Like Nights into Dreams it's also an exceptionally clunky thing to play, though if Naka and Ohshima's 1996 Saturn outing eventually soared beyond those problems thanks to its love of perpetual motion then Balan Wonderworld struggles to break free of them, in part down to the size of its ambition. Like Nights into Dreams, it is deliciously, giddily strange. How else to excuse the creatures locked in a lifeless dance like furries in a trance that vanish inexplicably in and out of sight, or the 50-foot high people that overlook levels and fix you with a glassy, gormless stare. Which explains why it's almost entirely unexplainable, not that Balan Wonderworld goes out of its way to ever give a proper account of itself: there are lavish, wordless CG interludes from Visual Works and some semblance of a plot, but like most games of its kind it defies easy description. Character movement has been improved from the demo, though don't expect it to feel as snappy or responsive as a modern platformer - it's still very much in keeping with Balan Wonderworld's 90s tone. Like Nights into Dreams there's also a tug of melancholy beneath the strangeness, each of the 12 worlds themed around a different character's inner turmoil, all underpinned by Ryo Yamazaki's wistful score. Like Nights into Dreams, you're one of two children ushered into a fantastical theatrical world by an unsettlingly proportioned character, though the atmosphere this time out is tipped more firmly into nightmare territory: Balan is a freaky, horrifying thing, his grin a thing of dumb menace.
This is a platformer that feels like it's been lifted from a different time altogether, the traces of 90s Sonic Team evident from the fundamentals up.
The two are together for the first time since 1998's Sonic Adventure, a pairing that promises a certain type of game that Balan Wonderworld certainly delivers on. Here the Sonic the Hedgehog programmer is reunited with the designer of Sega's mascot Naoto Ohshima - a man who can also boast Nights into Dreams, Burning Rangers, and perhaps most appropriately this time out Blinx: The Time Sweeper on his CV. Availability: Out now on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PCīalan Wonderworld marks the grand return of Yuji Naka (an impeccably stylish dev, I was lucky enough to meet him once and was impressed how his socks, tie and pocket square all matched, a fact that might have been unremarkable were they not all a searingly bright orange).If you've an honest recollection of how Sonic Adventure played, you'll also have a pretty good idea of how horrifying, fascinating, frustrating and occasionally brilliant this can be.
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Imagine the team behind Sonic Adventure had a crack at their own Mario Odyssey, that late 90s exuberance finding itself into a maximalist journey that throws a hundred different ideas at the player, and you've pretty much got Balan Wonderworld down pat.
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Balan Wonderworld is a curious time capsule, a 3D platformer that's full of the exuberance, colour and straight-up weirdness of a beloved and bygone period frequently yearned for, and all from the very people that helped define that same era. Maybe it's simply a case of being careful of what you wish for.
Surreal, enigmatic and often sloppily executed, Balan Wonderworld is a 90s throwback that might be too period correct for some.
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