Baby Maker Extreme Gives New Life to Indie Games

JudoChinX

April 23, 2010

Life is miraculous. That's the message that Stegersaurus Games seems to want to pass along with their latest release: Baby Maker Extreme for the Xbox 360. With a name like that, your imagination is probably running wild, but fear not squeamish gamers, this little indie gem has more to do with the birthing process than the actual act of conception. Hopefully I didn't just scare you off. For those still with me, you're about to witness one of the strangest description and recommendation of a game you've ever read.

You might notice that the name isn't just Baby Maker; it's Baby Maker Extreme. What's so extreme about child birth? Well, other than pain that I can only imagine (and probably not well), your goal in this game is to launch your baby as great of a distance as possible. Yes, you read correctly. The game is about firing your baby out of its mother, then seeing just how far you can get it to fly, bounce, and roll until it comes to a complete and probably unsafe stop. This feat is accomplished through a few different steps.

First, you control the mother's breathing by pulling the right and left triggers in sync with the on screen directions. The more accurate you are, the more time you have to push before your baby is fired. Once you've completed the first part of labor, it's time to push as hard as you can. This is done by repeatedly hitting the B button as quickly as possible. Finally, it's time for delivery. Your baby is then ejected from what was once its home and begins its journey through the air. Now you have the option to boost (that is to make the baby fly up) and the option to dive (to make the baby fall down). Using these controls, you want to bounce your baby off of as many glowing objects as possible. These include, but are not limited to doctors, crabs, corpses, pills, microscopes, and many other things you might find in a hospital. You can use the boost and dive abilities once between bouncing off of these glowing objects, so most of the skill involved is knowing when to use which to get the furthest possible.

Visually, the game is quite appealing. I'd probably liken the style to South Park, mainly due to the cardboard cutout look of all its characters, objects, and environments. As you start your game, you have the option of having your baby represented by a generic newborn, or if you'd like, you can have your Xbox avatar be the baby. I personally prefer going with the generic baby as this allows you to enjoy some customization options that you can't use with your avatar. You can dress your infant in leather, give it a helmet, and just in case you plan on taking it for a swim, you can provide it with a snorkel. None of these things change the gameplay, but it's a fun and appreciated touch that makes an already weird game all the weirder.

This game also has a very uncouth and vulgar sense of humor. As mentioned, your goal is to bounce your baby off of as many glowing objects as possible. To make things a tad more interesting than only trying to get the most distance possible, you're also awarded special bonuses depending on what objects you bounce your baby off of during its trip. We like to keep GoozerNation a clean and family friendly place, so I won't go into specifics on what those actual awards are named, but if you've made it this far, and you're intrigued with the idea of trying this game, keep an eye out while playing. You'll probably be disgusted, but it's all in good sport.

I'll admit, I found Baby Maker Extreme on accident while browsing a list of upcoming games, but its discovery has proven to be serendipitous. It's odd that Microsoft doesn't put a little more marketing behind their XNA developers. I'd love to see indie games make a bigger impression on the market, and if that's something you'd also enjoy, you can start by picking up Baby Maker Extreme. Sure, your friends and family might judge you, but in the end, you'll find a fast and addictive encounter that will easily outweigh the 80 point (1 real people dollar) price of entry. So go on and give it a spin and maybe a push. You're in for a good time.

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