Balan Wonderworld (Switch) Preview

Since the announcement of Balan Wonderworld, I have been intrigued by both its colorful visuals and its premise. The idea of a theme-park styled “Wonderland” that connects to people’s emotions is something that I find fascinating. Additionally, the idea of a game with no spoken dialogue outside of the opening cutscene is interesting, to say the least.

Playing the free demo for Balan Wonderworld has given me a few thoughts in terms of how the final release might be received. I’ve seen other publications have mixed opinions on it, and yet I find myself really pleased by my experience with the game. Why? Well, to sum it up in a single phrase, Balan Wonderworld feels like coming home and playing a chill game.

Before I dig too deep into my thoughts on this demo so far, let’s explain a little bit about what Balan Wonderworld actually is. Balan Wonderworld puts you in the role of either Leo Craig or Emma Cole (both if you play in co-op) as they are drawn into the magical Wonderworld by the maestro Balan. By putting on one of 80 costumes that give them various abilities, they can traverse the levels and collect Balan Statues, Golden Hats, and Drops.

Balan Statues allow you to unlock other worlds and there are usually 8 in each level. Golden Hats bring you to a mini-game or QTE situation where, depending on your performance, you’ll get large amounts of Drops. Drops are a sort of collectible currency that you feed to the Tims, tiny creatures that follow you around. By feeding them various colored drops, it changes their abilities and color.

There isn’t much in the way of tutorial information in the Demo, so the intricacies of some of these things haven’t been made apparent yet. However, one thing I can tell you is that the game is incredibly colorful with fun music and levels that encourage exploration and return trips. See, each level only offers you certain costumes, though you can carry them between levels. Because of this, you may need abilities from a costume you don’t have, in order to get to a collectible.

The nostalgic feeling of old-school collect-a-thon platformers is the whole “comfortable” part of Balan Wonderworld. To be honest, it should feel that way though, considering the designer of this game and the development team have a background in the Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights Into Dreams franchises. The method of allocating damage is interesting too, as taking damage takes away one of your costumes, rather than any generalized health. I think there needs to be some sort of refinement to this though because if you lose your costumes with fighting capabilities, it can lead you to getting stuck.

Some people have said that some of the costumes are redundant, but I love the design of all of them that I have come across. Visually they look interesting, they usually (with a few exceptions) have different playstyles, and even the ones that are sort of “duplicates” of other costumes at least have a different visual, so you could just favor one look over another.

I’m not often a fan of games that don’t have a “written” storyline to them. However, the storylines presented in the bits of the demo I have played are simple enough to follow. On top of that, there is a novelization of the game coming both in English and Japanese, so I think it could be fun to play the game and then get deeper into the story with the novel.

Overall my general thoughts on Balan Wonderworld are that I really want to just see what the finished product is. I think it is simpler compared to other 3D platformers that are available right now, but it has a very distinct, fun visual style. The music is great, and strangely enough, I could see Balan Wonderworld becoming a franchise that maybe even spawns an anime or show.

I hope people are at least willing to give Balan Wonderworld a chance. I could see the developers taking feedback and bringing this game (and a potential franchise) to levels of greatness that we haven’t seen from non-Nintendo platformers in a while. Plus, this is Square Enix’s foray into a 3D Platforming genre, so how bad can it be? I like weird, strange, fun, colorful things though. Your mileage may vary on whether Balan Wonderworld is for you.