Vita oddball Murasaki Baby on board next week
Murasaki Baby - AKA that touch-based Vita game where you guide a little girl who has her mouth on top of her head - is out on September 16 in North America and September 17 in Europe. It's priced $15 for regular users, but if you've got Plus membership you'll be able to grab it for $12 during its first week.
Murasaki Baby marks the debut of Sony Europe's self-proclaimed "avant-garde" Ovosonico studio, which was founded by former Grasshopper Manufacture director Massimo Guarini. That might explain the why of the game, but not the what: Well, in it you're guiding the head-mouth girl, a lost child called Baby, through nightmarish landscapes. While you can drag, tap and swipe to help Baby along, you're also in control of the world around her. Swipes of the rear pad, for example, can change the background to useful effect, like bringing in a wind turbine to drive lurking bats away. You can also tap on the front screen to take out dangers like, er, flying safety pins. They may not sound the deadliest of foes, but if one of them hits Baby's heart balloon then she immediately dies.
Murasaki Baby may not sound that weird described that way; pretty weird, perhaps, but not Season 2 of Twin Peaks weird. As a recent trailer shows, seeing it in action is a different story.
In his preview, Richard Mitchell wondered if the game's unorthodox, somewhat detached gameplay would hold up in the long run:
"That's a valid design strategy – it certainly worked for Asura's Wrath – but there's always a danger that strangeness for the sake of strangeness will wear out its welcome. One of the driving factors of my short session, and what drew me in, was the desire to see what brain-bending oddity would pop up next. If Murasaki Baby can maintain its outlandish parade of curious creatures and balance that with a satisfying batch of puzzles along the way, it could really be something unique."
