Missing Banban

A franchise known for its lows, defying expectations

Missing Banban, released 29 May 2025 by developer Simon Carny and publisher Euphoric Brothers, is a run-and-gun side-scroller spin-off of the Garten of Banban series, a horror-mascot franchise widely known across the review community for cheaply made, low-effort entries. That reputation shapes much of this review sample's tone from the very first line, with reviewers approaching the game bracing for disappointment and instead reporting genuine surprise. One reviewer opens plainly, "I am legitimately baffled by how good this is," adding "no one will believe u saying its good bc its banban but its actually great." Another reviewer frames the game's quality as an indictment of the franchise's usual custodians, joking "the only thing it took for them to make a good Banban game is to not be the ones developing it," a specific, recurring sentiment across the positive review pool.

That surprise extends into substantive praise for craft the franchise rarely receives credit for. One reviewer calls it "the first and best official spin-off to the Garten of Banban series," specifically praising its "3D pixel themed" visual style and a "variety of achievements to keep you occupied after you beat the game." Another reviewer goes further, stating "hands down the best game in the franchise," crediting "gorgeous" environmental design, controls that are "mostly fun," and writing that "is very funny and well done," with a soundtrack that's simply "bangin." A further reviewer distills the appeal concisely as combining "the difficulty of Cuphead, the graphics of Pizza Tower and the charm of Banban all in one," a specific, telling comparison given how far removed that combination is from the franchise's typical critical reception.

Genuinely demanding difficulty, undercut by clunky controls

Central to that praise is the game's difficulty, which multiple reviewers describe as a deliberate, well-executed callback to boss-rush platformers like Cuphead rather than the sloppy challenge typical of cheap horror-mascot cash-ins. One reviewer, admitting the game "IS a liiiitle short," nonetheless praises how "its HARD" specifically "in such a fun way," a distinction that matters given how easily punishing difficulty can tip into frustration in a lower-budget indie title. That balance, however, is undermined for a real share of the sample by core control problems. One detailed, critical review states bluntly "you literally cannot walk left and shoot at the same time," describing the resulting movement as comparable to "a Walmart RC car running outta juice," a serious limitation for a game whose combat depends on maneuvering around enemy attacks while returning fire.

That control complaint recurs, if less dramatically, even among reviewers who otherwise enjoyed the game. One writes "controls are kinda jank but the movement can be fun," a more measured framing that suggests the issue is real but not necessarily disqualifying for players willing to adapt. Combined with the game's demanding difficulty curve, several reviewers note the final stretch in particular suffers from insufficient checkpointing, with one specifically requesting "more checkpoints" for the final level, a design gap that compounds control friction into more punishing failure states than the difficulty alone might otherwise create.

A short runtime and a genuinely buggy launch

Beyond controls, a second, widely corroborated complaint concerns the game's length relative to its price. Multiple reviewers independently confirm a runtime around two hours for a casual playthrough, with one noting this "is quite disappointing" and suggesting "a couple more levels between the last two" would have helped smooth out "the weird difficulty spike at the end of the game." Another reviewer states the case more bluntly, praising the soundtrack as "easily" the best part but concluding the whole package is "not worth the $10" given how quickly it's over, and multiple reviewers separately request a free-play or level-select mode to extend value after the credits roll, a feature notably absent at launch.

A third, corroborated complaint concerns the game's technical state specifically. One detailed reviewer reports "this game is also just buggy in general," specifically noting "starting a new game doesn't reset your checkpoint" and unspecified issues with weapon swapping, both serious quality-of-life problems for a game built around replaying difficult sections. A separate, shorter review confirms "there might be some bugs but that's fine," suggesting the issues, while real, haven't been severe enough to sour every player's experience, and an isolated report of a crash triggered by pressing enter through a loading screen rounds out a picture of a game that shipped with real, unresolved technical rough edges.

A reception shaped by unusually low expectations

Much of this review sample's overwhelmingly positive tone is worth reading alongside the Garten of Banban franchise's specific reputation, since several reviewers explicitly frame their enthusiasm relative to that low baseline rather than against action-platformers generally. One reviewer's blunt joke, that the developers only managed to make a good Banban game by not being the franchise's usual team, captures a pattern repeated across the sample: reviewers arriving expecting a cheap cash-in and instead finding a game with real design intent behind its difficulty and presentation. That context doesn't erase the game's genuine, corroborated flaws around controls, length, and bugs, but it does help explain why a game with a roughly two-hour runtime and real technical rough edges has nonetheless landed at Very Positive, since much of its audience is grading it, consciously or not, on a curve set by the franchise's prior entries rather than against the wider action-platformer genre.

That said, several reviewers make clear their praise would hold up even outside that specific context, pointing to concrete design choices, the Cuphead-inspired boss difficulty, the distinctive 3D-pixel art direction, and a soundtrack multiple reviewers single out unprompted, as evidence of a genuinely well-crafted short experience rather than merely a relative improvement. Prospective buyers unfamiliar with the wider franchise's reputation should weigh the corroborated complaints above on their own merits rather than assuming the strong aggregate score reflects a flawless game.

Verdict

Missing Banban is, by its own review sample's account, a genuine and unexpected high point for a franchise not otherwise known for quality, delivering distinctive 3D-pixel presentation, a strong soundtrack, and a demanding, Cuphead-inspired difficulty curve that surprised even skeptical reviewers. But clunky core controls that prevent simultaneous movement and shooting, a short roughly two-hour runtime some feel undercuts its NZ$14.75 price, and a genuinely buggy launch state involving checkpoints and weapon swapping all point to a game that needed more development and polish time to fully deliver on its ambition. Fans of tight, difficult action-platforming who can tolerate some real rough edges should be pleasantly surprised; anyone needing responsive controls or substantial length for their money should wait for further patches.