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Balan Wonderworld (26 March 2021) OT - A Hero or Two


Pikachu

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Welcome to BALAN WONDERWORLD: a wonderous show, the likes of which has never been seen before!

 

The curtains have been lifted unveiling the all-new 3D action platformer created by the legendary creators Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima.

 

Twelve different tales await players in the bizarre and imaginary land of Wonderworld. As the star of the show you can use powers from 80 different costumes while exploring labyrinth stages, filled with a myriad of tricks and traps to get to the heart of each story.

 

As you journey through this land between fantasy and reality, you must find a way to bring balance to others and yourself. 

 

Arriving in Spring 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Steam! 

 

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  • Pikachu changed the title to Balan Wonderworld (26 March 2021) - Information Thread
  • 4 months later...

There's an idea of a good game here, but wow the movement feels bad.

 

The run animation is oddly fast, but you move slower than any 3D platformer I can remember.  It's just taunting you.  I wouldn't even mind some 3D Sonic level jank here if it meant being able to run faster.

 

I bet they chose this run speed because the visuals would make you sick otherwise.  The world has an inverse curvature (think Animal Crossing, but backwards) which is nauseating.  Played it on PC, but there's no ability to go any higher than 720p. (wut?)

It's inspired somewhat by Mario Odyssey with its powerups, but lacks all the fun.  Unless they find it with some serious mechanical polish, I wouldn't bother.  Go play Hat in Time or Yooka instead.

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2 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Sounds like a typical Japanese PC game from 5 years ago. :p

 

I have played PC demos of Western games that lock you to 1080p because they don't want performance issues to turn you away.  But never as low as 720p.  Game is super ugly if you don't turn on the AA as well.

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I got excited for this when I saw the names behind it, but wow, that demo didn't leave me with a positive impression.  I didn't hate it, but I also wasn't having a lot of fun.  The movement of your character just isn't great, and there's some absolutely bizarre design choices in the game.  Why does everybody disappear when you get close to them?  The Balan segment was a pointless QTE too.  I still have an odd curiosity to play it in hopes of a good platformer hidden somewhere in there, but I'd never touch it at full retail price.  I sincerely hope they're looking at the feedback and make a decision to delay this game.  

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I do still sorta love it after playing more of the demo. i mean I have no idea what they were thinking with most of what’s being presented here but I’m kinda digging that. 
 

One thing that made me like it more was thinking of it as more of a Yoshi/Kirby like thing where it’s more based around exploring and solving how to get the trophies than getting to the end of the level.

 

It really reminds me a lot of one of those weird Genesis platformers like Decap Attack and Kid Chameleon in 3D. It definitely has that old school Sega vibe in there, enough so that ya I’ll grab this when it’s $30 and play more.

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I saw a Youtube thumbnail of Dreamcast guy calling this game trash, and that's all I need to know. That dude loves basically any game that has ever existed. If he hates it, it must be a true abomination.

 

...I will still try it because I love trying bad games.

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8 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Also y'all are liars:

 

GvpfyCD.png


it locks to 720p for me.  I couldn’t adjust it higher, even windowed.  Maybe it’s a controller issue for me? I’ll try my keyboard.

 

7 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Crispy has a potato confirmed!

 

1060 6gb.  I’m quite literally the average, for now.

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1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:


it locks to 720p for me.  I couldn’t adjust it higher, even windowed.  Maybe it’s a controller issue for me? I’ll try my keyboard.

 

 

1060 6gb.  I’m quite literally the average, for now.

 

It’s just buggy as shit, randomly locked it to 1080p for me. It picked 4k for Xbob, but it seems to pick a res you can’t move higher from randomly. Setting to windowed mode, maximize, use full screen borderless application to get rid of windows bars fixed it to normal for me, hopefully won’t have to do that in the full version.

 

I tried editing the ini also but even setting it to read only didn’t do anything. 

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  • Pikachu changed the title to Balan Wonderworld (26 March 2021) OT
  • Pikachu changed the title to Balan Wonderworld (26 March 2021) OT - A Hero or Two
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
5 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

Sad way to go, if he does.  Though I do question his design chops after the terrible QTE's and slow run speed in that game.  So many classic 3D platforms are leagues better.  Even some bad ones feel better.

 

Yeah, I think the industry has just simply left Yuji Naka behind. The last game before Balan Wonderworld where Naka was credited as director was ChuChu Rocket! for the Dreamcast in 1999. That game was so good, but that was 21 years ago. 

 

The last good games Naka produced (he's produced a lot of bad games lately) were Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (which was great), Sonic Heroes (which was good) and Puyo Pop Fever (which was addicting) in 2003, 18 years ago. This was once the guy who had the savvy to produce Samba de Amigo and the original Phantasy Star Online in the year 2000, but again, that was 21 years ago. If you look at what he's done since 2003, it's not good. This is the guy who once programmed and produced the original Nights into Dreams in 1996 (great game). :(

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I loved how this game looked when it was first shown, i just want the good game I imagined from that. He needs to double down and release a squeakuel after partnering with playful corp. Release a solid 8.0 that I love more than I should and then retire.

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