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A.P.I Review:	Baby Universe
Developer:	Sony	OPTIONS:	SCREENSHOTS: No.1   No.2   No.3
Distributor:	Sony	1 Player
Game Type:	Kaleidoscope on PSX	Memory Card
Review Date:	November 1998	Analog Compatible

Setting the Scene

When I was a young child I remember receiving a small cylindrical gift at Christmas time. It was about one foot tall and six inches in diameter.

Stripping off the Santa Claus wrapping paper revealed what appeared to be a miniature telescope. Wow... the thought of being allowed to gaze at the stars at night was a real turn on... considering that I was usually marched off to bed long before darkness fell.

My first indication that all was not as it first seemed was when the contraption rattled when shook. There was also the rather conspicuous casing. It was not made from the customary black plastic material but was manufactured from tin and had a multi-colored design that looked like an explosion in a paint factory.

My worst fears were revealed when I raised the object towards the sky, closed one eye and took a peak through the small hole with the other. Could I see Uranus? The Moon? A Cloud? My Hand? No chance... colored crystals! It was a damn kaleidoscope.

Now we all remember what became of our first kaleidoscope..? Yeah, straight into the bottom of the toy box, never to rise again. In fact anyone who played with a kaleidoscope for more than an hour was pretty weird in my book.

Genre

Sony continue with their quest to cover every corner of the video game market. Hot on the heels of Fluid (the title that somehow combined making music with dolphins) we are faced with Baby Universe. The Playstations very own kaleidoscope.

Graphics

Imagine peering through the end of a kaleidoscope. Now instead of seeing pretty colored crystals constantly rearranging their pattern with each twist of the wrist, you get to watch pretty colored polygons constantly rearranging their pattern with each press of the thumb.

What more can I say?
There's reds, greens, yellows...... triangles, circles, squares..... zzzzzzzz....

Sounds and Effects

The background music matches the visuals. It's quite boring and repetitive. I guess some developers child recorded the soundtrack while messing around with the recently released Fluid.

Playability

Playability? You gotta be joking!

I suppose I had better run through the gameplay so that you can make up your own minds.

Insert the Baby Universe disc, switch on the Playstation, sit well back and watch the pretty colored shapes dance around the screen.

Press any face button on the joypad and the patterns begin to change color.

Press any shoulder button and the pretty shapes and colors change once again. One of the shoulder buttons actually rotates the patterns.

Push the start button and five sub-menus appear which allow you to.... you guessed it, change the pretty patterns again.

If you are a really dull person then your patterns may be saved onto a memory card to play back when your mates call around.

Value for Money

Errr... what do you think?