Baby steps
Baby Steps is annoying.
Baby Steps is a third-person walking simulator in the most literal sense of the word. It's an open world exploration game from Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxie Boch, and Bennett Foddy, and it's designed to confuse you. You control a 35 year old jerk named Nate who wears overalls and for some reason Nate can't do anything on his own, including walking. Each trigger on your controller raises one of Nate's legs, and the left analog stick controls how he leans. So, you pull the trigger to raise your leg, lean forward with the stick, and lower it. One step. Then you take the other leg with the other trigger, lean forward with the stick and lower it. One more step. If you screw up any of these operations, you'll throw Nate off balance, who will flip over and crash into the ground like a fish thrown onto the deck of a boat.
Then you do it again and again. To climb the mountain.
Yes, it can be annoying. This is also very funnyin more than one way. Watching Nate fall off a cliff or fall into a muddy river is just hilarious. What makes Baby Steps great is that it constantly makes fun of you. But not only you, but also yourself. And not just you and him, but the concept of video games itself, as it asks what it is in our stupid brains that makes us insist on doing this to ourselves?
Baby Steps is a game that makes fun of you for picking up a controller in the first place, but does it out of love. The game's excellent acting, ridiculous world and characters make it a joy to explore, and the design is so good that it's both fun and excruciating to play. It's a game that reminds you not to take the “getting good” pressure too seriously, but it's also relentless and fun. — Phil Hornshaw
