If I stand straight up without shoes on, my right foot has about three inches of float. It gives me a noticeable limp. I expect mild double-takes or glimmers of concern when meeting new people. At best, their worries are a passing irritation. At worst, it’s an active embarrassment. I grimace when I remember a long-ago first date asking “Are you okay?” on the way into a restaurant. I knew he probably meant well, but my face still burned. “Yeah,” I said stiffly, “this is just how I walk.” My mobility–lucky as I am to have it–makes movement-based games more prickly than usual. But Bambas happily bucks that trend.

Related: SCHiM review: Pretty Great Puddle Jumper

In Bambas, I’m a floating pair of shoes trotting through the neighborhood, stepping on manhole covers and kicking fallen burritos. I’m thrilled to learn that even imitating my real-life limp takes practice. Moving the left analog stick will only drag your left foot on the ground. Moving the stick and holding left trigger will lift and position your left foot in midair. Release the trigger, and your foot will lower into its new spot. Repeat this process with the right analog stick and right trigger to move your right foot too.

Walk This Way

At first I try to master a “normal” walk, slowly growing frustrated with my lack of coordination. But then, after I release the right trigger a little too soon, I see my own steps instead. I replicate the movement again–left foot forward, right foot a little less so. Bambas doesn’t need me to move “correctly.” I’m the only one holding onto that idea. I pause, a little stunned by the realization, and then walk forward in my own way.

After a short tutorial in the park, you’re set loose into the city. Bambas balances sandboxing with structure by stealthily hiding optional challenges around the map. Step on a leaf, and a challenge counter will appear. Perch one foot on a bench and a timer starts. Every challenge is named but unobtrusive. Completing a challenge rewards you with coins. Coins buy sweet new shoes in the main menu. Not in the mood? No worries. There’s plenty of spare change wherever you go. Step on it and you’ll pick it up.

Step in Time

Bambas’ coastal city is bright and textured, favoring style over hyper-realistic detail. Colors pop, patterns repeat, but everything has the pleasing grunginess of urban life. Cigarette butts fizzle in the street. Chalk drawings and graffiti pepper each location. And other people–or pairs of shoes, in this case–stick to their own routines. The city stretches from the opening section in the park all the way out to the beach. Your map in the bottom left only highlights major landmarks and people to talk to, so there’s plenty hidden away.

Bambas isn’t flawless, but it tries its best. Occasional camera hiccups slow my pace. The customization menu doesn’t use traditional direction buttons, adding a slight difficulty curve. Ladders are finicky to climb. Sometimes my shoe phases in and out of a rung, not quite deciding whether it’s made contact or not. And the zoomed in perspective–as if you’re a really tall person looking down at your shoes–sometimes leaves me confused by my surroundings. But there’s always another can to kick, person to talk to, or fence to balance on.

Verdict: Bambas! keeps it moving in the right direction

Other movement-based games highlight how awkward it is to walk. QWOP’s ill-fated runner extends each part of their leg manually, jerking along the racetrack in an ungainly heap. Octodad undertakes his errands with a few too many limbs, mimicking a shape that isn’t his. The movement is the humor to some degree.

Bambas inverts that approach, saving its funniest moments for player foibles and optional dialogue. I laugh when I hit the pavement after an unfortunate bounce house jump. Or when a resident pair of sneakers calls out a serial complainer in the neighborhood. But Bambas lets me move without comment. Not quite a power fantasy, but a moment of peace.

Great

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