- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- Release Date: Sep 23, 2025
- Also On: PlayStation 5
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
-
Sep 24, 2025Baby Steps can be considered as Bennett Foddy and company’s best work to date. With the use of physics-based platforming and gameplay mechanics combined with unhinged adult humor, the game is a weird fever dream built on overcoming failure one tiny step at a time.
-
Edge MagazineOct 30, 2025There is a design challenge here. [Issue#417, p.116]
-
Oct 8, 2025Baby Steps knows what its fans value, but doesn't jump too high. It brings new ideas to the genre, but its mechanics fall short of other titles.
-
Sep 23, 2025Baby Steps is a mix between a rage game and a walking simulator, where the player is required to have a lot of precision and patience. And I have no doubt that this title and its protagonist will find a place in the hearts of many gamers. At the same time, however, for some it could be a frustrating game, often involving long periods of downtime where you get stuck in one place or don't know which way to go. Furthermore, apart from the wonderful comic scenes, the game never really rewards the player for the effort made in reaching the goal, whether it be a campsite or a collectible. Perhaps Baby Steps is just a big metaphor teaching the player that life is about putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that falls will be frequent and disastrous, but that you can always get back up; or perhaps it's just a grotesque comedy, a title that knows how to make fun of itself and us, and that amid so much frustration manages to make us laugh a little at both Nate and ourselves.
-
Sep 23, 2025What we have at the end of the day is a strange, silly game that is a little too sure of itself to stick its landing effectively. It stretches itself too thin to be consistently funny and its story is clumsily told despite its put-on air of poignance. It has its moments though, and for as grumpy as I was by the end I still look back at its early hours with some fondness. Watching a dumpy nerd slide down a muddy hill is pretty funny the first few times; it just doesn’t stay funny as long as Baby Steps wants it to.
-
Sep 23, 2025Baby Steps, no pun intended, seems like a step backwards for Bennett Foddy and team. Losing the battle between fun and frustrating, frustrating and annoying, always wins when it comes to Baby Steps.
-
Oct 16, 2025As literal a walking simulator as you could want for, Baby Steps makes no secret of being a challenging, punishing game. It's enjoyable in a way, and the awkward sense of humour laced throughout both the gameplay and the story will appeal to some, but that enthusiasm drains after the opening couple hours.
-
Sep 23, 2025My feelings about the music extend to the whole of Baby Steps, I suppose. I see what they are going for. I understand why and how it’s funny. And I appreciate how unique it is, but I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it. It’s a truly singular experience, something we will always need more of in games. Some will enjoy struggling to climb sandy dunes and laughing at their friends falling down the same cliffside for the hundredth time, but no amount of creative appreciation will change how I felt playing Baby Steps. Every time I put the controller down, I dreaded picking it back up.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
-
Sep 25, 2025Few times have I been so pleasantly surprised as I was while playing Baby Steps. Its first fifteen minutes are a design masterclass, and everything that follows is just as impressive. More of an open-world comedy full of exploration than a frustrating game, this is an experience everyone can enjoy [Recommended]
-
Sep 23, 2025It's a structure that can feel punishing, unforgiving, tedious, and enraging in turns. But it's also a structure that leads to moments of the most genuinely satisfying sense of achievement I can remember having in modern gaming...It's about a miles-long journey starting with a single, halting step. It's about putting one foot in front of the other until you can't anymore. It's about climbing the mountain because it's there. It's about falling down 1,000 times and getting up 1,001 times.
-
Sep 23, 2025Baby Steps is meant to infuriate you. It’s designed to test your patience with deviously placed setbacks that will eat up an entire session’s worth of progress with no remorse. You’ll laugh. You’ll swear. You’ll probably quit at least once. But if you see it through to the end, you’ll find prizes waiting for you that are more powerful than any cool sword: grace, compassion, and a good place to piss.
-
Sep 23, 2025In Baby Steps, you aren’t just traversing treacherous environments, but also getting around with your own ramshackle body. Your legs betray your exhaustion; your head screams as you make another agonizing misstep. It’s a hiking experience that reflects the reality of folks who lose their motor skills when faced with the prospect of climbing up yet another craggy hill.