Baba Is You

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Baba Is You is a character-based puzzle game that is all about understanding and retooling the game’s own rules to solve puzzles. Levels all contain words that dictate the rules that level follows, such as “Wall Is Stop” meaning that players cannot move through the walls. However, players can push around the text to change those rules – pushing “stop” away from that sentence makes all walls-walk-through… and push the word “Baba” where “Stop” was will turn all of the walls in the level into copies of the game’s titular white critter, Baba.

This game does an amazing job conveying these elements to the player slowly enough to understand, and it makes some really creative use of them for puzzles. The game quickly makes it clear that every character, every object, every piece of scenery is only what the rules define it as, and while you’ll frequently be playing as Baba, that’s only because the rule “Baba Is You” is usually in effect. Replace “Baba” with “Water” and suddenly you’ll be moving every tile of water in the level as your main character.

I won’t say too much more for fear of spoiling the joys of discovering this game’s fun little intricacies, but suffice it to say that the game builds on itself as it progresses, often by adding new words that affect how you can interact with things. It’s amazing how much adding a word like “and” can completely change how you approach a level.

The gameplay here is so brilliant, it’s a pity I have to fault the game for its presentation. I mean, I get that something simple is better to put the focus squarely on the gameplay, but there’s basic and then there’s squiggles that look like a child drew them. It doesn’t hinder the gameplay, but it doesn’t really do anything for it, either.

Still, even though its presentation is lacking, Baba Is You is a brilliant puzzle game that is not to be missed. Not only is it one of the most wildly inventive games in years, but it manages to keep finding ways to surprise and delight players throughout.

tl;dr – Baba Is You is a character-based puzzle game with wildly inventive mechanics that have you pushing around words to change the rules that the game follows. While the presentation leaves something to be desired, the gameplay here is so absolutely inspired that it really should be played by anyone looking for something new and different, especially fans of puzzle games.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Original – This simple-looking game has players constantly changing the rules of how it works, with every element of the game potentially changeable so you can solve the game’s puzzles. Maybe you start a level playing Baba pushing a rock to reach a goal flag and win the level, but switch around a few words, and now you’re the goal flag pushing Baba out of the way so you can reach the rock and win the level. I can’t recall a time when a game was built on the premise of changing how the game works in this way, and as such it had to get my pick for most original game of 2019.

Best Puzzle Game – While I thoroughly enjoyed some of the puzzles in the other nominees this year, Baba Is You consistently surprised me with new possible solutions that hadn’t occurred to me before. This is a game that not only made it easy to get a grasp of how it works, but actually made learning the intricacies of how it works a truly fun and rewarding experience.

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