Did you like Baba is You? Do you want more Baba is You? Or maybe you haven’t played it and aren’t sure if it’s for you? Well, you’re in luck, because there’s a free rip-off of the game on Android!

This is a puzzle game. For controls, you can only move in the cardinal directions by swiping the screen (one swipe = one tile’s length moved), push objects (that can be pushed, like text) by swiping into them, and reset the level by tapping the looping arrow button; there’s no single-move undo. The core gameplay revolves around rearranging the text to change objects’ properties: each “sentence” starts with an object-text, followed by an IS, then ended with a property-text; if an object doesn’t have any corresponding sentences, it’s a background object.

By itself, that’s a decent premise for a puzzle game, but the dev (not you) wasn’t very good at making the puzzles stand on their own, so there are a few additions in the form of the all-too-common three-star rating. The first star is simple enough: form “STAR IS GET” if it isn’t already formed, then move onto the star tile to collect it, then beat the level. You can only have one tile in your inventory at a time, and while it is possible to overwrite the star after you get it, you don’t have to worry about that outside of maybe one or two levels tops. The second star is obtained by beating the level in a set number of moves, and while that’s not a very creative way of adding challenge, it’s an easy way to do it right since players have to re-examine their approach instead of figure out some new gimmick through trial-and-error; it’s easily the one thing (combined with keeping the star tile) that makes some of the levels actually be tricky to solve (otherwise, the whole game would be kinda boring). The third star is earned by beating the level under a set time limit, and this is always a stupid and counterproductive way to pad out the length of a non-action game because it adds no challenge; once you figure out the solution, all you have to do is replay the level and regurgitate the appropriate input. If anything about this game indicates that the dev (not you) is a hack, it’d be this third star, even more so than the fact that the game used to use all the same graphics as Baba. Seriously, the closest that third star gets to having a good decision is that the timer doesn’t start until after your first move.

But okay, how’s the level design? Well, level 1 is a 1:1 copy of the first level from Baba, just rotated 90 degrees to fit in portrait mode. Level 2 introduces having to move the text together to form the sentences, and while the level itself is really easy, it took me some thought to get the turn limit star. Levels 3-6 manage to be both easy to solve and easy to get the star and win under the turn limit; they introduce stuff like in level 4, YOU become stuff other than the protagonist, but maybe it builds a bit too slowly? Level 5 is a bit too similar to 4, and 6 introduces FALL which is just KILL with a different animation. Level 7 introduces MOVE, and the main difference between this game’s MOVE and Baba’s is that, here, NPCs need to take an extra turn just turning around after moving into a wall (in Baba, they turn and move away in just one turn).

Level 8 impressed me because it’s a clear-cut example of this game doing something better than Baba: properly introducing [object] IS [object] sentences. It has a vertical “FLAG IS” and puts you in front of the WIN tile, so you could just push it forward to make FLAG IS WIN…except there’s a LOVE tile in front of WIN, so right before you make your intended sentence, you make “FLAG IS LOVE” and turn the flag into a heart. Yes, it’s a beginner’s trap, but at least it’s something! In Baba is You, the first level that required [object] IS [object] sentences makes absolutely no indication that the mechanic even exists in the game, so you just have to figure it out through trial-and-error; honestly, that was the first red flag that Baba wasn’t going to be my type of game.

At that point, I was prepared to go all hipster and proclaim the rip-off to be better than the original…but then I made it to level 10. It introduces SLIP (keep moving in the direction you moved onto them until you’re off), but that’s not as important as it being the first level where you have access to the EMPTY text. At first, I thought I had to make “WALL IS EMPTY” to unblock the star and flag, but try as I might, I was never able to win in the move limit. It wasn’t until after a day or two of mulling it over in my head that I suddenly remembered the solution to 6-2 in Baba, and sure enough, that’s what I had to do. Sure, Baba didn’t have a proper introduction for that mechanic until 6-3, but if you fumbled your way to the solution in 6-5, you could unlock 6-3 before beating 6-2. Worse, outside a trapped spot in the final level, that’s the last time EMPTY shows up in this game! I was so disappointed that the game not only had an unintuitive introduction to a mechanic, but simultaneously a one-time gimmick! The two worst parts of Baba, distilled into a single level.

In fact, now that I think about it, a bunch of the levels have stuff that rarely or never shows up again: PUSH doesn’t show up outside level 1, SINK doesn’t show up outside level 9, HOT and MELT only show up in level 19, SLIP only shows up in two levels and affects neither of them, and the last two levels have a unique GATE IS ON mechanic: stepping on the purple gate sends you to the red gate, but not vice versa (and the purple gate kills you if it’s on but the red gate isn’t), and this, too, is severely underutilized. Really, besides YOU, KILL, GET, and WIN, the most common property to show up is keys and LOCKed doors (spanning a whole three levels), though the game has a unique spin on this mechanic since you have to make “KEY IS GET” and collide with the door yourself with the key in your inventory.

By the way, level 10 isn’t the only time the game is unintuitive, because level 20 has NPCs with MOVE and KILL patrolling single-tile-wide halls, and I’m pretty sure the only way to win with the star under the move limit is to move through them since you only get killed if you stand on the same tile as them (and the game doesn’t introduce this mechanic, either).

…nothing. Yup, another early access game. The game’s almost two years old, so the chances it’ll actually get more levels are pretty slim.

Overall, while the game has some advantages, differences, and unique ideas over Baba, it manages to be equally as disappointing. I can still recommend it since it’s free (and better at introducing some of the mechanics), but if you’ve already played Baba, you’re not gonna get much out of this game.