Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series, PlayStation 5
Genre: Walking simulator, humour, indie

Is it possible to love and hate a game both at the same time? You can with the trio of Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy’s new game Baby Steps.

Walking Tall

Baby Steps has you playing a manchild named Nate who gets teleported to the woods from his couch and gaming home conditions. There, he has to make literal baby steps to get to the game’s brightly-lit checkpoints through stairs, slanting terrain, and more stairs and elevation. To move, you have to press and hold the left mouse button and press forward, then let go of the left mouse button and press/hold the right mouse button to get Nate to walk forward. Failing to do so in rhythm will have him falling and tumbling; woe betide anyone who effs up his walking sequence while on higher terrain where a single wrong step means climbing back up from the beginning.

While it is fun to see Nate tumble and fall the first few times, it does get grating especially when you want to wrap up the story. Baby Steps does not respect your time and does not want you to take the easy way out, with stairs and obstacles craftily laid out to pad out time for Nate to make more steps and movement than he should. This is from the same team who made streamer-rage-bait games like Getting Over It, so it’s in the game’s nature to be repetitive and callous with its design while having its cute funny narrative as a carrot on the proverbial stick. Is it worth it? After a few hours on it, I’m still on the fence since these kinds of games aren’t meant for most folks who want clear objectives, creative ways to find solutions to game puzzles, and challenges that aren’t attrition-based.

Step By Step

Baby Steps is clear with its intent on telling a well-grounded story about a manchild who needs to challenge his insecurities. The gameplay that’s tacked on and made with the intent of making the act of walking harder than it should does come across as hugely repetitive and tiresome though. It’s clearly made for streamers who just want to make a reaction video out of the game’s content while missing the point of its message.

Thank goodness the aesthetics and music choices creep in the best of ways, because I wouldn’t know what else would compel me to play through hours of this literal walking simulator.

Final Score: 60/100