BALAN WONDERWORLD

Square Enix + Sonic Team founders = musical theatre. Wait, wut?

FORMAT PS4, PS5 / ETA 26 MAR PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV BALAN COMPANY

Imagine if the remaining members of the Beatles reformed under a new name and released a song called Raspberry Meadows. After the most delicious moment of realisation, long-term fans would be utterly beside themselves with excitement, even if your average Billie-Eilish-loving teenager would have absolutely no idea what the fuss was about (or why the song had such a weird name). Well, this is one of those moments.

Balan Wonderworld is best described as ‘a new game from 1990s-era Sonic Team’, or more specifically Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima. The development studio is even called ‘Balan Company’; that’s a statement of intent if ever there was one. It was announced a few months back, and PS5 in-game action has now been shown off in an extended demo. So what can you expect from Balan’s theatre of dreams?

The answer is more than 80 themed costumes, each with its own moves and ability. While the initial reveal showed a few of them, the PS5 demo sheds more light on how the game feels when you play. Three suits are available to you at any one time (once you’ve collected them by unlocking a touchstone with a specific key), switchable at will using L1 and R1. And that’s handy, because you must change attire mid-action in order to navigate the levels and enemy attacks successfully.