In Baba is You we find the heart of every good puzzle game. A system of well-planned rules, but with which we can play as we please. A simple premise, but one that gives a world of possibilities, which we explore in the analysis of Baba is You.
In The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild there is a concept that stuck with us, beyond the intense adventure it proposed. There are no predefined rules, the puzzle does not have fixed patterns that we have to figure out, along with some guidelines to follow. In fact, they are encouraged to break those rules and foster the creativity of the player by solving the puzzle in other ways that, far from looking like cheats, are perfectly valid. At the end of the day, the satisfaction of the puzzle is always in the mind of the player. And it is just as satisfying to abide by these rules as to skip them.
In Baba is You exactly the same thing happens. Sometimes there is more than one solution, but even when there is only one, the game always urges us to be creative. Its premise is based on disrupting the entire scenario and then giving the puzzle a certain cohesion. We have a series of predetermined rules, which come in small packets of information that we can manipulate. For example: BABA> IS> YOU, which means that we are that little white animal on the screen. Each of those words is a block and if we break it, we stop being Baba, which means that we enter into a mistake that prevents us from continuing to control the character. There are a lot of different actions: ROCK> IS> PUSH; WALL> IS> STOP; WATER> IS> DEATH; FLAG> IS> WIN; etc.Imagine the possibilities that arise by rearranging all these words to arrive at the final solution.
Devious puzzles await you in Baba is You. Trailer
It’s amazing how your mind adjusts to the rules of the gameI cannot imagine that Baba is You came out of the mind of a person who was not a programmer. It is as if its creator, Arvi Teikari, thought directly of the code to have found the key to the multiple phases that make up Baba is You. Mainly because each of these short sentences that we mentioned before has that spirit of computer language.Of functions that you are dictating to a program to tell it what each thing means, and how fragile it is in its structure that only space or symbol out of place disrupts the entire equation. In Baba is You, our job is precisely to create the correct code by breaking it first, but knowing what can and cannot be altered. We can never break our identity, or transform a key object irreversibly, but we are always urged to think creatively to find the solution in the most unexpected way.
Baba is WinThe best thing about Baba is You is that, in the hands of any inexperienced who was offered the idea of this game, the end result would be an ingenious puzzle and little else. But you can see that Teikari has thought and rethought this game a lot to find a huge number of phases that go beyond what no one would be able to achieve by staying on the surface. Know when to exploit the specific mechanics of a word, push it to the max, and change before you get too adapted to it. He knows how to make you think in ways that even you didn’t think you were capable of. It is one of those puzzle games whose satisfaction is infinite, but also with a relentless development that does not give away a bit of solution in the process.
Scenarios that seem impossible, you end up finding the solution. That is the magic of Baba is You.
Thus, a series of worlds is composed that we can unlock once we solve a certain number of puzzles in order to continue advancing. It is not necessary to complete all of them so as not to frustrate the player,let alone some extra levels of advanced difficulty that you can spend a long time with to solve them. The result is an experience that, well dosed, is a complete stimulus to the player, but that at its most advanced levels can leave him completely blocked and with fried neurons. It is surprising to see how your mind adapts to the rules of the game, although I must admit that in some moments you can get to “catch” it in some contradictions. More than once I have come to a conclusion that could be logical and valid for victory, but that by breaking the game too much, it has not turned out to be correct for victory.
Restarting or undoing your steps will be very necessary after a bad move.
It has quickly become one of the biggest surprises of the yearForget what you can think of the graphic aspect, which is really charming. Baba Is You subtracts all unnecessary elements from each of its levels so as not to distract you from its main mechanics, as you will need to be really focused for this challenge. It is a pure puzzle game, which has quickly become one of the biggest surprises of the year, proving that good, original and well-developed ideas still exist in video games. A must for any puzzle lover.
“Magnificent”
Baba is you
Baba Is You is one of the best puzzle games so far this year. Not only is it capable of achieving an original mechanic, but it manages to exploit it to the maximum of its possibilities, creating complexity and depth. It is an enduring challenge and one that calls for approaching it with creativity and dedication. Definitely, BABA IS WIN.
- A surprising and original mechanic
- It does not stay on the surface. Dig deep
- Exploit the player’s creativity
- Some rule may not be clear enough
