This isn’t even remotely as morbid a failure as it’s being made out to be (imo this is far from being the worst platformer of the year, let alone of all time), and they clearly responded to what criticism about the demo they could in the small window of time they had, but this is still a very disappointing release from someone of Yuji Naka’s pedigree. There are some real easily corrected choices here that totally perplex me: why do you need a key to unlock the costume pickups when these keys are, without fail, placed directly next to the box pickups and mindlessly accessible? Why are Balan’s Bouts dreary, maliciously unforgiving QTE sequences instead of cute little rhythm games that would enhance the game’s theatrical motifs? Why do you have to “stock” costumes instead of just being able to swap to them once encountered? Like almost everybody, I have LOTS of problems with the game, but it feels a little cruel and incurious to see people hammer so hard on BW for not being this conventionally engaging mechanically tight platformer (none of Yuji Naka’s games really are lol) when to me it seems like Balan’s priorities… clearly aren’t to be that? I agree that the game fails on its potential in a myriad of frustrating ways, but I’d much rather discuss those briefly glimmering unique elements that could have been pushed further rather than rail on it for feeling “dated” while simultaneously condemning it for not being kinesthetically identical to a legacy platformer series that’s pushing 40.

I think, ideally, the game’s one-button input philosophy and limited level design are intended to create a hyper-accessible fanciful spree of cutesy quick changing aesthetics and encouragement--a sugary character randomizer musically shifting between different flavors of low-stakes whimsy--and thats a vibe outline I can definitely see merit in. Sometimes this almost kind of works: a lot of the costumes are goofy and adorable! It’s genuinely kind of fun to get a new suit and wonder what it can do! There are a few rare moments where the level design and powers are in great harmony and the whacko dancing npcs appear and seem to be cheering just 4 u--u go girl!!! Unfortunately, the levels and costumes rarely feel as exuberant and symbiotic as they should to make something like this work, and the game REALLY underestimated just how meaningful any ability that overwrites your jump function needs to be in order to not feel completely disempowering. It can feel patronizing and dull, but it’s absolutely not some utter atrocity of design; The game is internally consistent and it functions coherently within its own parameters, despite them being pretty mystifying and insipid at times--it’s not some Sonic 06 level technical failure in any regard. I was let down by the mechanics, sure, but my real problem is that the game is rarely as bold and engaging an aesthetic experience as something like Nights or Chu Chu Rocket. However, there are still some bits of genuinely quirky individuality I really enjoyed.

The musical theater aesthetic is a totally bonkers camp delight. Some of the scenarios leading to these redemptive dance numbers are hysterical and charming (I particularly love “girl and her dolphin friend had a falling out (???) and need to reconcile”) Seeing the motion-captured choreo kind of poorly translated onto all these wonky deviantart original character costumes has a synthetic but silly sort of jankiness that fully circled back into an earnest and endearing place for me. The cutscenes are genuinely lovely, and the craftworld sort of cgi stuff they do is great. I kind of love the enigmatic stupidity of the Tower O’ Tims and its ever-expanding marshmallow peep Rube Goldberg device that appears to do nothing but exist for its own sake--I couldnt help but laugh when I spent 10 minutes watching the dumb little critters revolve around in their weird merry go round in order to unlock a third “tim trampoline” i literally never saw any of them use. The soundtrack is unequivocally pretty excellent, although it definitely feels a bit slight on tracks.

I have to wonder what a kid playing this would feel like, someone with a looser outlook about what the genre should do, someone with a less claustrophobic understanding of competence/quality than me--someone who can play games and not even compartmentalize them into genre expectations at all! I’m not even sure those kids exist or would care about this game, but the kind of frustrating letdown experience of Balan was still memorable to me despite itself, and playing it had me thinking about my own processing and approaches to design when playing games. And hey, my partner and I have been swinging our little terrier around and belting the game’s wannabe Idina Menzel gibberish anthems to her for the past week so that’s gotta be worth something right!!!

