Baba Is You: The Board Game Review - Baba Was You, Now Baba Is Us. And Winning Is Me.

0:01 Hey, I'm Alex from Board Gameco. And today I'm reviewing Baba is You from Bing Games. Baba is You is a two-player abstract strategy game designed by Peter Hayward with about a bajillion rules that will all slowly break your brain. This is a prototype all wills and components of exchange, and I'll have a link to the crowdfunding campaign down below. Also, this channel is sponsored by All Play. More about them at the end of the video. In Baba is You, you're going to start off with Oh, I should also note Baba Is You is based on the video game of the same name. If you've played the video game, everything I'm about to tell you will make a lot more sense very, very quickly. If you have not played the video game, this is a little trippy. In the game, what you're trying to do is you're trying to win. Now, also, if you play the video game, this is full of like interruptions. If you play the video game, the video game is a solo puzzle where you attempt to accomplish the objectives given various situations.

0:47 This is a two-player head-to-head abstract strategy game in which you are trying to win. You're just trying to win for your opponent. The way you're going to do that, let's start off with the basic scenario level over here, is you have a goals. Well, you have stuff, though. You don't really have goals yet. You have stuff. Your goal is to win. So, right now, we have Boba over here in this corner. We have Kiki over here in this corner. And we have a bunch of things on the board, various symbologies, as well as various items that are on the board. The starting player takes one turn. Maybe we go ahead and go like there. That's it. That's our turn over here. Then the next player takes two turns. And from there, going back and forth, players are always going to take two turns until somebody wins the game or until a uh like, you know, no one can win state is achieved. To that end, Kiki over here is going to go ahead and move and they'll go well over here. They'll move there and they'll say Kiki is well no they're going to go down here. They're going to go down one and they're going to say rock is you. So right now what they did is they use their second move. Their first move is to go ahead and move Kiki. Their second move is to put rock down on the board.

1:42 With rock on the board, rock is pointing to is you with the arrow pointing to this player. In other words, rock is you, but the U is specifically the player that is Kiki. Just because of the way these things work. Basically, when you look at the board, these two relate to Baba. These two relate to Kiki. So right now rock is you and you is this player. So you can go ahead and move as rock. Which means on the next player for example, this player is going to go ahead baba back to them. They'll take flag and they'll put flag down and they'll say flag is you. So now this player is the flag and Kiki is the rock just because you know why not. So they'll go ahead for their second move. They're going to move the flag. Yes, you can do that. You can move the flag because you are the flag. Flag is you. I should note by the way you cannot rotate or adjust these. have to face in the specific directions which does matter as far as the opportunities you have on the table. So right now Baba is me, flag is me, rock is Kiki, Kiki is rock. A whole bunch of confusing things are happening here. But how do you actually win? What are you trying to do? Well, the way you win in Baba is you is you have to move something that is you, which could be yourself or could be anything that you have now defined as you onto something that is win. Right now there's nothing that is win currently on the table. So let's go ahead and make something win.

2:54 So right now they've taken their turn back to the Kiki player over here. They have an opportunity. They could say Kiki is win. So they'll actually go one over here and then they'll move this over here. Okay, that's their move. Uh Baba over here sees this happening. So Baba's going to go ahead and let's see. Let's see what we can do. We can make Baba is win. But we also could make flag is win. Let's go ahead and move up one and then maybe one over. Okay, that's maybe we shouldn't have moved that flag there. Back to Kiki over here. Kiki is going to go ahead and they're going to move up one. So they're going to say now and they're going to put this down. Now Kiki is win. So because Kiki is win, Kiki is win. Kiki is you. Rock over here is you. If they can move Kiki onto the rock, they win because the rock is you and Kiki is win. And therefore, if the two intersect, that player wins. Again, this game is trippy. This game is a very, very trippy as far as how things go. But that's the basic idea. So back to Baba.

3:46 Let's go ahead and take a Boba turn. Baba is trying to make them win. So they'll go ahead. They'll move here and they'll put down is win on flag is win. So that was their move. So now flag is win. The problem with that is that allows them that allows Kiki the opportunity to go one two directly onto flag. If rock is you and flag is win and you land on rock, tada, you win. That's the game. Grant neily play optimally, but that's what you're doing. That was level one world one. Or is it world one, level one? It's world one. That was world one, level one. I guess they're both the same, but just the order. That was world one, level one uh in this game, which means it's time to go ahead and open up world world one level two. So, let's introduce a new rule. Now, there's a lot to uncover and unpack in this game. There's all these envelopes you can see over here. I'm not going to be showing you everything. There's a lot to go through and a lot of it is fun to discover on your own. I'm just going to show you the next rule to give you a sense as to how this game will evolve because we're going to add a rule. We're going to grab uh is fast. Rule one, level two adds this word over here. You now have fast. It's now a new thing you can do. You reset the board, and you go back to figuring out how are you going to win if you have a new rule in play.

