Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 48 | 54 |
| Creator reviews (2 tracked) | – | 43 | 1 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 54% | 55 | 313 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 42% | 46 | 2 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 6 reviews sampled · 5 total reviews in window · weighted 1.2 up / 1.6 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (73)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 35
“BALAN WONDERWORLD is the biggest disappointment of the year for me. It may good graphics, level design, and music, but that is ultimately brought down by its outright boring and tedious gameplay.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“All in all Balan Wonderworld is an archaic action-platformer with tons of shortcomings in terms of level desing and overall presentation. If you love the genre, you would probably be repulsed by this game, instead of welcoming it with open arms.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“Balan Wonderworld is definitely better than people say, but that doesn't mean it's good. If you are looking for a game for your children or you really want a new title, which 100% completion is very insidious, you can try it. In any case, take into account that most of the game is simply boring and does not offer anything downright interesting.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“We're not going to mince words here, Balan Wonderworld is a waste of your time. Monotonous level design, awful performance, and shallow gameplay combine to make for an experience that is simply not fun to play. It may look pretty (when it's framerate isn't chugging), but there simply isn't enough good content here to justify your time or money, and this is doubly true when you take into account that this is a full-priced retail release. If you're looking for a good 3D platformer for your Switch, this most definitely isn't it.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“No amount of good cutscenes or music can salvage a game with bad gameplay. Balan Wonderworld is average and mediocre at best. For a AAA 3D platformer with a AAA price, that’s not acceptable at all.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Balan WonderWorld deserved to be far more than average, as the final game is a marked improvement over the demo. It's beautiful a lot of the time, character designs are mostly wonderful, the unique ideas that appear in each level are great fun… however the overall execution is simply lacking something important. The repetitive bouts, rough edges, and the sometimes awful physics make this a much harder title to recommend. It is full of bubbly unique charm, and is mostly heart-warmingly fun, but many will be put off by the slow, restrictive design, despite this being designed around it. Hopefully, the game will get some traction.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“With a price point of $60, it's hard to recommend Balan Wonderworld, especially when other platformers (and even collections such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which contain multiple games) are a lot cheaper and are much better. The ingredients are all there for a great game, but everything has gone off and rotten. What's been cooked up is a bland, uninspired trip into a world that should have been anything but. Balan Wonderworld feels like bargain bin material that should be avoided at all costs... at any discount.”
read full review ↗ - 20
“It is not often that I feel lost for words when reviewing a game but Balan Wonderworld has almost left me speechless. There is so much wrong with this game that it is a wonder that it has passed any sort of quality control. The controls are stiffer than a board, the lack of any narrative is frustrating and the game is just so badly put together that I cannot think of any reason why I would recommend this to anyone at all. Overall Balan Wonderworld is possibly one of the most disappointing games I have played on Nintendo Switch. What were they thinking of when creating this game? Very little it would seem and far from being a world of wonder, this is a total nightmare.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Painfully average in most respects, Balan Wonderworld won't draw much admiration for its contents. Still, it's a competent game that does have its charms, few as they may be.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“Balan Wonderworld stands out as easily one of the worst 3D platformers in the past decade. There was no good reason for Square Enix and Yuji Naka to salvage this train wreck and it's an embarrassment that this game was allowed to be released at all in its current state. When the game's only redeeming qualities are some good music and neat DualSense features, something clearly went wrong here. There is no doubt that Balan Wonderworld should've remained locked up in the game design vault it was conceived in twenty years ago.”
read full review ↗ - 30
“Wonder how a very well known publisher could stomach having it in their library. Wonder what in the world happened with the Switch version. Wonder where your $60 went.”
read full review ↗ - 53
“Balan Wonderworld comes to market as a title designed to make the little ones enjoy. However, the title fails in most of its proposals, with the artistic section and the use of costumes being the only thing that allows the title to maintain composure at some point.”
read full review ↗
cublikefoot
GameMAG
INDIANTVCZ
Nintendo Life
Kakuchopurei
Cubed3
Pure Xbox
Last Word on Gaming
PC Invasion
Push Square
NintendoWorldReport
SomosXbox…and 61 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
No patch announcements found on Steam yet.