TreeFall Studios has had a rocky experience on the Wii U. The Letter, which is one of our worst-rated titles, was followed up by Maze, which was poorly received but at least contained some semblance of functional gameplay. Its latest title, Journey of a Special Average Balloon, continues to show TreeFall's growth and learning - but that doesn't make it a good game or worthwhile purchase.
In Journey of a Special Average Balloon, players control the titular balloon across worlds made up of three single-screen stages in order to collect three coins, a rainbow shard, and occasionally a treasure chest. The balloon can't do anything except move at a slow, deliberate pace; as the player moves the balloon, pattern-based obstacles will cross the screen. It takes but one hit for the balloon to pop and for you to have to start the stage over.
Each world has a challenge to complete that unlocks trophies and new skins for the balloon. Curiously, several of the challenges involve simply playing through a world in a certain balloon skin; if those skins gave the balloon any attributes or alterations that would make for more challenging gameplay, but we certainly didn't notice any changes. The other game mechanic is the slingshot gallery, a pointless minigame that pops up every few worlds where the player has to pop as many balloons as they can...for no real purpose.
For a game that tasks players with restoring a magical rainbow, Journey of a Special Average Balloon is visually very disappointing. With basic graphics that resemble early '90s clipart and the same enemies and obstacles appearing over and over again, there's little to look at here. The balloon's extra skins are nothing special, nor are the backgrounds, which look hastily thrown together and dull (but not in an intentional way). The less said about the generic music the better.
Conclusion
Reviewing games like Journey of a Special Average Balloon is a challenge for us. Projects like these never used to release on Nintendo systems, and the floodgates really have opened with the big N embracing developers of every level. This game is perfectly functional and harmless, but that's not enough to give it a recommendation, especially when there are Flash games with more depth.
Comments 11
At this pace they may actually end up making a good game in a couple years. #muchhype
Probably the worst-looking title in the Wii U's entire library.
I actually like the game believe it or not. Good for a quickie! Plus I got it on sale 75 cents so at least you just can't feel ripped off! Can't even buy a soda for 75 cents today 😊
So this guy never had a Wii? There were games on that below this quality. Not that this is great but some people conveniently forget the amount of shovelware on Wii when complaining about the quality of some eshop games.
Then people conveniently forget the amount of shovelware on the PS2. The FMV games that had nothing going for them besides fmv and in some cases that was horrible on the playstation.
How can anyone forget Urban Champion from Nintendo themselves? My memory falled me for a bit thinking the 16 bit era was not bogged down by it but then I remembered all those horrible mascots trying to be the next Mario and Sonic.
Games for the SNES that were never in Nintendo Power for some odd reason.
At least these games in the eshop don't cost over a 90 bucks with inflation.
Damn kids.
Edit
Oh yes polygons! I forgot the wonder of 3D games that didn't have enough gameplay for a 2D game.
When will you guys finally learn?
"Projects like these never used to release on Nintendo systems"
Games don't release themselves. Games ARE released by companies.
It's really not that difficult and this is coming from someone whose first language isn't English.
For the love of God: It's bad enough when the comments are often riddled with the same easily-avoided mistakes over and over, but seeing even the reviewers sometimes unable to learn the simplest aspects of their very own language is just sad.
@SetupDisk Urban Champion isn't that bad. It's actually a pretty clever game and fun at least for 20 minutes every now and then. People just love to jump on the hate waggon as they often do when somebody on the internet claims for something to be "the worst game everrrrrr!111!".
I like the game it is fun!
@KeeperBvK
Oh I played it on the NES, it was that bad. Maybe not so bad with the price on the vc but I was refering to people that bought the cart on the NES which was the point of my post. Thank goodness I only traded with a friend for a bit.
Now with 2 people it was a little more fun just to talk the "smack" and laugh at someone getting a pot on their head.
Now I wish the Spy vs Spy game could be released on VC. A licensed 2 player game that was great!
3/10 seems very generous...
Garbage bin game. I hate to hate on a studio that just started, but just go back to school, for the sake of your company.
I hope the studio has a bit more lofty goals for their next effort, that said I had a good amount of fun for my 10 cents.
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