4:51 You take the card, you put them in play. So, you have all these cards. You can see all the rules. I'll put this down here. Uh, well, actually, I'll just put this over here. We put going to cover that. There we go. Is fast is now in play. Now, in general, you're only ever going to have two rules in play at a time. So, right now, we have more rock, more flag. Basically, there's more rock and flag tokens than in a default game. And we have fast being added. Fast allows a player. So, anything that is fast can move as far as you want in a straight line. Okay. I also didn't really cover pushing and pulling. That's another thing you can do. You can place, you can move, and then when moving, you can push and pull as well. But also now, if you're fast, you can move as far as you want while pushing and pulling at the same time. So, we now have is fast and play. It's a new rule that changed up the way players are going to engage with the game. And then you go ahead and start again, keeping in mind that if you are playing through this properly as a campaign or sequence, you're going to go ahead and get some cake because you won the scenario. So Boba over here, actually, I think Kiki got it. Kiki is going to go ahead and get that cake.

5:46 Rinse and repeat. Start again. And now you have new rules. Baba goes, let's say Kiki goes first time. Kiki goes over here. Baba immediately goes one and boom, puts it down. Now Baba is fast. And you'll note there's only one is fast in play, which is very frustrating to the Kiki player. They cannot be fast unless they push, pull, move things around. Maybe they become rock and they also are fast. So if Rock is you and Rock is fast, that opens up a whole world of possibilities you can do. There's lots of things you can do in this game. And then it goes back to the Baba turn over here. Baba goes ahead. They get zip across the board and then they pull Rock over there. Just to show you how that kind of a mechanic can work in the game. Now I'm not going to play through the full round over here. At this point, you get the general idea. In Baba is You. What you are doing is you are playing as two different players. Well, you're playing as one player. There's two players playing the game. One player is Baba, one player is Kiki.

6:31 You are trying to win. You win by moving something that is you onto something that is win. But your turns are moving around the board, placing new things onto the board, pushing and pulling those things which are either objects or rules. Yes, you can push and pull and move rules around the board that will change the landscape. As you play through a particular rule, you're going to open new envelopes which are going to open up new rules and new things you can do, which I'm not going to spoil for you. There's an absolute ton of things. Some are going to destroy things. Some are going to give you movement possibilities. Some will give you logical twists and turns. There's a whole ton of things. Every time you go to a new level, you pick one rule from the previous level you want to bring with you and one rule gets left behind. Which means there's a kind of near infinite combination of things because you could be playing the very last level of the rule seven are the very last thing. You could be playing with that rule with more rock, more flag from the very beginning. That would be very very boring, but you can theoretically do that or you could be constantly mixing and matching to try to figure out which combination of rules are going to define the specific logical puzzle you are playing as. That's basically the game.

7:29 There's a few smaller things to go. There's the fact there's like again there's the cake you get for the uh individual levels. There's the diamonds you get for being the winner of a full world. There's small other things you can do. You can custom make your own little rules once you have all those cards. All of that stuff to say that is how you play Baba as you. You go through tons and tons. I didn't count it, but like seven rules like whole bunch of punch boards. I didn't where's the punch board? I had a punch board I was going to show you. There's there's lots of tokens you're going to be punching out. Uh there's lots and lots of things being added to the game. Which means it's time for my review of what I like, don't like, and can see others not liking with Baba is you. Starting off with what I like. Now, I'll start by saying I have played the video game. Uh, I have played the video game and I have played this game with at least two different people who have not played the video game. And it is interesting because as somebody who has played the video game, I walked into this definitely understanding the logical conundrums that are being placed together and the combination of rules that slowly break things. Uh, playing with other players, I can say at least one person who again who had never played the video game bounced hard off this game. That was like it was not for them the logical like this is you, you are that. Well, now you're rock, but you are win. You can push rock, but not if you are you and rock is win because then instead you're just going to go onto rock. It broke their brain. Meanwhile, played with somebody else who never played the video game and they loved it.

8:37 They were charging through the levels, having a ton of fun with it, and so they really adapted to the logical puzzles that are being presented. So, I don't think playing the video game is a factor here because I played the video game and I liked it and I had people who didn't play the video game who had different experiences. I think it just might come down to how well you uh bounce off of weird logical puzzles in which you create a situation and then attempt to win that situation. The game is incredibly clever, like incredibly clever. I can't even imagine the amount of play testing that has to go into this to ensure all the rules ultimately work well with each other. And at least so far in our experience, they mostly do. Meaning they they work with each other. Some are just less fun combinations. Some are very fun combinations. Sometimes you'll play games that feel weirdly broken. The way you're like, you did that, you managed to do this which pulled that and attracted that and then you became and then you just won. That feels like that shouldn't be doable. And it often is doable. It's about it's up to you as the players to find the combination that works and to place things, move things, and move around the board in ways that make those puzzles work towards your advantage as opposed to your opponent. So, it's an incredibly clever game with a ton of variety that goes through it as far as unlocking those new rules, those new puzzles, constantly placing new things onto the board, finding new ways to move people around the board. There's just an absolute ton that you can do with this game that is very, very satisfying as you go through it. So, lots and lots of positive stuff, but there's also negative stuff. This is where we get to the things that I don't like in the game. And the biggest thing for me is despite all the variety, I will say the game can get repetitive quickly because of the fact that you're always playing first of all on this board. That's honestly if I had to change one thing about this game and I don't know what's

