Balan Wonderworld is a wondrous action-platformer game themed around a mysterious musical theatre. The stars of the show 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 Wonderworld, each with their own unique quirks. They will explore all corners of these labyrinthine stages, using all the tricks and gimmicks hidden along the way, to get to the heart of each touching story.
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okay.. is hating on this game like a joke? like.. really?
if nights into dreams came out today would people hate it?
does everyone hate whimsy & magical games?
i don't really like platforming games but this was actually really fun & cute! it was soo comfy & charming! it felt like dreams but you're walking instead of looping in the air. the costumes were super fun to swap to & learn how to use them in levels! i haven't finished it but i just played 9 hours & got to the 9th level which was hard but fun!
i honestly watched so many videos when this game came out by huge youtubers shitting on it, i even got a recommended video from 3 weeks ago about it sucking. people comparing it to mario odyssey even though there's really nothing similar except they're platformers..
i will update my review when i finish it but i really enjoyed it!
if nights into dreams came out today would people hate it?
does everyone hate whimsy & magical games?
i don't really like platforming games but this was actually really fun & cute! it was soo comfy & charming! it felt like dreams but you're walking instead of looping in the air. the costumes were super fun to swap to & learn how to use them in levels! i haven't finished it but i just played 9 hours & got to the 9th level which was hard but fun!
i honestly watched so many videos when this game came out by huge youtubers shitting on it, i even got a recommended video from 3 weeks ago about it sucking. people comparing it to mario odyssey even though there's really nothing similar except they're platformers..
i will update my review when i finish it but i really enjoyed it!
simultaneously overhated but also genuinely really bad (its peak)
They should've added at least 5 more years to Yuji Naka's sentence for this godawful game
This game is peak platforming u really just have to understand the complex nature of what it is. Little baby infants play mario while men play balan wonderworld
More interesting than it has a right to be: a 3D collectathon platformer with a kid-design aesthetic with some truly baffling elements... full of uniquely implimented traversal gameplay dynamics that rewards scrutiny and strategy and even bending the seemingly out-of-range areas for exploration. Still hedging my bets in the middle because in terms of difficulty this is still baby-level and has an annoying hub and level unlocking system, but not so easily written off.
This review contains spoilers
If you try to cut this game any slack, I have to assume you hardly played it. It's unbelievable just how terrible this game really is, it's as if the team behind it attempted to engineer the worst game imaginable. It spits in the face of game design, of fun, of anything one would expect from a 3D platformer.
There's like 80 different costumes, but a fourth of them are clones, another two-thirds are practically useless, and the remaining 4 or so are the only ones you'd ever actually use. Seriously, there's three separate costumes whose only purpose are to stand on these stages that appear in only 5 or 6 levels and play a 5 second cutscene. That is literally it, no bonuses or rewards or anything. There's THREE costumes dedicated to that. There's also only one button in this game, so if you have a costume whose main purpose is to attack, you can't jump. IN A 3D PLATFORMER YOU CAN LOSE YOUR ABILITY TO JUMP!!!!!
This game's progression is terrible; in order to unlock more stages you need to collect Balan statues. The way the Balan statues are littered throughout the game is disrespectful to the player's time, as many of them are completely inaccessible without costumes you cannot get until further in the game. This also means incessant backtracking is necessary to actually continue the game, so you're forced to play the same terrible levels over and over and over. That's just for the statues too; you also need to go back to stages to get costumes because if you get hit ONCE, you lose your costume. So it means if you want to play this game without losing your mind, you need to go back to World 8 and grind out Frost Fairy costumes so you can traverse the stages without wanting to tear your hair out.
Or, you could engage in the best part of the game: the hub world. Feed the little bird things called "Tims" these crystal drops (they're actually Balan's tears, which I am happy with. I am glad that he is sad) and do some convoluted steps to unlock the "Balan" costume that lets you fly. If you decide to play this game, unlock that costume ASAP.
I hate Balan. He looks stupid and all he does throughout the entire game is punch rocks in space during the lamest quick-time events ever created.
World 10 is awful, which is saying something considering the only level in this game I could genuinely say I thought was anything above "god-awful" was World 4. The (pretty uninteresting) character designs aren't enough to save this clunky, unfinished, impossibly boring garbage heap. I got the platinum trophy for this game because I thought it would be funny, and "there's no way it could be THAT bad!" No. It's not that bad, it's worse, it's so much worse. I am so glad Yuji Naka went to jail for this, he deserves it.
There's like 80 different costumes, but a fourth of them are clones, another two-thirds are practically useless, and the remaining 4 or so are the only ones you'd ever actually use. Seriously, there's three separate costumes whose only purpose are to stand on these stages that appear in only 5 or 6 levels and play a 5 second cutscene. That is literally it, no bonuses or rewards or anything. There's THREE costumes dedicated to that. There's also only one button in this game, so if you have a costume whose main purpose is to attack, you can't jump. IN A 3D PLATFORMER YOU CAN LOSE YOUR ABILITY TO JUMP!!!!!
This game's progression is terrible; in order to unlock more stages you need to collect Balan statues. The way the Balan statues are littered throughout the game is disrespectful to the player's time, as many of them are completely inaccessible without costumes you cannot get until further in the game. This also means incessant backtracking is necessary to actually continue the game, so you're forced to play the same terrible levels over and over and over. That's just for the statues too; you also need to go back to stages to get costumes because if you get hit ONCE, you lose your costume. So it means if you want to play this game without losing your mind, you need to go back to World 8 and grind out Frost Fairy costumes so you can traverse the stages without wanting to tear your hair out.
Or, you could engage in the best part of the game: the hub world. Feed the little bird things called "Tims" these crystal drops (they're actually Balan's tears, which I am happy with. I am glad that he is sad) and do some convoluted steps to unlock the "Balan" costume that lets you fly. If you decide to play this game, unlock that costume ASAP.
I hate Balan. He looks stupid and all he does throughout the entire game is punch rocks in space during the lamest quick-time events ever created.
World 10 is awful, which is saying something considering the only level in this game I could genuinely say I thought was anything above "god-awful" was World 4. The (pretty uninteresting) character designs aren't enough to save this clunky, unfinished, impossibly boring garbage heap. I got the platinum trophy for this game because I thought it would be funny, and "there's no way it could be THAT bad!" No. It's not that bad, it's worse, it's so much worse. I am so glad Yuji Naka went to jail for this, he deserves it.