Game Review: Murasaki Baby

Italian developer Ovosonico has helped me realize more than ever that I have absolutely no mothering instincts whatsoever, and while I'm okay with that, I found that a rather annoying realization during the playing of a game that literally requires you to care for a toddler birthed directly from Tim Burton's womb - if Burton had a womb - which is a terrifying thought.

Murasaki Baby is a short game that could be found oddly charming by the normal player. I probably only sat at it for about four or so hours with a few pauses in the middle until completion. The puzzles are challenging, but far from indomitable, so everything you see shouldn't take you more than a few tries to get it right enough to continue forward with the game.

A rough synopsis: you do not play as the delightful little creature that has no name (pictured here), you instead play as a silent and unseen guardian of the child creature upon her waking. She believes that she has heard her "mama" just outside of her bedroom door, and from there on follows out of it into an outside world that looks like a cartoonish depiction of Lovecraftian lore. Green tentacles flail almost languidly in the background, making up some of the artwork and a few of the enemies in the first level. Added with a green color scape, I half expected Uncle Cthulu to make an appearance here, but perhaps the squid monster isn't as popular in Italy as it is here in the states.

You, the player, lead this child by the hand. Literally. Using the Vita's touch screen elements you take her in an ICO like fashion from platform to platform, continuing the search for "Mama". As the levels change you are given more interactive backdrops in the form of popped balloons.

(It's important to note that the child's balloon is also her life bar, so if it is popped at any point in time during play the game it is considered a loss and you must restart from where the last save point occurred.)

All in all there are about four fully fleshed out levels with different subchapters confined within each of them. Those levels feature small selections of interactive backgrounds that allow for the child to overcome her obstacles (my favorite one being a Godzilla like movie screen that jumped and cleared rubble from her path) and these vary from level to level. These backgrounds are the key mechanic of Murasaki Baby, and probably the most impressive aspect about the actual design of the game which, despite it's cuteness, is not very original. It does still make great use of the Vita's abilities, so I cannot fault the game.

Murasaki Baby is also available for the PS4, but I don't think I could recommend it for anything other than Vita as it played smoothly with the Vita's hardware more than I could imagine it might on the PS4.

That being said, tomorrow is the last day to get Murasaki Baby for free if you are a Playstation Plus member, and free is about the right price for a short game with such limited replay value or gameplay variation, otherwise you'd be shelling out $15 which, in my opinion, is an outlandish amount to ask for. I'd say at best this game is worth $10, and that's being generous to the development team in my opinion.

The game is cute, and its a fun play, but if you're at it for more than a few hours then you're doing it wrong, and a few hours of gameplay does not warrant $15 of my hard earned cash. The best part of this game was the end that for me was incredibly creepy, but that goes back into my opening statement about not being a very motherly person. I'll leave you to play it on your own (or catch a "Let's Play" YouTube video) to determine whether you feel the ending was creepy or adorable.

If you go to buy this game, wait for another sale. For as clever as it can be, its not very imaginative and shorter than it is clever.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Gaming!