Reviewed on Apr 01, 2021


12 Comments


2 years ago

i'm reading this and all i can think is hell yeah i wish the switch could handle this game but if it ever goes on sale on ps4 i will def be picking it up, love me some yuji naka doing weird shit
omg yeah i should have specified not to play the switch version lol, it looks soo inexcusably busted! Ran just fine on ps4 for me

2 years ago

I agree with many of your points but this game was a big let down for me and I think you put it well here: "it’s not some Sonic 06 level technical failure in any regard. I was let down by the mechanics, sure, but my real problem is that the game is so rarely as bold and engaging an aesthetic experience as something like Nights or Chu Chu Rocket. "
I personally really prefer technical failures with cool ideas, I can enjoy mucking through incoherent game design systems or friction to experience something new, but Balan just felt so weird to me in that it felt sterile and lacking personality despite appearing so exuberant. I had especially felt disappointed in the cutscenes, actually, as a huge fan of nights and the weird surrealness of the animation and symbols of the cutscenes in that game and all their early CG edge, the ones in Balan that I had seen felt overpolished to the point of taking the bare strokes of Night's premise and putting them through a pixar-imitating lens that turned me completely off. I personally think the overcommitment to accessibility is really alienating

2 years ago

Can't wait for this game to not be 60 dollars. Your review sounds like what I assumed it would be, definitely agree it's weird how quickly everyone decided this game is the punching bag of 2021 releases.
@ dwardman I definitely agree and that's my biggest issue as well--I might have clung on to a few more scant little moments of soul and strangeness than it sounds like you did, but you're totally right that the whole thing does feel sanded down and way less peculiar than my ideal vision of what this game could be. I will go light on defense for the cutscenes because their setups almost felt like an intentional parody of the melodramatic Pixar montage style from Up that plagues every conversation about ~good visual storytelling~: My dolphin gave me a traumatizing smack :'( / Spider child is too alienating to have friends :( / No one is noticing old fartsy picking up litter :'( were all so ridic and melodramatically presented through that tepid vignettey jumpcut template that I got a real kick out of them, and I think they did just enough with stylization to give them like... a little visual peculiarity, at least. This is all so subjective tho and I totally see how that alone isn't gonna cut it for everybody. I agree on the accessibility front too, it crosses the boundary into patronizing for sure. I think theres merit to a concept of only being able to perform one distinct action in each costume but the game by and large does not earn that limitation or deliver on the potential of the idea
@Bansheeneet yeah i would definitely not suggest going full price on this one lol, i only played it this early because my partner is a children's game masochist and the game has basically been a household meme for us ever since that first trailer with the song came out

2 years ago

@PansyDragoonSaga yes I completely agree, the concept of a one-button 3d platformer where the button's action changes depending on your costume is cool as hell and is what drew me to the game (outside of its pedigree of course), and I think it's worth another attempt if they ever decide to do it again. I did not get very far into the game so you may be right in that I should give the cutscenes another chance.
the biggest crime for me is that the one button interface denied us access to a "dance anywhere" button, which all games should probably have but this one especially needs

2 years ago

Oh, I meant to say your review sounds like what I assumed what the game would be, not that I assumed what your review would sound like beforehand. Sorry if there was any confusion there

2 years ago

I can't say I agree with this review but it's also very well written so I definitely give it a Like.

2 years ago

Thinking about your review more and having seen some gameplay now this game really reminds me of like an N64 3D platformer where nobody knew how to Do This yet and we were just trying things out and most of them were bad but every one of these got us closer to codifying a cool genre and most of the failures were interesting.

But THIS game came out in 2021 and not 1997 which is interesting lol
@wowgoodname there's definitely an air of that, yeah! To me it feels a bit less that it's simply dated and making the exact same "mistakes" as 90's platformers and moreso that the game has different priorities than most modern platformers (it's not about kinesthetically snappy mobility options and rapid traversal, and much more interested in simplicity/whimsy than empowerment) but the bummer is that those priorities aren't developed and explored enough so the game feels, like you said, pretty damn rough-hewn and like an early draft. The issue I had is that the game just feels so much less confident and interesting than a lot of those 90's platformers a lot of the time--I wish it individuated itself from modern playfeel and style expectations even more! It's such a confounding experience to play and I do think there are kernels of ideas here and there that feel bizarre and disarming enough to be fruitful ground for refinement in better games! The whole thing really did make me think a lot about platformers and their lineage and how audiences demand such a specific sort of gamefeel; I remember the littlebigplanet complaints about its more realistic momentum/physics feeling "floaty" when those tactile interactions were like, a huge part of the games identity and focus and totally fine to deal with imo--people were just angry they couldnt replicate mario levels in the creator and have them feel exactly like mario levels. Im not gonna say Balan feels GOOD to move around in or utilizes its unique control scheme well most of the time lol but i do feel like limited or non-standard mobility shouldnt be some automatic fail verdict for platformers and wish genre refinement didnt so often come part and parcel with a narrowing of acceptable ways player avatars should be inhabited/controlled