Balan Wonderworld
Image: Square Enix

Some of you may remember Balan Wonderworld and its rocky launch last year. The 3D platformer, coming from well-known Sonic developer Yuji Naka, was a little rough at launch, and now its director has shed some light on the situation.

According to Naka himself, he was "removed" as director six months before the game even came out. We knew following the game's launch that Naka had parted with Square Enix, but due to legal reasons, the exact timing of Naka's departure wasn't disclosed at the time.

The director's recent tweet thread says that the legal ordeal is over, and as a result, he can now speak more specifically about what happened. Through rough translation, the gist is that both he and Square Enix knew Balan Wonderworld was unfinished at launch, but the publisher decided to remove him early and release the game as planned.

Unsurprisingly, Naka had some scathing words to say about Square Enix in the wake of these events. This is rough Google translation, so the wording might not be perfect, but Naka says he's "really sorry" that Balan Wonderworld released as it did, and that "Square Enix and Arzest are companies that don't care about games and game fans."

At the time of Naka's official departure announcement last year, he said he may well retire after Balan development, so we might not see another game from the famous developer ever again. Only time will tell on that one!

What did you make of Balan Wonderworld? Did it deserve more time in the oven? Let us know below.

[source twitter.com]