BALAN WONDERLAND
Balan Wonderworld reunites the pair at Square Enix
LEO AND EMMA WILL NEED TO USE 80 COSTUMES.
09Balan Company might be Square Enix’s new studio, but its colourful platformer shows the experience of its staff. The studio reunites director Yuji Naka (the creator of Sonic The Hedgehog) with character designer Naoto Ohshima (who designed Sonic and Eggman). Besides Sonic, the pair collaborated on Nights Into Dreams.
Playing as Leo and Emma, you discover the strange, dreamlike world of Balan Wonderworld through a musical theatre, guided by the top-hatted Balan. This is a land that people come to when they reach a turning point in their life, and for our heroes that probably has something to do with growing up. Other people have also found themselves in Wonderworld, struck by sadness and worry, and it’s up to you to help them find true happiness. Enter gorgeous platforming worlds, stage right. The release date might be a way off, but we’ve already seen some decadent environments – a neon-lit nighttime carnival, chess-themed castle ruins, floating windmill hills, an icy wonderland filled with bells and slippery slopes, and more.
To get around
Leo and Emma will need to use 80 costumes, dressing up as a spider to climb webs, a bat to make homing attacks across balloons, and other outfits to skate on ice, ground-pound switches, run on train tracks… you get the idea. It’s colourful, bombastic fun, filled with heart, and looks like it has a decent budget. Something tells us in 2021 we’ll need something this joyous and family-friendly to play on PS5.
Journey to Balan Wonderworld when it comes to PS4 and PS5 in spring 2021.