
One of the most underwhelming releases in 2021 has been Balan Wonderworld - by Sonic the Hedgehog creator, Yuji Naka.
This title reportedly had the potential to trigger epileptic seizures, was accused of featuring a "knock-off" Ghostbusters song, and in the end, sales of the game massively flopped. Naka parted ways with Square Enix not long after its release and in June mentioned how he was considering retirement.
It seems he's not done just yet, though. In a Twitter message thanking fans for the Birthday messages he recently received, Naka revealed how he is now teaching himself to program simple games for smartphone devices. Here's his full message:
"Thank you for your birthday message. Recently I've started studying programs again, and I'm making a simple game for smartphones with Unity. It's not a big deal because it's made by one person, but programming for making games is fun. I hope you can play the app."

When Balan Wonderworld was released earlier this year, we described it as a disappointing platformer featuring monotonous level design, troubled performance, and shallow gameplay that wasn't particularly fun to play. Get a recap in our review.
Did you try out Yuji Naka's most recent release in the end? Would you be up for more games from the creator of Sonic? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitter.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 68
so long as its not balan mobile. but atleast he gets to still do his passion.
):
Sad how the mighty had fallen.
Even though the game is worse than Sonic 06, it sucks that the game flopped so bad that he left and nearly went into retirement.
@edgedino He's not with Square Enix anymore, he can't use the Balan IP anymore.
@Specter_of-the_OLED Sad how the mighty had fallen.
Actually that is where all games came from as well. So nothing was lost. Remember if you want to pull him down how about people make games and do better them him. That's my challenge to those ingrates whom forget without those programmers Switch would have no GAMES. Think about that before you put someone down-see if you can do better then him. Always love those couch potato quarter backs whom talks the talk but can do the walk.
Dude made a ton of games but now he'll be forever referred to as "balan creator".... OOF
I hope he's able to make good from this whole bad situation. Even if he's only working on mobile game, I hope it's one that's worth playing
Also yes we get it Nintendo Life you didn't like the game we know move on stop beating a dead horse
Failure moves onto next failure why is this news?
"Balen wonderworlds Creator" Damn, And will now be forever known as such.
Sheesh. I know Balan was awful, but this entire article reads like a whole lot of just kicking someone while they're down.
"So yeah, Balan was just super bad. Terrible, I tell ya. Just the worst. Unparalleled."
"Also on a less important note Naka is moving on with his life and he had the following to say: (...)"
"ANYWAY remember Balan? It's BAD and we gave it a BAD score, wanna see it again?"
@SwitchForce I completely agree. It is amazing how out for blood gamers seem to be of things don't go their way.
It also really angers me that it doesn't matter how many accomplishments a person can have, they are only as good as their latest failure.
Yuki Naka and his teams have been responsible for a lot of my smiles in my and my friends' childhoods. I hope his next time is a huge success.
Can't be worse than Balan.
@SwitchForce When all he could do now is make mobile games that's sad in my book. It's like going from owning a supermarket chain to becoming a vendor at a flea market. Not looking down on him, just sad to see him in this position.
@KiraMoonvalley Yeah, still feel a bit bad for the guy
Yuji Naka is now making mobile games eh?
Whelp, it’s not like had much of a reputation left anyway after the Balan debacle.
@Bolt_Strike ik but he sure can jumble the letters and make it look very alike and get away with it.
@KiraMoonvalley FFVII Remake and Sonic 06 don't even deserve to be compared in that spectrum at all
Remake is a great game that looks even better next to 06 lol
Hope his next game fares well. Best of luck.
@SwitchForce that’s not how the world works. We are the consumer, we judge the product we purchased. It’s a fair transaction through and through (actually no it’s not, Balkan being a full retail priced game is criminally overcharging people).
Imagine we’re not allowed to judge a product because we can’t make it better. I guess we can’t judge the food we buy from a restaurant even though it tastes like it expired because we don’t know how to cook, we can’t judge an Bluetooth electronic that has a 1cm distance before losing connecting because we don’t know how to make things, we can’t judge a house that is falling apart and rain leaks through the ceiling because we don’t know how to build a house. Just because we don’t know how to make a game, it doesn’t mean we can’t judge the product for what it is.
@KiraMoonvalley There’s stuff I could nitpick, but I’ll try and just go over the biggest issues...
When it launched, the final boss had a flashing light pattern that could trigger seizures. That’s been patched, but sucks for anyone who bought physical and doesn’t have internet.
Since there are so many costumes, there has to be a way to account for every combination in some way so you don’t get stuck... Everything’s really simplified. It’s too easy and boring vs platformers where the level design is tailored to a more limited set of abilities. Even all the buttons only do one thing. Which means all the costumes do one thing. Which means some of them don’t allow you to jump.
On that note, some costumes are redundant because they’re functionally the same. Some are better versions of others. Some are so irritating to use as to be useless (BOX FOX. You’re a fox, sometimes you turn into an invincible box. You can’t control when this happens. YOU CAN’T CONTROL YOUR MOVEMENT).
