![]() ![]() After all, former Sonic Team wunderkinds Naka and Naoto Ohshima were collaborating for the first time since 1998’s Sonic Adventure ! The 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog side scrollers ( my favorite of which was Ohshima’s baby), Adventure (flawed though it may be), and NiGHTS into Dreams rest among my all-time favorite games, and Balan was clearly trying to channel the latter. Something about Balan was waving red flags from the start. Yet they ultimately disappointed fans, especially the latter, whose grandiose failure became a career-defining shame for former Capcom producer Keiji Inafune. Some of the key talent behind those classics helmed them, too. 9 were spiritual successors to beloved platformers ( Banjo-Kazooie and Mega Man, respectively) and swiftly reached their Kickstarter goals. Plus, Balan invoked a couple of underwhelming crowdfunded games. Arzest, a successor to the late Artoon, was on developing duties, and neither incarnation of the studio has released a game I enjoyed. Honestly, I’ve had reservations over Balan Wonderworld dating back to its announcement. Today, Balan is treated as a joke and a coda in the career of its once-proud director, Yuji Naka, whose hubris over the decades finally caught up to him.Ī theater theme powers Balan Wonderworld, informing its aesthetics, power-ups, cutscenes, and Easter eggs. Unfortunately, the finished product fared no better it was pilloried as one of 2021’s “worst” or “most disappointing” releases. ![]() Before Balan ’s release, a demo hit digital storefronts to an overwhelmingly negative reception. Square Enix’s Balan Wonderworld, despite how this review will read, firmly falls into that former camp. Thing is, I always try to find and champion a video game’s positive qualities seldom do I buy a poorly-received title just to tear into it. Some of my friends believe I’m a harsh critic, an assertion with which I’d probably agree. ![]() Thanks to Wolfman and Hamada for helping with edits. Wolfman’s review of the game explores the corporate culture in which it spawned. Welcome to the Month of Balan! For one week in September, Source Gaming finally digs deep into the history of Balan Wonderworld. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |