Baba Is You 2019

Is it still worth playing?

Arvi Teikari's puzzle game, made as Hempuli, a Finnish independent developer, and expanded from a demo for the 2017 Nordic Game Jam into a 2019 release for PC and Nintendo Switch. Each level is a single screen of objects and movable word tiles. Nouns such as Baba or wall, verbs such as IS and HAS, and properties such as YOU, PUSH, STOP and WIN form a rule when three or more are lined up. The rule holds until you break the string. A level ends when an object that is YOU reaches one that is WIN, and levels are never explicitly failed, though you can undo if you run out of anything that is YOU. The rules are the material you move, so the answer to a level is often a different rule and not a different route. Today that one idea still carries the whole game.