Balan Wonderworld Demo First Impressions

ByFranklin Bellone Borges Hours
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Balan Wonderworld Demo

Last Updated on: 7th March 2021, 08:01 pm

The release date of Balan Wonderworld, Square Enix’s newest action platformer and the awaited new collaboration between the legendary creators of Sonic The Hedgehog, Naka Yuji and Oshima Naoto, is getting closer and closer.

With that in mind, we decided to give the title a try and played its Demo, available right now. Here are our first impressions of the title:

First, a Little Introduction

In Balan Wonderworld, you will follow the protagonists as they travel to many worlds, freeing many hearts hearts as they search for a way to free their own.

For that, the game will be divided into many stages, each composed of 2 separate acts, and for the looks of it, a boss fight.

  • Balan Wonderworld Demo Emma
  • Balan Wonderworld Demo Leo
Emma and Leo, Balan Wonderworld’s protagonists.
Credit: Square Enix.
  • In the demo, players can experience the game’s first 2 acts, the first big boss fight, and the first act of its fourth and sixth stages.

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A Not So Wonderful Experience

Once the adventure starts, you can get a glimpse of its colorful world, of your companions, the adorable Tims, which you can help grow, and the games core gameplay, which, unfortunately, looks extremely simplistic, having all of the main buttons set to perform the same action, a normal jump.

The lack of variety in its gameplay is further is, sort of, dealt with by the presence of its costumes, each changing the protagonist’s abilities accordingly, by replacing the normal jump command. but even that looks somewhat half-finished and having to change costumes to do the most simple things really hurts the experience.

Not being able to perform actions, such as running or ducking on default, really takes a lot from the game.
Credit: Square Enix

The worlds present in the demo are relatively small, but the way the game pushes you to repeat certain stages and explore them thoroughly, and the addition of hidden mini-games on each world are a plus, even if its presence doesn’t add much to the overall experience, at least at first.

A football mini-game present in the games first world.
Credit: Square Enix

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Final Thoughts

Balan Wonderworld seems like a simple, weird, but fun game, if you take into account its target demographic.

But with that in mind, its gameplay, and the fact that the game doesn’t seem to have the charisma needed to push players forward shows that, unless the full game improves the experience considerably, the title is not up for its price tag, especially on the Switch, where you have so many other viable options.

You can play the game’s demo for free right now, on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Check out below the games announcement trailer, and its official synopsis:

”BALAN WONDERWORLD is a wondrous action platformer game themed around the Balan Theatre. Led by the enigmatic maestro named Balan, the stars of the show Emma and Leo will use special abilities from a multitude of characterful costumes as they adventure in the bizarre and imaginary land of Wonderworld. Here memories and vistas from the real world mix with the things that people hold dear.
Twelve different tales await our stars in the Wonderworld, each with their own unique quirks. They will explore all corners of these labyrinthine stages, filled with a myriad of tricks and traps, to get to the heart of each story.”

BALAN WONDERWORLD will be released on March 26, for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.