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Sales figures suggest that Balan Wonderworld reportedly sold roughly 2,000 physical copies in Japan
- Thread starter CenturionNami
- Start date
if SE was smart, they wouldn't ship enough copies to get to that point
then again, if they were smart, this would either had been a better game or it'd be canned
Lmao. Underrated comment of the year. Someone give this man a tag.
Wow, bold prediction!
It does seem to have its fans (one / two), but it's also true that the fans seem awfully few and far between, for the moment.
As a fan of Banjo and Nights, certain throwbacks did absolutely nothing for me (Yooka-Laylee, that 2008 Nights game), but yeah, there were indeed some truly insane design decisions in the case of Balan.
I've been enjoying the game so far, but wouldn't be able to recommend it, given the general reception.
Maybe if the entire industry collapses and we're left sifting through the smoldering ashes of what once was.
like some Book of Eli shit, but everyone is fighting and killing for the last playable game in the world.
only for the last person to play Balan and realized he sacrificed so much for so little
Aw. It doesn't seem like it's that bad. My parents bought me a ton of shit games that I ended up loving. Except Rascal. I'll never forgive them for Rascal.
They're not required at all to beat the levels or the game in general so it's only annoying for completionists, it's just that the punishing nature of them feels totally at odds with the design ethos of the rest of the game.
The one-button thing was something I got used to as well. It's not a good thing but it didn't really detract from my enjoyment, especially since my go-to combat costumes (Jellyjolt and X Launcher) can attack and jump. The main things that bother me are the need to farm costumes, go back to checkpoints to restock, and the delay when swapping between them. A system that should be snappy and fun is made slower and more cumbersome than it needed to be.
It's an extremely Yuji Naka game through and through, tons of aspects that feel very reminiscent of his past work. I wouldn't be surprised if the game's final state was a case of "death by a thousand cuts", it doesn't feel like a Sonic Boom or Mighty No. 9 where the basic gameplay is so crappy that you can't even fathom how anyone thought it was fun. The core of Balan is pretty solid as far as retro 3D platformers go, it's the myriad of weird quirks surrounding it that bring it down. The fact that the kings of mediocrity Arzest were developing probably didn't help either.
"LTTP: Balan Wonderworld. This... isn't as terrible as I thought?"
Just getting it out there in the wild for when people make those threads in 2024
Just getting it out there in the wild for when people make those threads in 2024
Sonic doesn't do well in Japan to begin with, so as awful as it is, it looks a little worse. Let me dig out some numbers from japanltdrank (I'm pretty sure these are out of date and doesn't contain recent releases but I don't know if there's an similar garaph-like resource).
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Particularly terrible games with terrible names by Yuji Naka, but I'm not sure his name had much commercial currency going as far back as the 32-bit days —NigHts and Burning Rangers were both awesome but might as well be cult classics.
I keep thinking I might like this based on fellow Sega fans' insistence and have come close to pulling the trigger, but the game's aesthetic and the costume gimmick hold little appeal to me. I have no idea how they even made a novel out of this bizarre kids' video game. What a waste of effort.
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Thinking this will hit Game Pass soon.
They should have not invested so much into the presentation with the CGI and the musical singers they brought in and sold it cheaper.
Devil's Third almost certainly sold few copies and less than Balan but it couldn't be on the charts in Japan because it was retailer exclusive to Amazon. I actually liked it.
They should have not invested so much into the presentation with the CGI and the musical singers they brought in and sold it cheaper.
Devil's Third almost certainly sold few copies and less than Balan but it couldn't be on the charts in Japan because it was retailer exclusive to Amazon. I actually liked it.
Can't wait for the 40 minutes youtube video essay "Balan is a masterpiece and here's why".
Huge shame, the game isn't great but is a decent platformer and deserved better.
With a lower price point and an Indie aesthetic behind it I feel it would've done much better.
With a lower price point and an Indie aesthetic behind it I feel it would've done much better.
Well, of course, everyone must have bought it digital. Because it's the kind of game you will want to have on your system at all times!
played the demo and it was OK. Just kind of mediocre, not terrible but with nothing really making it interesting to play. It would be a good game for kids, but the $60 price is way too high. I can see why it didn't get many takers. And people wanting to indulge in NiGHTS or other nostalgia are going to ultimately be disappointed too.
I have no idea what the market for this game is. It feels like it's made for an younger audience than most Nintendo games while being a throwback to the Sega Saturn, something that no one under the age of 25 cares about.
In the future when we've discarded the idea of giving games scores and the idea that no game is allowed to be just average, we'll look back on this (and a million other games) game, accept it was an average, fun enough experience and cringe when we remember what forum discourse was like in the old days.
