Mobile Suit Baba mixes light-hearted Gundam parody, cute animal mechs and brainteasing puzzles 

Indie developer Hempuli Oy released a turn-based strategy game called Mobile Suit Baba on December 21. Part Mobile Suit Gundam anime spoof, part Into The Breach-inspired shogi-style brainteaser, Mobile Suit Baba will appeal to those who enjoyed Hempuli Oy’s award-winning Baba is You puzzle game, as well as anyone who likes old-school turn-based strategy. It’s available to download for free from ich.io until December 28.  

The game is set in a future world where gigantic Gundam-like mech suits have been developed for transporting delicious fruit, and the player must thwart a mysterious organization set on stealing all the stockpiled produce. Controlling cute, animal-like mech-suited squad members with names like Baba and Keke, you must battle enemy units to the death to claim the fruits in each stage. 

Players must think ahead to prevent enemies from touching the fruits, making sure that their units are effectively positioned on each turn. Your allied units in the game each have unique abilities such as being able to destroy or throw objects that block their path. There are also text blocks that let you modify the rules. For example, “Water,” ”Is” and “Sink” blocks might be scattered around the stage. Line them up into “Water Is Sink” and anything on the stage that is pushed into the water will be submerged. At the time of writing, there are 43 different stages available to keep your brain occupied. 

As you advance the story, new characters are unlocked. The additional characters also have their own individual abilities and can be used to replay previously cleared stages. There is also an option to give yourself extra turns for each stage if you are finding the game difficult.  

Mobile Suit Baba’s developer Hempuli Oy previously created a logic puzzle game called “Baba is You,” which has an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam (out of over 16,000 reviews). It also won several awards, including the Excellence in Design award from the Independent Games Festival 2018. Mobile Suit Baba includes many of the elements that made the previous game a success, such as highly strategic gameplay, cute anthropomorphic characters and word blocks that can be used to modify the game. 

Overall, Mobile Suit Baba’s quirky animal characters and Gundam references lend an engaging and fun atmosphere to this strategy game. The addition of new characters and story elements as you play keeps the challenges fresh. 

Mobile Suit Baba is available as a free download from itch.io until December 28 (with the option of making a donation). After that the game will be sold for $4 USD.  

Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-12-22 01:42 JST)