Balan Wonderworld

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.

Balan Wonderworld
Balan Wonderworld's has its fair share of negative press, from soundtrack knock-off accusations to epileptic seizure warnings.

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]