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PlayStation Basement #88 - Baby Universe

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on May 2nd, 2020.

Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go!

Yesterday was International Space Day, a day to celebrate the mysteries and wonder of outer space and those who wish to make a trip to the great void around the Earth. Today’s “game” is an equally spacey piece of software – Baby Universe. Though released to Japanese and European PlayStation users in June 1997 and October 1998 respectively, Baby Universe is not a game. Besides titles such as Fighter Maker, RPG Maker, and MTV Music Generator, non-game software titles have been uncommon to North American console players. In Japan, they were much more numerous with releases such as Home Doctor, Pi to Mail, Yamagata Digital Museum, the previously reviewed Depth, and today’s Baby Universe. The real question here: Is a musick visualizer necessary when the PlayStation has one built-in? We shall delve into the universe and find out.
Unlike many titles, the cover art for Baby Universe shows less detail than the actual included graphics. Both Japanese and European releases show a stylized swirl on the cover. Japan’s version shows a red swirl on a black background with the descriptive “3D-Kaleidoscope” above the title of the software. Europe’s version features the red swirl on a white background with the descriptive phrase at the bottom and the Baby Universe title at the top. The white background is kind of odd; the original black hides pieces of the swirl that are now unhidden on the European version, making it split into different pieces. On the other hand, I like the red and white combination better than the black and red, and it looks a bit friendlier in this way. Both pieces of artwork are still mysterious however and invite the voyage of a cosmic wanderer.
As you might expect from the phrase on the cover, Baby Universe looks like a kaleidoscope. Various shapes float around the screen, often in circular formations that can be rotated, resized, and shifted. All manner of spiky and blocky polygonal models can be created such as cubes, pyramids, near spheres, and more complicated shapes. There are also two-dimensional visuals such as sound waves and things that look like psychedelic 1960s projections. The menu of Baby Universe needs special mention for its small footprint and ease of use with the controller. I like how it fits neatly into the visual style of everything else moving about. These shapes can really move.
Of course these visuals move along to the musick, some of which is supplied with the software and some of which you will supply. I can’t review the musick you decide to put into your system here, so that’s all up to you. You can set your visualizations to Merzbow, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Robert Johnson, Rascal Flatts, Britney Spears, Madonna, Prince, Thelonious Monk, or whatever else you want. You can even play another video game’s soundtrack if you have it on CD. I tested this software out with the King of Fighters XIV soundtrack because a lot of my other CDs are in storage. The musick included with Baby Universe ranges from fast house beats to slower chillout stuff. I am not very knowledgeable about electronic musick genres, so I can’t give too many specifics. I enjoyed most of the more downtempo stuff on here though. Even if you don’t like the included musick, you can always use your own CDs, so there is something for everyone.
As for the “gameplay”, there really isn’t any. This is a musick visualizer. Unlike Depth: Sweepstation Vol. 1, there is nothing to unlock here (at least I don’t think there is). There are a few different styles of visualizer here such as the basic Sound Scope, the 60s-style Psychedelic Scope, and the more customizable Console mode. I like how the Jewel Case (that’s a menu in the software) gives names to all the different polygonal models such as Drillman (a pyramid), Talking Mouth (a diamond shape connected to a cube), and Bomber Boy (a sphere with spikes protruding). The visuals you can make with this title are pretty neat overall.
Again, though: Is this really necessary? Honestly, I can’t say that it really is. The PlayStation already has a visualizer that can do some of the same things. Nowadays, you can certainly do these kinds of things with a computer, and some of these visuals were available straight out of the box with Windows Media Player in the early 2000s, only a few years after Baby Universe’s release. It’s a very weird product, but I really can’t recommend Baby Universe. It’s cute, and I kind of like it. The stickers included in the case are pretty nice too. Baby Universe is an interesting time capsule into a period when video game consoles shared some elements with cheap home computers without ever really becoming such things. It’s a “3D-Kaleidoscope” that you might pick up every now and then, but it’s still just a baby, not a fully grown celestial object.

Baby Universe receives a Neutral.

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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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