The costume-based gameplay adds little joy or surprise to otherwise simplistic 3D platform-jumping. Other getups, like a fire-breathing dragon outfit, do not feel particularly useful since enemies are easy to dispatch through other means - jumping on their heads while wearing just about any other costume, for example. The player’s basic ability is to jump, and many of the costumes offer variations on that jump. With its dozens of costumes, Balan Wonderworld feels wide but shallow. Publisher Square Enix says we can expect 80 costumes in the full game the demo includes at least 10. Later levels include a sheep costume that lets players float and a gear-shaped skirt that’s used to manipulate a clockwork world. The initial level features outfits like the Tornado Wolf, which gives the player a spin jump Jumping Jack, a kangaroo ’fit which offers a long jump and Elastiplant, which lets the player stretch to new heights. In each world, players can access a variety of costumes to gain new abilities. The game’s demo stretches across three worlds and one boss battle. The giant friendly farmer of Balan Wonderworld haunts me. Its characters feel ripped from a Nights into Dreams sequel - particularly the eponymous Balan, a flamboyant showman who pulls a young man and woman into a colorful fantasyland. The 3D action-platformer’s game world is rich with the grassy greens and energizing blue skies of a 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog game. (The full game drops in March.)īalan Wonderworld is a new project from game director Yuji Naka and artist Naoto Ohshima, and it harkens back to that duo’s early creative works at Sega. 28 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The same holds true for my time with Balan Wonderworld’s new playable demo, which arrives Thursday, Jan. But I’m glad to have known such weirdness. I saw Cats on a lark out of morbid curiosity, and still have conflicted feelings about the whole jellicle experience. Balan Wonderworld had already featured plenty of ambient dancing, but this spectacle was on an entirely new level. I beat him back into human form with a couple punches to the paw and a blast to the derrière, and we celebrated with song and dance. I sat stunned after watching an in-game musical number starring my player character and a corn farmer, who had just minutes before been transformed into a giant clownish dog by an evil wizard. The same sense of confusion and awe at witnessing Judi Dench and Idris Elba in singing cat form is evoked by Balan Wonderworld. Balan Wonderworld awakened a feeling I haven’t experienced since 2019, when I saw director Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the musical Cats in a movie theater.
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