Baby Steps from Devolver Digital and Gabe Cuzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy brings us a very peculiar type of game on PS5. Learn more about it in our Baby Steps review!

Baby Steps from Devolver Digital and Gabe Cuzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy brings us a very peculiar type of game on PlayStation 5. The official copy for the game does a good job of setting up the overall premise for this journey, so here it goes:

Play as Nate, an unemployed failson with nothing going for him, until one day he discovers a power he never knew he had… putting one foot in front of the other.

You’ll be jumping into the role of Nate himself, a 35-year-old good fr nothing stepping into a challenging world full of elements unknown to you. Things will start off chill enough as you try to walk through the mountains, marveling at the backdrops and letting everything sink in. It’s then that the physics-based gameplay will punch you in the face. As you can tell from the trailer in this Baby Steps review, every step counts, and the odds of you nailing each step perfectly from start to finish are pretty much slim to none. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error in your future if you aim to roll credits on this one!

Gabe Cuzillo previously developed Ape Out – which we reviewed on Nintendo Switch back in 2019 – and Maxi Boch created the soundtrack for said release. That’s a very, very different journey when compared to Baby Steps, with Ape Out being a Rated M for Mature top-down beat ’em up. The soundtrack from Maxi Boch does make for a very dynamic experience, which is something that Ape Out’s soundtrack excels at. Bennett Foddy worked on games such as QWOP, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, and Ape Out. QWOP, which you can play on your browser right now, does have a bit of a similar feeling to Baby Steps, if you end up distilling down Baby Steps to its core premise.

Given the overall premise for the game, you’ll be taking control of Nate in a very obnoxious way. You’ll use the left analog stick to move forward as needed… which sounds a bit too easy. Again, the trailer in this Baby Steps review is clearly showing there’s a lot of effort needed for even walking in a straight line. Mmm, let me check one thing… Ah, there you go. You will use the L2 button to lift the left foot and the R2 button to lift the right foot, and it’s here that things get tricky. The right analog stick will be used to move the camera around, so that you can hopefully get better at measuring how far away you should be taking your next step. Or not.

The game features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to aim for. The list is split into 2 Silver trophies and 10 Gold trophies for you to work on. The trophy list features some very specific objectives for you to complete, such as returning the favorite cup to the World’s Best Dad, finding and returning the keys of the most perceptive person, returning the most careful person’s vase without breaking it, rescuing the child of a very responsible parent, retrieving the beloved trophy of a champion falconer, or measuring less than ten thousand steps on the pedometer, to name some examples.

Baby Steps brings us a very peculiar type of game on PlayStation 5. You’ll be jumping into the role of Nate, a 35-year-old good fr nothing stepping into a challenging world full of elements unknown to you. Things will start off chill enough as you try to walk through the mountains, marveling at the backdrops and letting everything sink in. It’s then that the physics-based gameplay will punch you in the face. Every step counts, and the odds of you nailing each step perfectly from start to finish are pretty much slim to none. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error in your future if you aim to roll credits on this one!

As you raise your left foot and lean forward, you’ll have to quickly put your right foot forward so that you don’t faceplank. Odds are, you’re going to be spending a lot of time on the floor during the first handful of minutes playing the game as you try to get the hang of things. Nate is most definitely a useless human being at the start of this journey. Will he find a way to redeem himself by the end?

During my time with the game, I managed to casually remove all of the dynamically accumulated soil on my onesie by rolling down a small waterfall after it took me 20 minutes to climb up there. I was alone at the start of this journey, but after meeting the very helpful Jim and being set in the right direction, I managed to make friends with a young, yellow chickling. A bit later, I found myself inside a pit full of sand where I got to meet dozens of new friends who jumped at the chance of joining me. The fleas were more than ready to exit the pit and go on a journey up the mountains. Baby Steps is out today on PlayStation 5.

Disclaimer
This Baby Steps review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Devolver Digital.