When you think of games that use the raw power of the new PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, platformers may not be the first genre that comes to mind. However, we’ve already seen the likes of Astro Theater, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Crash Bandicoot 4 prove that platformers can thrive on the latest hardware – and Balan Wonderworld aims to follow suit. .
Co-developed by Arzest and Square Enix subsidiary Balan Wonderworld, Balan Wonderworld is the result of a wealth of gaming experience. Led by the creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, Yuji Naka, the development team consists of veterans who, between them, have been working on classics that bring their -includes the previously mentioned Sonic series, Night into Dreams and the Dragon Quest series.
We spoke to Balan Company representative Noriyoshi Fujimoto, himself a veteran of the industry, about why platformers are ageless, and how Balan Wonderworld uses the power of the PS5 while staying true to what the genre did classic.
Standing up for times
Playing Balan Wonderworld, it’s easy to see where the team’s previous projects influenced the animated platformer. From the puzzle elements to his madcap characters, it’s no surprise that similarities have been drawn between Balan Wonderworld and Yuji Naka’s previous work like Sonic and Night into Dreams – and this effect is something Fujimoto doesn’t. refuse.
“Platforms have been around since the early days of games. That shows, I believe, that platformers are a universal style of play. Universal play styles make follow over different periods. “
Noriyoshi Fujimoto – Balan Company
“Of course there is some impact, as developers who worked on Sonic and Nights have reunited,” Fujimoto tells us by email. “I think people are drawing parallels to these games because of the game where you solve puzzles and tricks at every level to progress, elements that are normal in platformers like Sonic, and because of the special characters and the approach to storytelling, which Night was too. ”
Despite the amount of AAA games landing on PS5 and Xbox Series X, pushing the boundaries of both visual fidelity and performance, platformers still hold a place in our hearts. We’ve seen that with the success of Little Nightmares 2 and the hype surrounding Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, while the likes of Hollow Knight, Inside and Celeste remain some of my favorite modern versions of the genre. And, despite the ever-changing gaming landscape, Fujimoto strongly believes that platformers have no shelf life, and that innovation is the best way to keep the genre alive.
“Platforms have been around since the early days of the game,” he tells us. “That shows, I believe, that platformers are a universal style of play. Universal play styles will continue over different eras. Combining these types of universal gameplay elements with other elements creates a lot of new ideas for games. For those reasons, I don’t think the demand for platformers will go away forever. ”
Developing for the next generation
With Balan Wonderworld releasing in the early days of PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team had to develop its game for hardware that has not yet been released – an action that came with challenges, but which opened the door to a range of new opportunities.
“When developing pre-launch development tokens, the sad thing is that not many understand, if you come across a beast, it will give you more time to work out if it was a problem with the game. or a problem with the hardware, ”Fujimoto explains.
“We got a little off with the hustle and bustle, coming up with more and more things we wanted to put in during development.”
Noriyoshi Fujimoto – Balan Company
“On the other hand, the terrible specs of the console meant that some of the technical limitations we had before us were completely removed. This meant we got away from the hustle and bustle, coming up with more and more things we wanted to put in during development. ”
And certainly the Balan Company was taking advantage of the sheer amount of content that could be packed into the game, offering 80 vibrant costumes for players to collect on the adventure.
“From the very beginning, one of our goals was to create a game development with all sorts of action – over 80 types of action,” Fujimoto says. “But even if you include multiple actions in a game, it’s hard to map all of them, it’s hard for the player to remember them all, and it’s hard to create the opportunity.
to use them all.
“When we were thinking about how to make it easy for the player to understand and use it all
tasks to the maximum, we came up with the idea that there would be one action per suit. This meant we could make the action controls intuitive, and the gameplay simple enough for anyone to enjoy. ”
However, while critics (including TechRadar) have lamented the crisp and colorful images of the game and classic collectathon gameplay, the game ‘s controls have been very difficult, and as a result Square Enix is announcing the release of a day pack for Balan Wonderworld to help address camera and motion issues.
Despite these issues, we were very impressed with how Balan Wonderworld makes wise use of the DualSense PS5 controller’s adaptive incentives, with the motivator’s effort changing it depending on what the outfit is. on you, which makes the clothing changes feel more substantial. For example, if you are dressed as a Tornado Wolf, a decent amount of stimulus attack is present when you are spinning; the same can be said when you rub your fist when you are dressed as the Pumpkin Puncher. But this DualSense control support wasn’t always something that was on the cards for Balan Company.
“Near the end of the development, we wanted to add a feature that used the special capabilities of the PS5, so we added the adaptive boost feature to the game”, Fujimoto tells us. “The implementation itself was not too difficult, however the developers could make some small changes. Thanks to this, we got on with the unique character and the difference between the 80 suits even better than before. ”
While the DualSense controller definitely contributes to the Balan Wonderworld launch, Fujimoto believes the PS5 and Xbox Series X are “probably the best consoles for playing platform games”, citing the “action controls smooth at 60fps ”and high quality graphics.
And despite a continuing stock shortage of both consuls, Fujimoto is not worried about the impact of the Balan Wonderworld publication.
“Balan Wonderworld is a multi-platform game, available on PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One and Steam, so I don’t think there will be any impact, Fujimoto tells us. “The platforms tend to sell over a longer period of time compared to other species, so that’s another reason I don’t think this will affect it.”
For all ages
Balan Wonderworld is one of just a handful of new family-friendly games released for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, and we asked Fujimoto why he thinks that’s true. He told us that he thought it was understandable that first-party developers would want to release “impressive games” that “use that power to the fullest extent”, and these are often “adult games”. In addition, he pointed out that the majority of new consoles adopters will be adults, so it makes “good business sense” to target those audiences.
“With this in mind, Balan Wonderworld has been developed as an all-ages game, for children and adults alike,” Fujimoto explains. “We anticipated that Balan Wonderworld’s target audience might not have many other games around the new release, and we accepted the challenge ourselves.”
Balan Wonderworld releases on March 26 for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One and PC (via Steam).