YMMV, but the stories of the characters vary in quality and tone... I think it would have been more interesting if Balan was the main character instead of the two NPC-looking ones we got. Instead, he’s just kind of always in the background, which I think is a shame because he’s got such a cool design. It’s like if you played a Mario game, but instead got relegated to the role of a Goomba or something, lol.
This might be one of those nitpicks, but I didn’t like the ending. I think I get what it’s trying to say, but if I was going for that type of feeling, I’d be playing a different kind of game. This is a colorful platformer, gimme my storybook ending lol. It was really unsatisfying, like getting a bad/normal ending on a game when there’s a secret, true ending for 100% completion. Except there isn’t, and what you get is more insulting than the Mario Sunshine 100% completion bonus. Maybe they were trying to set it up for a sequel? Somehow doubt that’s going to happen now.
Excellent visuals during cutscenes and great music though. It should have just been a movie.
I’ve read there’s a novel that goes along with it that adds a lot of lore and context, but if that’s the case, it really should have just been packaged with the game in the first place. At least with physical copies.
That was kind of long, sorry. I do recognize I might have a lot of internalized rage. ._.”
Good for him, at least he is still trying. Maybe the workload for mobile games is lighter than big AAA games, so it's a better fit for his lifestyle. I know Balan bombed, but that's okay. It's hard to consistently make great games that appeal to a large amount of people, 100% of the time. Everybody makes missteps.
Being banished into the realm of phone games actually sounds worse than retirement, tbh.
Welcome to the mobile market. Give me your money
Judging from that tweet I'd be he loves making games. He thought he'd retire but he's back at it and having fun.
@BloodNinja Exactly. Can’t win them all and it’s sad how people consider him a failure now regardless of his past achievements. I respect what he has done for the industry and I will continue to be interested in any game he’s involved in regardless of platform.
An indie mobile game created solely by Yuji Naka? Heck yeah.
@shining_nexus Right? I mean it has the potential to be great, regardless of the platform. I prefer consoles, but here and there a gem will pop up on phones that is just great.
@KiraMoonvalley Worse than Sonic 06. Balan doesn't even have masterpiece cutscenes like 06!
Also I understand why you dont like FF VII (even if I disagree), but worse than XIII and the original XIV Online, yeah I don't know about that one.
@Rika_Yoshitake I’ll always remember him for Nights.
He was doing it before too.Then he made Rodea the sky soldier and Balan Wonderworld,and now he's back at it.
@SwitchForce I'm a programmer and if I released a product with issues that needs to be fixed, well I fix them. I couldn't imagine telling my customer they should do it better than me. Naka put out a product, and consumers has a right to judge them.
Smartphone games? Why not just phone games or mobile games.
Naka-san will bounce back. Just maybe on a small scale, but he’s got cred to make the news again with his new little game.
At first I wanted to say something stingy, but then I realized: Why should I be so hateful? Lets just hope for the guy that he creates a little game on mobile that people love. And hopefully he has fun doing it, and it pays his checks. And even if he never makes a good game again, people can remember his classics.
Square Enix has a recent tradition: releasing the worst game of the year: The Quiet Man, Left Alive and now Balan.
@Snow-Dust we can have personal impressions about a product. Judgement and analysis are different tasks but fans and consumers like to simulate them in their meddling efforts (which are painted as attempt to improve the product but always meant to maintain one's personal whims and addictions) without a trace of civility and responsibility that comes with it. It's entirely possible to give normal feedback, voicing one's dislikes without the perverse need to denigrate and insult disliked aspects in a fit of self-embarrassing pseudocritique - but that also implies acknowledging the product's right to exist in the state you dislike, and fanship robs people of that ability.
When it comes to objectively measurable technical problems, reporting them to the creators, usually via feedback and support channels, is actually encouraged. But as Sonic Colours recently showed, we fan scum can manage to put a blemish even on that.
And for chrissake, nobody can overcharge people for a video game. It's not communal services - for us, commercial Fiction is entertainment we can live without. Unless the fans inside us beg to differ, but that usually warrants seeking professional help, not practicing anonymous pseudocritique online.
Ah i see what happened. Balan was gonna be his retirement fund but that fell through. So now it's up to microtransactions to fill that fund up.
Let's be real here : the man has been making smartphone games for a while now, he just puts them out on consoles! 😂
It is as saying:" 5 Star Cook with Michellin Prices now working for Mc Donalds
I could never get into sonic, but some people liked it, so it's good he's not retiring I guess.
I'm still not sure what was the initial plan combining squareenix, the sonic creator who was never able to make a good 3d sonic game and the creation of a 3d platformer.
I feel like it wasn’t properly publicized enough that the devs who made Balan were a large part of the problem. I can’t remember who they are, but it was the game devs who were more so responsible for the ill execution of the game. Now of course I think that he did make the terrible choice of removing all of the dialogue (which would have made everything make sense). So at least the technical stuff wasn’t his problem.
