the first few moments are often magical, but keep playing long enough and his games start feeling pretty bland or downright frustrating a few hours in.
I'll pick it up when it's on sale, it's fun for what it is and the demo plays great on my PC but I really only buy Nintendo games at full price these days, so $60 is a hard pass, maybe at $20. People expecting a platformer are going to be disappointed since it's not a platformer, but, I think there's plenty of those already and am glad that we're seeing something different. Most people disagree with me, but, I don't care. Not everyone has to like or hate the same things.
@InkIdols WOW! Lol. Think about how much other cool **** (including videogames) you could buy for 80 bucks USD!
@Mario_maniac I miss NiGHTS. Remember Rodea the Sky Warrior?
The dude keeps trying to make a spiritual successor.
Just make NiGHTS 3 already! >=[
@needmorecowbell Canadian. That's my point. your 60 is our 80
"From the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog..."
Yeah, no thanks.
I was fond of him in the 90s, but unlike Mario, Sonic hasn't evolved at all, and after too many mediocre (to outright bad) games to count, it is not a brand that I associate with any degree of prestige. It makes me cringe that it is considered a household name considering how Sega have crapped all over the IP over the years.
Yuji Naka lied. The game sucks @ss..
@Judal27
Exactly, and that my point. Just like 11, which is arguably the worst MMO ever made, years and millions and million of dollars later it got better.
If Castle Crashers sucked on release, Behemoth isn't a studio anymore. We, as a community, to not even really tolerate day one patches, let almost "buy my unfished game"
But when Square says "thanks for all your money you paid for this unfinish, awful MMO! Now we're going to take it down for 2 years while we make it not sucks, and before you ask ... OBVIOUSLY we are going to make you buy it again" or "don't worry about the fact that you LITERALLY CAN NOT FINISH THE GAME because the last chapter wasn't completed, we'll patch that in 6 months from now" and we're all like "that seems perfectly reasonable"
If we didn't have such amazing loyalty and nostalgia, FF11 was the last ever made.
Well, I’m not surprised. The game has not been well received, and combined with the AAA price point, even if people still want to try it, they aren’t likely to pay that kinda cash for a game they know isn’t worth it
@InkIdols Right, gotcha 👍. Not to be overly harsh, but I wouldn’t even play this game for free because my backlog is still pretty legit!
I decided to download a demo for this game on my Xbox One, and try it out for the sake of farness.
After playing it, I'm not shocked that it flopped.
The story had me asking questions in confusion(Who are the boy and girl, what's their relationship outside of them being playable charchters? Why is the guy on the box art shoved to an opening cutscene when I should be playing as him. Why are Peeps following me around? Who are the random animals that are dancing around the stage and the farmer?)
Sonic Adventure has NPCs that you could interact with, but a game world has never left me more confused and uninterested to keep on playing.
The other major issue for me is the graphics. I hate to sound like a jerk, but they are badly dated and look like late PS2 era or if I'm being a little nice, early PS3 era graphics. Everything just looks dull and boring.
I've been playing Batman: Arkham Knight again, and its almost like night and day when it comes to the graphics. Batman: Arkham Knight came out in 2015 and still looks damn good. This game, it can't even come close. I honestly will say that I have played games on my 2DS and PSP that look better.
If this were a 10 buck download game, I might give it a pass. But this is being sold as a AAA title, and this game looks dated. I compared its graphics to PS3 era games, but I can pop in 360 games into my Xbox One, and they look better. Hell, I can put Ninja Gaiden Black or other Xbox games into my Xbox One and they would look better.
I'm not normally a guy that harps on graphics, but this game stuck out like a sore thumb and that's not a good thing.
Now, let me move on to one last thing and that's the gameplay. Its as generic as you can get for a platformer, and its honestly feels very dated. This feels like someone dug up a Dreamcast era platformer on some forgotten server, gave it a very bad coat of HD paint, and then dumped it onto store shelves and digital storefronts.
