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Balan Wonderworld is the latest from acclaimed video game designer, director and developer Yuji Naka. Naka is best known for his work on the Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights game series, and has partnered with Square Enix to create Balan Wonderworld.
That said, Naka is a long way from those franchises at this point, and Balan Wonderworld is quite different. The game is a 3D platformer, reminiscent of something like the original Jak and Daxter or Lucky’s Tale, but it creates its own feel and personality.
Players will explore colorful 3D worlds and will have to solve puzzles, collect items and complete levels to progress.
The hook in Balan Wonderworld, however, is the in-game’s use of costumes. The main character (you can choose to be a boy or a girl) is quite helpless, only able to jump over enemies’ heads. However, each level is littered with Kirby-type bonuses given to you by a cast of friendly allies. Lucky for these friends, you don’t have to eat them.
These power-ups are numerous, creative and niche. In the handful of levels available in the demo, there are ten different power-ups and each level challenges you to use their unique abilities.
To give you a taste, there’s a Sheep power-up that lets you inflate (much like Kirby actually). In this state, you can hover and catch winds to extend your flight.
There is also a Pig power-up that allows butt smacking, which can damage enemies and block certain platforms in the ground to solve certain puzzles or reach new areas.
There are even some sillier ones, like a witch / fox power-up that turns you into an invincible cube that you can use to quickly smash certain boxes while sliding.
There is also value in going back with these power-ups. There are areas and puzzles in the previous levels that can only be accessed by using the power-ups from the following chapters. For example, an equipment power-up that you can get in Chapter 6 can be used to access an area in Chapter 1.
The main reason for doing this is to obtain Statues of Balan which can be used to unlock new chapters, add new worlds to explore, and advance the game.
Also, you can collect different colored gems that you can feed to those cute bunny-like things called Tims that hang out around the world. These gems modify the properties of Tims and can then be used to help you with various different benefits as you explore a chapter.
The story leaves a lot to the imagination, and I mean it affectionately. No one really speaks except Balan – the mysterious entity who guides the main character through his “Wonderworld”. And instead, Balan Wonderworld expresses itself through the character’s emotion, colors, sound and music.
Each chapter seems to tell its own short story. Chapter 1 is about a farmer whose crops are struggling because of a storm. The main character and Balan, through their actions, are able to stop the mysterious evil entities causing the storm and are able to help the farmer.
What also becomes evident is that the power-ups you come across in each chapter are somewhat themed around the story, which is a cute touch as well.
The fight is at no time terribly difficult. The boss fights in the demo feature a specific power-up which makes it much easier, but there is some freedom to use other power-ups as well.
For example, a boss throws gusts of wind that you can send back to him with the Wolf power-up. Or, alternatively, you can dodge the gusts and use the Dragon power-up to throw some fireballs at it.
I really appreciated the freedom of the players in the demo, as well as the creativity of the different power-ups. I do, however, wonder how far Balan Wonderland will advance this concept or if the demo is the ceiling in terms of complexity.
I wonder this because the game seems very aimed at children. Don’t get me wrong, as an adult I’ve always enjoyed my time with the demo, but between the fragments of the story on display and the rather easy combat, it seems obvious that Balan Wonderworld isn’t meant to be a challenge for hardcore. fans of gaming platforms like Crash Bandicoot or even Super Mario.
It remains to be seen if the difficulty increases, but in any case, Balan Wonderland promises to be a very relaxing, heartwarming and fun platform game, accessible to all ages.
There is always room for well-designed games that everyone can choose and enjoy. When I was a kid I grew up with amazing games like Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a game I could handle even when I was about seven, and I still love it today because it’s a great game.
There are so many terrible games for kids, so I can appreciate the efforts of games like Balan Wonderworld for everyone to enjoy. It doesn’t all have to be hardcore like Donkey Kong Country after all.
If you want to try the Balan Wonderworld demo for yourself, it will be released this Friday at midnight ET.
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