babaisuniverse – Set Side B https://setsideb.com The Flipside of Gaming Fri, 22 Dec 2023 12:14:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://setsideb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cropped-mascot512-32x32.png babaisuniverse – Set Side B https://setsideb.com 32 32 Game Finds: Mobile Suit Baba https://setsideb.com/game-finds-mobile-suit-baba/ Fri, 22 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://setsideb.com/?p=6609 Continue reading "Game Finds: Mobile Suit Baba"]]>

We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.

Hempuli, the creator of the indie hit Baba Is You, certainly has been busy! He made a number of solitaire games, some with Baba characters; then a number of board games. Now he’s returned to the Baba Is Youniverse, with another charming game that uses some of the ideas and rules of Baba Is You, with a helping of Into The Breach mixed in! The result is Mobile Suit Baba:

Ha ha! You said it Baba!

The scenario goes something like this. Baba and his friends now pilot a number of giant mech robots that look like them. An invasion of Skulls threatens their laid-back society of agrarian animal creatures with fruit theft. Baba and company leap into action to protect their food stockpiles. This is communicated with dialogue from the various characters, which is all adorable.

A simple puzzle, that relies on Baba’s ability to throw other characters over blocking terrain.

Each character has slightly different abilities and movement ranges. The mind-bending, rule-changing aspect of the original game is back: levels have noun and property objects in them, as well as the keyword IS. A noun IS property sequence arranged in order from top-to-bottom or left-to-right makes that sentence instantly true, for better or worse. It’s back, but it is a bit diminished in importance. A couple of levels don’t even have words this time, which in Baba Is You would result in a completely broken level.

As in the original, the difficulty rises fast, although this one is easier than it looks.

In the original, the most important property is YOU, because it assigns agency to one or more of the characters in a level; without [something] IS YOU, you can’t affect the game world. Here though, that dire need to make sure someone IS YOU at all times is gone. Now, all of your characters are considered to be controllable. But you still have to manipulate rules sometimes, to affect the properties of the terrain.

Once you have some other characters unlocked, you can sometimes choose who you want to bring into a level.

Also, you usually have more than one character to control, in a turn-based sequence. And your characters have different movement ranges and abilities. And you have a strict time limit (although it can be made less onerous in the settings). It all feels, like its inspiration, Into The Breach, but derandomized, and turned into a puzzle game. There’s no real combat; instead you manipulate your enemies so their objectives are not met.

A Youtube trailer gets the mood across nicely:

Choose your teammates carefully!

It’s all extremely charming and worth a look. While its sale price will be a paltry $4, for a few days Hempuli is giving it away for free on itch.io! Even at full price it’s worth it.

Mobile Suit Baba (itch.io, $4 [$0 temporarily])

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