It's no secret that Balan Wonderworld isn't getting great reception. Releasing the same day as Monster Hunter Rise, the game quickly became overshadowed. Within the first week, Balan Wonderworld managed to sell an embarrassing 2,100 copies in Japan.
We had hope for Balan Wonderworld since it was developed by two great studios; Arzest and Square Enix. The game was originally announced in July 2020, and many people were excited. The art style is cute, and these studios usually make great games. Something happened though, and Balan Wonderworld flopped.
With low reviews all across the internet, Twitter user CartridgeGames reports that Balan Wonderworld has sold under 2,100 copies in stores for the first week in Japan. There's still digital sales to consider, but they probably won't boost the number too much. To put this in perspective, Monster Hunter Rise was released the same day and has already sold well over four million copies. The Monster Hunter series is way more popular, but that shouldn't be an excuse for barely selling 2,000 copies. After the demo for Balan Wonderworld received negative feedback, people were just not excited.
Players become either Leo or Emma, and enter into the realm of Wonderworld, led by Balan. Ultimately, Balan Wonderworld is a platform game with outfits that give different abilities. These are also the two things that are being criticized the most. There are way too many outfits to keep track of, and the controls are confusing.
Incredibly, this game is also in the top four worst Switch games on Metacritic. It's hard to be one of the worst video games ever, but Balan Wonderworld managed to do it in just one week. This could have been a good game, but it just feels unfinished and rushed. The final boss of the game also had the ability to give players a seizure. While fighting the boss, the screen appears to flash rapidly, which drew criticism around launch. Square Enix released a Day One Patch to fix this problem.
TheGamer reviewed Balan Wonderland, describing it as "feeling like the original Spyro, and a touch chibi JRPG", giving it an overall rating of 2.5/5. Balan Wonderworld could have been so much more, but it looks like its only hope now is achieving cult status.
Source: @CartridgeGames/Twitter