10 best gaming surprises of 2021 (and 5 terrible ones)

Terrible Moment – Balan Wonderworld still haunts me

Have you ever had to go into a stranger’s house and realized you needed to leave right then and there? Whether it was a weird bar hookup, helping someone move something heavy, or maybe a friend is introducing you. You know that feeling where you get in and think, “everything here is wrong” or “why would someone live like this” or “I’m in danger”. This is what happens when you play Balan Wonderworld.

Balan Wonderworld turned out so bad that the person who made it, the gentleman who created Sonic the Hedgehog, retired from video games after this released, almost as if he did an image search on Sonic and found out the horrible things the internet has done to him. Or possibly saw the terrifying side characters in the series. He saw this and punished us for it.

Not really. Actually, the guy who lead this project, Yuji Naka, who also was the lead programmer on things like the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, Nights into Dreams, and many other famous games, quit after this game was released and stated he was debating retiring from video games in general. So who knows what happened here.

But this game was an absolute nightmare. You run around worlds while farmers appear in the background and disappear. Sometimes you’re surrounded by wolves and clowns who just start dancing. Strange rabbit things follow you sometimes. Occasionally you’ll become a man in a top hat who flies around and punches corn cobs. Nothing is EVER explained to you and this game has absolutely no narrative thread. It merely exists. And for that I’m sorry.