Releasing in 2019 to immediate critical acclaim and plenty of player buzz, Baba Is You is the second game from independent Finnish developer Arvi Teikari, who develops under the moniker of Hempuli. The original demo for the game successfully generated a swelling of hype around the title, leading to Hempuli being able to secure some funding and expand the game to a full release. After launching for PC and the Nintendo Switch in 2019, mobile versions would arrive 2 years later in 2021. 2021 also saw the release of the “Baba Make Level” update, which adds in a new level editor as well as 150 additional levels.
After debuting at the Nordic Game jam in 2017 (and winning the first place prize among all the titles on display), Baba Is You would go on to win the “Best Student Game” and “Excellence In Design” awards at the Independent Games Festival in 2018. Following the widespread industry acclaim of the title and its eventual release in 2019, Baba Is You would also win a slew of awards from a multitude of organizations and publications, including “Best Indie Game” at the Famitsu Game Awards.
Baba Is You holds the distinction of being one of the best-selling games on Steam in March of 2019 (the month of its release) and the Switch version was similarly successful. Reviews of the game were mostly favorable, with the title currently holding an aggregate score of 84 on review site Metacritic. While some publications went so far as to call the game one of the best puzzle titles ever released, other outlets criticize Baba Is You for its sharp difficulty curve.
Baba Is You Premise
Each level of Baba Is You presents players with a one-screen puzzle featuring objects and moveable words that the player character, Baba, must rearrange in order to “win” and move on to the next level. The game is split into several distinct worlds, each with their own theme, and players can tackle the levels within each world in any order that they choose. While it is possible to skip levels that the player finds too difficult, a certain number of levels must be completed in order to progress to subsequent worlds and inch closer to final victory.
In addition to being a puzzle game, Baba Is You uses the “bouba/kiki effect”, which is the propensity of individuals to associate certain sounds of speech with visual shapes. Each of the game’s levels present players with increasingly complex series of “if/then” logic puzzles, which effectively make the game somewhat of a crash course in programming language. Players must arrange nouns, verbs, and linking operators to manipulate the environment into opening up a path for Baba to reach the WIN marker in each level.
Aligning word tiles into logical rule sets creates the syntax by which the rest of the game world operates, allowing for players to effectively solve each level’s puzzle in a variety of ways depending on the number and variety of terms present. There are over 200 levels for players to complete, and they rapidly increase in complexity from simple logic puzzles to meta-exercises in programming language and manipulation of the game’s rules.
Baba Is You Main Characters
As a puzzle game, there are very few characters in Baba Is You, though the player does have two familiar faces they will regularly control and interact with throughout the course of the game. The main characters in Baba Is You include:
- Baba: As the title of the game indicates, Baba is the player character (hence, Baba Is You). This semi-shapeless white creature has the appearance of being either cat or rabbit-like, and depending on how players manipulate each level’s puzzles, Baba will transform into other various objects or even words to help solve the challenges present.
- Kiki: Like Baba, players will occasionally control Kiki, who often appears in levels with unique rulesets among the other levels in Baba Is You. Kiki is another amorphous character, only it appears as red/red-orange and players must often control multiples of Kiki at the same time, requiring them to consider how each movement will adjust the location of multiple player characters.
Games In the Baba Is You Series
To-date, there is only one game in Hempuli’s addicitive puzzle game series, although the possibility of a sequel or expansion is not out of the realm of possibility. Games in the series include:
- Baba Is You (2019)
Baba Is You Cheats
While there are no specific “cheats” for Baba Is You, there are a plethora of incredible YouTube walkthroughs of each level that provide players with step-by-step solutions to solve some of the maddeningly complex and obtuse challenges that await in the game’s levels. One of the best of these walkthroughs available comes from YouTuber Carrot Helper, whose 100% walkthrough video for Baba Is You does a great job of walking players through solutions for each of the game’s 231 levels in the main level pack.
Baba Is You Cheat FAQs
How many levels are in Baba Is You?
The main level pack of Baba Is You contains 231 levels, though the addition of the level editor and custom levels greatly increases this figure. That said, in order to 100% the game, players simply need to beat the main 231 levels.
How do you beat level 8 in Baba Is You?
Level 8 is one of the first truly perplexing challenges that players will come across in Baba Is You. To start, take WIN from FLAG IS WIN and push it inside the ring of jellies. Next, push the phrase toward the bottom to create IS WIN. Take JELLY from the phrase on the right and move it to its original spot to create JELLY IS WIN, then touch any jelly to complete the level.
How long does it take to beat Baba Is You?
If you’re intending to 100% Baba Is You, the length of time necessary to complete the game depends on a multitude of factors. If players go it alone without any outside assistance, total completion time will vary depending on your skill with puzzle games and logic. Most standard playthroughs of Baba Is You tend to hover around the 7.5 hour mark, but a 100% playthrough can take upwards of 50 hours.
What level is Baba crab in?
Crab Storage is level 12 of The Lake world.