Edit: I looked up the devs and they are “Arzest.” They are a mobile and 3ds developer. They made Hey pikmin, the Mario and Luigi bowsers inside story remake so they were definitely the wrong choice to make for a game like balan.
I hope he gets to do what makes him happy. Being the director of many good games being remembered as "Balan's creator" is harsh
BALAN WASNT THAT BAD !!! If you are an older gamer like me you will feel some first 3d games vibe !!! Find it for cheapest price and buy it !
Making Mobile games is worse than retirement. =P
jk. kind of?
Haven't played Balan yet. But I really loved Rodea so I'll probably like it.
Wasn't Balan supposed to be a mobile game at first? Maybe it's good he moved into the mobile market.
Ah, so he sold out then. Can't say I blame him, mobile games are easy and yet they take in the money. It's a cushier job than the stress he likely had to endure making Balan.
He should have finished and fixed Balan Wonderworld and make a better game/sequel.
Well that's probably what he should be doing since every one of his games is oversimplified down to the most arbitrarily minimal control scheme possible. He seems to want to make hyper simplistic arcade games where you only can perform a single action and have some kind of strange movement limitations. So phone games are a better fit.
I guess games where you only use one button would works better in mobiles...
This is a fate worse than retirement.
@TheFrenchiestFry people only say the remake’s bad due to the story not being faithful.
There’s an alternate timeline where Naka ended up at Nintendo instead of Square-Enix.
"Sonic creator" he was just the programmer...
Even though I've never been a fan of any Sega game this dude has talent. Sucks for him. Can't exactly express creativity through mobile.
Some tech people have trouble adapting as technologies change. Naka was brilliant in the 90s, but it feels like a long time since he did anything great. Maybe he's one of those people?
@MetalMan Eh, just depends on how it’s handled. Phones are capable of emulating up to at least PS2/Wii era games now.
And even if you aren’t taking advantage of that power, there’s still plenty of room for creativity (A Dark Room, The Room, Sky: Children of the Light, Another Lost Phone)...
Dudes entire career is overrated af.
Demotion before retirement. Rough.
@Snow-Dust THANK YOU! Aside from the person you replied to probably needing to attend anger management classes, saying that you can't judge something just because you can't do any better is such a dumb argument. The consumer ultimately decides whether something is worth their time and money. If you can't make something good, the consumer doesn't owe you anything, much less their hard-earned money.
@nhSnork right... Except in this case, the original poster was actually insulting another poster, who made a harmless statement, which was in no way meant to offend anyone.
You're also assuming that the lead dev, in this case Naka, would listen to critique offered through a "support channel".
1. Where is this supposed support channel that you speak of, and 2. What makes you think that Naka, a developer known for being a massive diva when he was in SEGA's employ, to the point of almost sinking another SEGA-related project just because he didn't want so share his game engine, would listen to said feedback?
@LinkSword I didn't know that it was possible to editorialize and editorial piece, but here we are.
@G_M the original poster was off the mark in the argumentation (we don't live in the age of "go and do it better", we live in the age of "go and do it the way you want it"), but mostly rebuffed what was already a fanheaded jab at the creator. People may be exempt from insults, but mentalities and attitudes like fanship never are. You're encouraging a wrong person to feel for something he would ideally want erased from the world.
As for Balan, who would even expect the lead dev to be sitting and patching it himself somewhere like Square Enix? They should have people and feedback channels meant to gather objective issues. And there's nothing fans can say to Naka himself that maps remotely close to those.
Also, a fan calling someone else a diva? Pots and kettles everywhere.
Yuji Naka made Balan Wonderland?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MICHAEL JACKSON?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MICHAEL JACKSON?! Even the staunchest movie aficionados here probably won't get that quote. I don't know if that actually dates me or pigeonholes me.
Balan is a good game! I and my daughter play it the whole time. Wonderful story clips, good gamedesign, nights style looks! It‘s game design is very different then actual games…..but its through and through well designed and needs no patches! And looking at amazon & co people like it.
Hmm. Perhaps a Sonic x Balan Wonderworld gacha game? 😏
@ShadowofTwilight22 I'm playing Adventure 1 for the first time. While there are good moments, I'd be lying if I ignored the game's major issues. Characters cling to walls and objects; Big's fishing line sticks to walls; Amy loses sprinting speed with the slightest turn; there's no proper feedback to the Chaos boss fights. There are plenty more.
But the worst aspect is the game's camera. Enemies snipe Sonic before we can see them. And that's not even factoring in the bugs and glitches: one wrong move and the camera finds itself behind a wall, obscuring the action, which can easily happen on a level like Sky Deck. You might as well restart the level.
And the fact that it was made in 1998 is NOT an excuse. This came out two years after Super Mario 64, and even that's game's camera worked better.
@KiraMoonvalley it wasn't the best game I got bored of demo gameplay there's better platformers like super mario odyssey.
Balan isnt that bad, I've been enjoying it in small doses here and there. Wishing him all the best as he has been involved in some amazing games over the years.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...