10:08 planned for the crowdfunding campaign. This is a prototype. Will's components have to change and all that. I don't know what's planned. The biggest thing I hope for is more boards. I think this game drastically needs new configurations to play. Even things like the river which can come into play in different cards or just different setup combinations. Yes, there's lots of things you place onto the board. I think the game really needs different board environments that you can play on possibly that have rules built into them, possibly not. But even just the different shapes and structures because of the fact that you're playing on the same 5x5 grid even with all the rules changes because you're always changing one rule at a time and you're mostly playing with similar structure like you're constantly placing those rocks down those flags down and then the is win and then from there you're and again even the positioning the positioning of the way these things are on the board. I think the game needs more things that shift up the landscape you're playing on because while the rule set is incredibly variable, incredibly. And there's so much fun and cleverness to be had. I think all of that for me was dampened by the fact that you're going through these, you know, I can't remember the exact count, but like 35 games or so worth of puzzles all on the exact same map. And so there's too much that remains the same that even though there's so much that becomes different, the too much that remains the same became more evident. And I should note, part of this could be a content creator problem in the sense that because I'm covering this for the channel, I'm more motivated to go through a lot of levels at a faster pace than I might otherwise do if I was just playing this like, you know, got the game and then play it over the next 6 months. So, that definitely can have an impact, but it's worth noting that it did have an impact on my enjoyment of the game. As far as what I can see others not liking, just the

11:39 logical aspect I mentioned already. If a player bounces off this game, if a player can't figure out who is you and why is rock this and how could you move the flag there and why is the flag now fast and jumping across the board, this doesn't make sense. I have I have seen players bounce off this, so that is a factor. This might just not be for you. It's a weirdly trippy experience. If you're unsure, try the try the video game. I think if you like the video game, you're more likely to like this if you like the video game. Not just if you try the video game. Uh but let me know. Perhaps not. I should note I have not played this with anyone who did play the video game who hasn't enjoyed the board game. That is worth noting, but I also didn't play with a ton of people, so the sample size is small there. Anyways, as far as final thoughts on Baba is You, this is a slightly weird one for me. I think this game is brilliant. I think this game is doing so many things so cleverly, and I've had a ton of fun of uncovering different combinations and puzzles, and I still want to put together more combinations and puzzles.

12:29 I will say that there's two factors that hold the game back for me. One is you only have two rule changes in play at once. Now, I I see no reason why you can't house rule that. I see no reason why you can't just have three rules. Have be fast and then be this and be that. I'm trying not trying to spoil things for you. If you had three rules in play, I think that could add so much extra levels of variety to the gameplay experience. I think it might be broken if you do that. It might break your brain is one aspect, but it may not be play tested that way. But if you want to try it and have fun and see how it goes, I personally plan on doing that. I found that over enough plays, having two rules in play definitely felt me more constricted than I otherwise would have thought I would be. Again, because that map aspect holds things so stable. So, number one is I want to add more rules. And again, in the rule book, I'm surprised it didn't say, at least if it said it, I missed it. Uh, but it didn't seem to say that you could do that. It's like you can create your own combination of any number of two rules. And I'm like, you why just why not do three? The game's probably broken, but I want to do three. And then the other aspect is that board. I think the landscape needs to change more in this game for the enjoyment to be uh for the I think the sheer variety of other factors that are in play are held back by this one core element that remains constantly stable, a stable stable stable point throughout the gameplay experience. So rating wise, I'm in a weird place. I'm coming in at a 3.5 out of five. I think this has so much more potential for it to be higher if the landscape I could be wrong. I don't know. I think it's a to me it feels like it's a bigger deal than it maybe it is or isn't. I don't know. But I like the game. I had a lot of fun with it. I I I would say my arc of the game was a very nice level up of enjoyment and then slowly cascading back downwards as I as I kind of uh felt that the

14:00 variability of the elements didn't necessarily give me the variability of the experience that I was looking for because of the elements that remain the same. So, lots to like, lots positive, a 3.5 out of five. As far as other game recommendations, definitely check out that time you killed me from the same designer. It's another game that kind of brings you through a series of three of a few worlds with different rules being added. Uh, and it definitely feels very reminiscent and was an excellent experience. And also check out Robbo Rally. While it's a very different game, it kind of has that same aspect in terms of the uh, program movement and the fun of trying to figure out how things are going to work with a logic puzzle. Just this one's more of a sequencing and advanced logical puzzle as opposed to creating the logical puzzle as you play. And I mentioned that Allplay is a channel sponsor. If you go to allplay.com, you can find a variety of games both from all allplay as well as partner publishers. Bitewing is a partner publisher there. And you can get anything for $4 flat rate shipping if you're in the US. And check out Grunts if you're looking for a fun tactical appshot game between two players in which positioning is everything as you attempt to slowly deplete your opponent's units and just win the game.

14:56 In any case, until next time, I'm Alex Radler from Board Game Co. Hope you enjoyed this video and as always, I hope you have a good one.