I'm not even going to compare this to modern platform games like newer Mario games, because this thing can't even hold a candle to old platform games like Super Mario 64 and the Banjo games. Even Sonic Adventure(A game people love to bash nowadays but I consider one of my personal favorites) blows this game out of the water. Sonic Adventure starts off good, has a great intro level that gets you into the game and wanting to push forward, and has a decent story. How could two guys who worked on that game, put out something like this?
I'm not trying to be cruel, and if you enjoyed it, that's good. I can get enjoyment from games that other people slam.
I loved Duke Nukem Forever and consider it one of the best shooters I played on the 360 even with its faults.
But this game feels like a rushed relic from the 90s that is trying to ride on the fact that two people on its development team helped create Sonic and the early games in that series.
I respect Yuji Naka and I think he's a legendary game developer. But this was just a poor outing, and its shocking that a team of a Yuji Naka developed game and Square Enix could produce something like this.
No wonder this game is selling poorly. Good, polished games often fail when forced to deal with the AAA market and the competion for the money of gamers.
How in the hell did they expect this game to do well in a crowded market when its this half-baked and generic?
@earthinheritor can't really have an opinion then.
The power of reviews.
@iLikeUrAttitude
For us the Demo was indeed good. For Square Enix, not so much.
@TheFullAndy hey, I'd be ecstatic to list over 20 reasons why the hate for 06 is overblown, and the game isn't as bad as people think it is.
Mediocre, unfinished, underperforming, sure, but you can't deny me it's an interesting 3D action game, it sets out: cool level designs, cool character concepts, great music, and imo the best VO in a Sonic game, not to mention some of the best one-liners come from this game. The story's nothing special but it's about time travel that's a plus to me.
People usually complain about Sonic's story being boring, but I think it works out, giving him the simple story while he's caught between the other two, more engaging stories.
This game had a budget and the hype, and is playable, that's usually enough to rank it higher than the GameGear games and the crappy boost games of recent times.
I think if someone really looked into this game, they'd see how its a situation where the developer, director, whoever, had the art style and premise first before they even worked on the mechanics.
I can tell you straight up, thats absolutely not the right way to make a game. Its one of the reason why there's so may god awful 'inspired' indy games out here. Make game mechanics that work and are good first and most importantly are fun, then figure out the aesthetic and story.
This needs to get A Realm Reborned
@AlienX
I wouldn't mind seeing 20 reasons! I count about 7 in your post.
Edit: I'm only messing, seems like homework!
I will say one thing about Balan Wonderworld: It somehow got me to think about the obscure Jersey Devil, a PS1 game from way back. I haven’t played that game in, gosh, 20 years? Yeah. That’s all I have to say, I’m afraid. I played Balan’s demo and politely yet briskly escorted it out the door.
The demo was terrible.
The lesson may be not to release a demo when your game is bad, or (read: and) you were coasting on the director's ancient resumé from the beginning. D:
@TheLightSpirit A 10/10 score doesn't mean the game is perfect, otherwise there would be barely any 10/10 games.
Of course it tanked. It's a Sonic game without the name. Nostalgia for some old Dreamcast game people played when they were five didn't convince people it wasn't garbage this time.
@needmorecowbell same here. this is SAD
No surprise. The demo went nowere pretty much.
This trash will probably be worth something in 20 years or so as not many people will have it.
@Madder128 The game's quality and price tag killed itself - the press only commented on what they saw.
@Madder128 Seriously? Thats not how things work i dont get review copies of games. I can see for myself in every single review that its terrible. There are no positive reviews for this game what so ever. New games are $80 in Canada and this game clearly isn't worth $20.
You can see from any content, including what SE official posts that it has fundamental flaws. You dont always need to play a game to know its going to be terrible unless you are reviewing it as a profession
@AbejaGrande They shouldn’t have charged 60 bucks, A
And B, kids deserve better!
Am I the only one who thinks Balan sounds like Bellend? Everything about this game is stupid
@earthinheritor a review is an opinion, and an opinion is always subjective.
