The A.V. Club Twitch is trying to figure out what the hell's happening in Balan Wonderworld

By William Hughes  |  March 31, 2021 | 2:00pm
Aux Features Balan Wonderworld
The A.V. Club Twitch is trying to figure out what the hell's happening in Balan Wonderworld
Pictured: A small fire hydrant person runs from a large fire hydrant dragon, itself spewing fire. No, we don’t know, either. Image: Square Enix

Sometimes, the aim of The A.V. Club’s Twitch account is to show off cool aspects of little seen games, or to highlight features (like Hitman 3's VR integration) that might otherwise never have a chance to show themselves off. Sometimes it’s all about showing off the hottest games going. And sometimes…

Well, sometimes, it’s just about us having a public forum to figure out what the fuck is happening with a particular piece of software. Hence our decision this week to stream Square Enix’s new, bizarre throwback platformer Balan Wonderworld, a game in which (as far as we can tell, from our first hour with it) a sort of magical hat pervert kidnaps children to teach them about fursonas inside the mind of a monster-haunted farmer.

Is there more to this brightly colored little opus? We have, honestly, no clue, but we’re willing to find out in public. We’ll be streaming Balan Wonderworld today on The A.V. Club Twitch channel, going live at 2 p.m. Central as we play through the game’s first few acts. We’d warn about spoilers, but, if we’re being honest, we’re pretty sure we won’t understand them when they pop up ourselves.

 
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