I just don't buy into all these reviews, if I want to try something, I get it and form my own judgement
I honestly think a lot of review sites, copy and paste reviews from each other.
The biggest example before this was Devils Third.
Universally panned.
I went and bought it day one, and you know what it was actually an alright game, with an excellent multiplayer.
A 6 or a 7 for the single player, a solid 8 for the multiplayer.
The press got it wrong, entirely.
I understand people don't want to waste full price on Balan.
I get that, and I understand the criticism.
But I got it day one, and I think it's actually OK.
But it's a £25 game tops.
I grew up in the 90s, and to me this reminds me of a Saturn game. And I'm fine with that.
It's nice to play something like that for a change.
Cyberpunk for a multitude of reasons is worse than Balan.
I bought that, and it was over hyped nonsense, glitched to the hilt.
They had every reason to get that game right. And still messed it up.
Balan was made by a low budget studio, with a big publisher.
What did people really expect?
Cyberpunk is the bigger travesty.
A massive budget, and talented developers.
They turned out a dud.
I just feel how can you ever truly cast an opinion if you haven't played the full game?
It would be like casting an opinion on a new film you haven't went to see.
Or casting an opinion based off a film trailer, without watching the full film.
I don't think you can form an opinion off that.
I'm not knocking you, or other people.
But I do think people are quick to jump on a band wagon, and go off with the media circus on this.
I doubt even 50% of the press have even played Balan properly.
Its just so easy to churn someone else's review into another review.
Balan for me is about a 6 tops.
But it's definitely not a 3.
@TheFullAndy Yes, RE4 is a masterpiece.
Perfect game.
I hadn't heard of this game until all this fuss, which is a shame because I love the theatrical/ringmaster aesthetic that's reminiscant of NiGHTS. When the price is right I think I'll get it.
A bad game that was known to be bad that released a demo that demonstrated it was bad and the media reported that it was bad. For $60.
A sales failure is a surprise to exactly whom?
I don't think this will even end up on Game Pass. Subscriptions have standards.
@NEStalgia it will probably get on through infamy.
Same with the PlayStation Network.
@Samsamsam Or Sonic the Hedgehog where you play as Regular the Human.
@Caryslan You forgot to mention how playing an Atari 2600 game on Switch or a Magnavox Odyssey game looks better than Bellend Wonderworld.
Jokes aside, it’s all about the art direction, which in this case makes no justice for the game
Having tried the demo it definitely feels very clunky and dated, and with the reviews it's no surprise it isn't doing well. Might be something I pick up to have a proper go of if it was heavily discounted, but it's certainly not worth the current asking price.
Square is used to slapping big price tags on generic turds that rely on hype they pay for under the table.
@Anti-Matter Shame Ratchet & Clank PS3 and PS2 games are not on PS4/5
Any chance that Arzest can be shut down?
@Gamergirl94 I know, I was being sarcastic
@Zoomzeta I know...
@ChinaTheAce
Did you just reply to a week old thread to disparage the differently abled?
Is this game really THAT bad? People are making it sound like it's the worst game of all time.
@Madder128 A bad game killed sales. The press just let people know about it.
@Lanmanna I don't know who's making it seem like the worst game ever, but people tend to exaggerate. I think maybe it's either people who hate SEGA, or SEGA fans who are disappointed by such a bad game from Yuji Naka.
I think the issue with Naka is that he's an excellent programmer (at least, he was in the 80s and 90s) but he might not be a great game creator. The Sonic games were a combination of SEGA's best talents, including Reiko Kodoma, who also did the art and other things on Phantasy Star.
Naoto Oshima, who designed the original Sonic, might be fairly limited in good character design, too. His original Sonic design had to be changed a bit to make him more likeable than he originally was conceived.
@AugustusOxy Sorry, but most games start with a premise, including the original Sonics, and have the mechanics fitted to that. Sometimes the reverse is true, but it's usually idea/character first.
@RandomAfricanGamer Mind if you explain?
Just bought this game brand new at Walmart for $4. .....$4
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